Latest news with #Manus'
Indian Express
03-08-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
What is Wide Research, Manus' new multi-agent AI tool to take on OpenAI and Google?
Manus, an AI startup with roots in China, has announced a new feature that ropes in scores of AI agents in order to carry out complex, large-scale tasks that require information on hundreds of items. The feature known as Wide Research is designed to make deep, high-volume research effortless, Manus said in its announcement blog post published on Thursday, July 31. It is said to be the company's most significant launch since its debut in March this year. Wide Research is seen as Manus' answer to similar research-focused AI features and tools introduced by US rivals such as OpenAI's Deep Research and Google's Deep Think. It also comes weeks after OpenAI's ChatGPT Agent made its debut. 'With the launch of Wide Research, Manus unlocks a powerful new way for users to tackle complex, large-scale tasks that require information on hundreds of items,' Manus said. 'Wide Research marks a milestone in our exploration of the scaling laws of AI agents, but it's just the beginning. The infrastructure behind it is part of something much bigger we're building,' it added. The newly unveiled feature will be immediately available for paid Pro customers, with plans to roll out to Plus and Basic tier users in the future. Wide Research is the first feature rolled out by Manus that has been built on top of its large-scale virtualization infrastructure and highly efficient agent architecture which reportedly took 'months of optimisation'. 'At its core, Wide Research is a system-level mechanism for parallel processing, and a protocol for agent-to-agent collaboration,' the company said. Wide Research differs from other multi-agent systems such as specialised AI agent managers or coding assistants because the multiple AI agents that carry out the tasks are general-purpose. 'This generality unlocks flexibility: tasks are not constrained to rigid formats or predefined domains. In practice, the only real limit is your imagination,' Manus said. In a video posted on X, Manus co-founder Peak Ji demonstrated how Wide Research can be used to quickly conduct research on 100 different sneakers simultaneously or create 50 different poster designs in a matter of minutes. According to Manus, users will be able to perform deep, high-volume research tasks such as exploring Fortune 500 companies, comparing top MBA programs, or diving into generative AI tools. However, Ji also said that Wide Research is still in the experimental phase and warned that it may come with certain limitations. Manus made a splash in the AI landscape earlier this year with the launch of its general-purpose AI agent that is capable of autonomously carrying out web-based tasks such as creating trip itineraries in response to basic prompts. In June this year, the company released its own AI video generator. Manus' AI features are reportedly wrapped around other large language models like Anthropic's Claude. 'Behind every Manus session runs a dedicated cloud-based virtual machine, allowing users to orchestrate complex cloud workloads — simply by talking to an agent,' the company said. 'From generating tailored rental presentations to safely evaluating cutting-edge open-source projects in a secure sandbox, the Turing-completeness of the virtual machine is what gives Manus its generality — and opens the door to endless creative possibilities,' it added. Manus recently shifted its operations out of China to Singapore, Tokyo and San Mateo, California. It currently does not offer its AI products and tools in China, according to a report by Bloomberg. Recently, the AI startup raised $75 million in a funding round led by US venture firm Benchmark. Its early investors include Chinese tech giants such as Tencent as well as HSG (formerly Sequoia China) and ZhenFund.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Agentic AI platform Manus launches a paid plan for teams
Manus, the once-buzzy AI agent platform, on Tuesday launched a plan aimed at small businesses and organizations. The plan, dubbed Manus Team, starts at $39 per seat per month with a five-seat minimum, totaling $195 per month. Each team gets 19,500 credits in a sharable pool, as well as access to certain features in beta, dedicated infrastructure, and priority access during peak hours. Credits can be spent on tasks — for example, copying data from a website to a spreadsheet. Lengthier tasks can burn up hundreds — or even thousands — of credits. Team users can run up to two tasks concurrently and can optionally use Manus' "high-effort mode" for improved reliability. Manus, which went viral in March in part thanks to a buzzy social media campaign, has introduced a number of premium offerings in recent weeks as well as a mobile app. The startup behind the platform, Butterfly Effect, reportedly recently raised $75 million in a funding round led by Benchmark that valued the company at $500 million. According to Bloomberg, Manus aims to expand to new markets, including Japan and the Middle East. The company also intends to continue upgrading the AI models that power its platform. Currently, Manus primarily uses Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet and customized versions of Alibaba's Qwen. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Tom's Guide
05-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
How to use Manus — the AI agent dubbed the ‘second DeepSeek'
Manus, an AI model that autonomously executes tasks you assign it, has intrigued the world as AI chatbots continue to compete for users. Dubbed the 'second DeepSeek', because both Manus and the AI chatbot DeepSeek originate from China and have reached significant global popularity, Manus offers users a somewhat different experience. The team behind Manus describes the tool as a general AI agent that can handle tasks ranging from planning a trip, to analyzing reports to designing websites. Rather than the quick back and forth you're used to having with chatbots like ChatGPT, Manus is more like an AI intern that can complete longer assignments. While Manus typically takes longer to generate responses than rival AI tools, it has shown to produce thorough and detailed answers. At the time of writing, Manus offers users a choice between two paid plans. Each plan gives you a certain amount of credits which you can then spend on different tasks. The more complex the task, the more credits you consume. If you want to learn how to use Manus, this is how you can do so. If this is your first time using Manus, you'll first need to sign up for an account. You can either use your email or use an existing Google and Apple account. You can do all of this through the sign up page. After your account has been approved, you can then sign