Manus AI: Chinese company launches world's first fully autonomous AI agent
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Launched on March 06, 2025, a new Chinese AI agent is catching the attention of enthusiasts. Named Manus AI, the developer mentions in its promotional material that it is the world's first autonomous AI agent, giving humans space to take care of complex activities. See the first details and how it can be used in everyday life.
What is an AI agent?
AI agents are systems designed to act with complete autonomy, capable of making decisions, planning actions and performing tasks independently. These agents are guided by clear objectives and use information from the environment to act proactively and adaptively, similar to a human or robotic agent.
Key features of agentic AI include autonomy, environmental awareness, algorithmic decision-making, and continuous learning to adapt to new conditions. Practical examples include autonomous robots, intelligent virtual assistants, game characters, and industrial automation systems, all of which operate independently to achieve specific goals.
The central difference between agentic AI and other approaches is its ability to decide how and when to perform tasks in dynamic environments, going beyond predefined roles. However, this flexibility requires careful attention to safety, ethics, and control issues to ensure that agents act in a manner that is aligned with human interests.
The potential of Manus AI
Still in the testing phase and developed by the startup Monica, the great potential of Manus AI is that it can work in the background, even allowing you to turn off your cell phone/computer and receive a notification when everything is finished.
This is possible due to the asynchronous cloud operation, which basically allows the user to send a command to the artificial intelligence and check the result whenever they want, without having to see it in real time or watch it in real time. The program's co-founder and chief scientist, Yichao 'Peak' Ji, also said in the introductory video that the AI agent has memory and learns over time, adapting to user preferences.
In this way, it is as if you had an intern ready to perform various tasks: you give them instructions and they do a complete job that also includes scanning the internet, at the speed of an AI. When they finish the job, the Manus AI can submit complete comparative documents, including decision-making aids.
In one of the examples we will mention below, a user asked Manus AI to create a complete guide on good SEO practices for ranking on Google. In a few seconds, the Chinese AI agent performed the analysis, understood the latest rules and updates, and sent an explanatory guide that it promises to update from time to time so that the user knows how to write successfully and achieve good results.
Comparison with competitors
The big competitor of Manus AI at this moment is the Operator da OpenAI, announced earlier this year. Amid the advancement of DeepSeek, the company run by Sam altman launched its AI agent as an option to access websites for quick checks, make online purchases and submit comprehensive analyses on topics in less time than a human would.
For this to work, the OpenAI uses a new model called Computer Using Agent (CUA, acronym in English for Computer Usage Agent). In this way, the Operator combines the visual capabilities of GPT-4o, smarter model of ChatGPT, with advanced learning techniques.
Already talking about Manus AI, the Chinese company actually uses several language models like Claude 3.5 by Anthropic, and Qwen, from Alibaba, to perform tasks such as writing research reports and analyzing financial records. This gives it the autonomy to work at a faster speed than the option offered by the creator of ChatGPT.
Via response on X, the use of Anthropic's language model was confirmed by the startup's co-founder Monica, in addition to him also saying that the company is doing internal tests with the most recent Claude 3.7 language model, to be able to deliver high performance to users. Manus AI.
We use Claude and different Qwen-finetunes. Back when we started building Manus, we only got Claude 3.5 Sonnet v1 (not long-CoT, aka reasoning tokens), so we needed a lot of auxiliary models. Now Claude 3.7 looks really promising, we are testing internally, will post updates!
— Yichao 'Peak' Ji (@peakji) March 10, 2025
We use Claude and different Qwen-finetunes. When we started building Manus, we only had Claude 3.5 Sonnet v1 (not long-CoT, aka reasoning tokens), so we needed a lot of helper models. Now Claude 3.7 looks really promising, we are testing it internally, will post updates!
Yichao 'Peak' Ji, co-founder and engineer at Manus AI.
Including, Ji mentions in the video that the Manus AI surpasses the OpenAI Deep Search in a popular benchmark for general AI assistants called GAIA, which investigates an AI's ability to perform work by browsing the web, using software, and more.
The big highlight for the Manus AI is in the possibility of the Chinese AI agent being used for free, while the OpenAI Operator requires being a subscriber to the plan GPT Pro, which costs from US$ 200 (R$ 1.153 in direct conversion). But there are plans from OpenAI charge up to $20.000 a month for specialized AI 'agents,' according to data from The Information.
