Manus AI – The Hottest AI Agent Right Now

Hey clever people,

Here's your quick, no-fluff update on AI today:

Manus AI – The Hottest AI Agent Right Now

[A computer running 30 phones using the world's first fully autonomous AI agent.]

Launched last week, Manus AI is getting a lot of buzz for its ability to execute tasks in a browser without human intervention.

• Resume Screening: Reads resumes, evaluates them, and generates reports.

• Property Research: Finds homes in safe neighborhoods, analyzes crime data, and compiles a report.

• Stock Analysis: Researches and evaluates stocks for investment decisions.

• Community Use Case: A user had Manus research drone laws in Austin, scout locations using Google Maps, and suggest top flying spots.

What makes it unique? Manus uses multiple AI models (including Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and fine-tuned versions of Alibaba's Qwen) rather than a single LLM, setting it apart from typical chatbots.

The real experience: Early testers report it works like "a highly intelligent intern" – occasionally makes incorrect assumptions but explains reasoning clearly, adapts well, and improves with feedback.

Challenges: It struggles with paywalls, captchas, and occasionally crashes under high service loads. But at reportedly $2 per task (about 1/10th the cost of ChatGPT DeepResearch), it's relatively affordable.

The Catch? It's invite-only, with less than 1% of waitlist users getting access despite massive interest (186,000+ Discord members).

OpenAI's Push for Smarter AI Agents

OpenAI just released new developer tools for building AI agents:

• Responses API – Adds web search, file search, and computer interactions to AI agents.

• Microsoft Azure Integration – OpenAI's API is now part of Azure AI Foundry, meaning faster adoption of AI-powered automation.

New AI Model for Creative Writing

Sam Altman teased a new OpenAI model focused on creative writing. He shared an AI-generated short story about AI and grief—and while he was impressed, some found it too metaphor-heavy. Expect a GPT-4-level model built for storytelling.

Harvey AI – AI for Finance

A new AI agent designed for financial research. It can:

• Analyze earnings reports and compare revenue trends.

• Summarize Q4 results and generate structured financial reports.

• Use pre-built templates for proofreading, transcript analysis, and more.

Google's AI Announcements

• Gemma 3 Open-Weight Model – Free, powerful, and multimodal (text, image, video).

• Gemini 2.0 Flash – Now supports AI-generated images and image editing with text prompts.

• New AI Research Tool – Competes with OpenAI and Perplexity, providing detailed structured reports.

• AI-Powered Gmail & Calendar – Reads emails and suggests events.

Other AI Highlights

• Perplexity AI now has a Windows app.

• Grok AI (from X) can now be tagged for instant answers.

• An AI-written research paper got peer-reviewed and accepted.

AI Video & Art Updates

• Moonvalley AI – New AI video model.

• Captions AI Mirage – Generates AI-powered ad spokespeople.

• Snapchat AI Video Lenses – New AI-powered filters for video creation.

The Bottom Line

AI agents are evolving fast, with Manus AI leading the charge. Meanwhile, OpenAI, Google, and others are pushing new research tools, creative models, and financial automation.

For a full breakdown, watch Matt Wolfe's video here:

More insights coming soon.

— Written by Aaron & The Clever Nest Team

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