The FTC vs. The Metaverse: Why Zuck Can't Have the World's Best To-Do List Bot

Mark Zuckerberg was reportedly seen crying in VR after international regulators blocked Meta’s $500 billion acquisition of "Manus," the startup that created the first AI that can actually finish a task without getting distracted by its own hallucinations.

Manus was the "Holy Grail." You tell it, "Manus, book me a flight to Japan," and it doesn't just show you flights; it hacks the airline, gets you an upgrade, calls your mother to tell her you're leaving, and learns Japanese for you.

Zuck wanted it. He needed it to make the Metaverse look like more than a 2004 Wii game. But the regulators stepped in. Their reason? "If Meta acquires Manus, Mark Zuckerberg will have a bot that can automatically delete every negative comment on the internet in real-time. Also, it would allow him to perfectly simulate a personality, which is considered an unfair competitive advantage."

The leaked documents show that Meta’s backup plan is to just build a "Manus Clone" called "Zuck-Bot," but internal testers say the AI is too much like its creator. "It keeps asking people for their data and staring at them without blinking," one tester complained. "And every time I ask it to book a flight, it tries to sell me a pair of digital sunglasses."