What you can do with it:
On the official website, there are several demonstrations of users who created games, received complete reports and more. The interesting thing is that the entire process can be seen by users in real time, even if accelerated. Let's take a look at some examples.
Stock analysis
It was requested to Manus AI perform a complete analysis of Tesla stock, including financial data, market sentiment (what analysts think about potential investments), technical analysis, and more. The user had to give the chatbot some permissions to perform all the actions, but in the end, a website with self-explanatory graphics was delivered so that the user can make decisions in real time. See below:
And the entire chatbot research and analysis process can be seen, so humans can understand how such graphs were created.
Product comparison
A task that takes a lot of time, even more so if done manually, is comparing products of the most diverse types. Another way to use the Manus AI is to ask her to look for the best options for smartphones, smart watches and more, considering specific factors such as price, best value for money, battery, etc.
Imagine that you only need to write a command like “list the ten best photography smartphones, considering options sold in Brazil, for up to R$7”. Then, the AI agent will search several websites and compare each one, citing which may be the best option for your day-to-day life.
Travel planning
Travel enthusiasts can also use the AI agent to create complete travel itineraries for all parts of the world and even receive information about flight prices. The interesting thing here is that you can ask it to consider specific times of the year or ask it to suggest the best time of year to travel to the place you want to visit, considering price, seasons, etc.
Because you have the autonomy to perform several tasks in record time, you can even receive support to buy travel packages in a few minutes. And you can request a document with tips and even “hidden” monuments to be listed so you don’t miss anything.
Operational analysis of companies
Another good use is the option of sending internal data from a company to make decisions. operational analysis Evaluates processes, resources, and performance to identify improvements and increase efficiency. This includes examining productivity, technology, inventory management, and finances to optimize operations and reduce costs.
This analysis works because it uses concrete data to support strategic decisions, eliminating waste and improving processes. The information collected helps with automation, team adjustments and market adaptation, ensuring greater competitiveness.
Due to the ability to send documents with guidelines to users, the manager can receive a complete list of suggestions for his company in full and thus consider what will be put into practice or not.
Website creation
Creating websites is a complex task that can take time depending on the type of company or idea you want to promote. Because you have the autonomy to create codes from scratch, Manus AI can do all the work of creating a website, considering colors, important details and even following a visual identity that the user desires.
Interactive classes and courses
Another good use is to create classes in HTML format that can be clicked by all users who have access to the link. Here, the sky is the limit and varied subjects can be requested so that you can have video classes and presentations for your students.
Another good use is in reverse mode: as a student, you can ask for a supplementary class to be created as a support for your study and thus do well in tests. In the example on the website Manus AI, a page was sent at the end of the research and understanding of the subject, leaving the didactic subject according to the age of the students, informed in the initial text command. See below:
AI Research
In order to conduct a complete research, the user asked the artificial intelligence to consider specific scenarios, prices of AI models, parts of the value chain they serve and how these products differ from each other and deliver a complete research. At the end of the work, several documents were created with relevant information on the subject. Check it out:
Property search
Another good example of using Manus AI is in the property search considering the work style, routine, rental price and even the crime rate of the place where you think of living.
As can be seen above, the tool was able to send a complete list of apartment options in New York, after analyzing several classifieds websites and considering what was said in the text command sent by the user.
Creating mini games
One of the reasons why the Manus AI The most viral thing in recent days is the creation of complete mini games, based on real situations. In the example cited on the company's website, the user asked for an interactive mini game to be created, using as a basis the debate between the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, the vice president of the United States, JD Vance, and Donald Trump, US President, which went viral last week.
After receiving authorization to publish the game publicly on the internet, everyone can play the simulation made by the Chinese AI agent and understand more about the subject, including understandings about the subject and how it influences world politics. Access and see the work done by Chinese AI agent!
How to use Manus AI?
Registration can be done free of charge at Manus AI official website, but you need an invitation code to use the Chinese AI agent. As it is still under development, tests are being released to a small group of people, but anyone interested can make a request to use it on the login page, by clicking the white button, in Request access. Here. in white:
After that, you will need to provide your email address and the reason why you would most use Manus AI in your day-to-day life. There is no specific date for the response to be sent, but the developers encourage interested parties to contact server of the Discord of the AI agent to make it easier to receive early access.
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See also other features
With information: Tech Crunch l Forbes l Manus
reviewed by Tiago Rodrigues in 10 / 03 / 2025
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