in through the dedicated Manus login page. Enter the email associated with your account or sign in with Google or Apple. For enhanced security and privacy, consider using a VPN. Once you've successfully signed in, you'll be taken straight to the main prompt interface. If you're familiar with ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude you'll immediately notice a prompt box where you can type in your instructions for Manus — just as with the other AI bots. Insert your prompt and then hit enter. While Manus is working on executing the task you set it out to do, you can still send additional messages to add more information to your original prompt or to modify tasks. To do this, add the extra instructions in the prompt box and hit enter. You can also leave Manus and return when the task is complete. Depending on what your prompt was, you can then interact with Manus' output. In this case I asked for an interactive course about large language models (LLMs). To try it out, click on the button to use Manus' computer and select the browser option. As with other AI tools, Manus may be able to give you better results if you provided with all the necessary context. Manus can automatically recall relevant knowledge when needed. You can provide this additional context to Manus directly. It supports up to 20 pieces of information referred to as "knowledge". To provide this additional context, first click on your profile name. Then click on the knowledge tab. This will open a dialogue box which you can use to enter information that you would like Manus to recall in the future. Now you've learned how to use Manus, why not take a look at some of our other useful AI articles?Here's what happened when I replaced Photoshop with ChatGPT's new AI image generator and when I asked ChatGPT to become my exercise coach. And if you want to know how to use Google Gemini to declutter your Gmail account, we've got you covered. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Manus launches paid subscription plans and a mobile app
Manus AI, the viral AI agent platform out of China, on Monday morning launched two subscription plans starting at $39 per month. Manus, which is still in beta, is an AI-powered agentic tool that can be used to complete tasks ranging from creating a web page for a wedding invitation to crafting a scoring sheet for a baseball game. In our tests, however, we found that the platform falls short of some of its loftier marketing promises. The cheaper of Manus' new premium plans is $39 per month and comes with 3,900 credits and the ability to run two tasks simultaneously. The other, costlier new plan, which costs $199 per month, grants users 19,900 credits, the ability to run five tasks simultaneously, and priority access during peak hours. Premium Manus subscribers can buy extra credits if they need with top-up packs. The prices for these weren't immediately clear. "While we're working hard around the clock to scale our infrastructure and accommodate everyone, we've had to temporarily limit access to Manus during our this development phase," Manus wrote in a post on X. "We are also working on optimizing our current usage rates to provide better value for our users." In other upgrades to its platform today, Manus released an iOS app and upgraded the AI model powering its backend to Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at Sign in to access your portfolio
Asharq Al-Awsat
22-03-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Beijing to Release Manus, DeepSeek's Next Generation
Chinese artificial intelligence startup Manus on Thursday registered its China-facing AI assistant and was featured for the first time in a state media broadcast, highlighting Beijing's strategy of boosting domestic AI firms that have received overseas recognition. Since China's DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley by releasing AI models comparable to its US competitors but developed at a fraction of the cost, Chinese investors have been on the lookout for the next domestic startup with the potential to upend the global tech order. Some have pointed to Manus. The company went viral on X a few weeks ago by releasing what it claimed to be the world's first general AI agent, capable of making decisions and executing tasks autonomously, with much less prompting required compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and DeepSeek. Beijing is now showing signs that it will support Manus' rollout within China, echoing its response to DeepSeek's success. State broadcaster CCTV on Thursday devoted television coverage to Manus for the first time, publishing a video on the difference between its AI agent and DeepSeek's AI chatbot. Beijing's municipal government on Thursday announced that a Chinese version of an earlier Manus product, an AI assistant called Monica, had completed the registration required for generative AI apps in China, clearing an important regulatory hurdle. Chinese regulators require all generative AI applications released in the country to abide by strict rules, partly designed to ensure these products do not generate content considered sensitive or damaging by Beijing. Last week Manus announced a strategic partnership with the team behind tech giant Alibaba's Qwen AI models. The move could bolster the domestic roll-out of Manus' AI agent, which is currently only available to users with invite codes and has a waiting list of 2 million, according to the startup. In the markets, Hong Kong and China stocks declined on Friday and registered weekly losses, as tech shares tumbled on mounting profit-taking pressure. The Hang Seng Tech Index slid 3.4% on Friday, and Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 2.1%. Both indexes registered back-to-back weekly losses for the first time since January. In Hong Kong, chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation slid 7.5% to a one-month low, while market heavyweight Alibaba lost 3.5%. China's blue-chip CSI300 index dipped 1.5%, ending the week with a 2.3% loss in its largest retreat since January. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.3%. The tech sector also paced declines onshore. Mainland's tech-focused Star 50 Index dropped 2.1% and AI-related shares slipped 3%. "It's normal to see some pullbacks at these levels after such a strong rally this year - this doesn't even qualify as a correction," said Dickie Wong, Kingston Securities executive director. The optimism around China's 'two sessions,' DeepSeek and President Xi Jinping's meeting with tech leaders has already been priced in with major indexes at current levels, prompting investors to take profit, he added. The Hang Seng Tech index has lost 4.1% this week in a second week of decline - the longest losing streak since the opening weeks of the year. However, the gauge is still up 26% year-to-date.
