Caiwei Chen of MIT Technology Review reports that Manus is a new AI agent from China’s Butterfly Effect that’s gone viral for its ability to handle complex tasks using multiple AI models. Though still invite-only and occasionally unstable, it’s been praised for its adaptability, transparency, and low cost—acting like a smart digital intern for research and planning. Chen writes:
The new general AI agent from China had some system crashes and server overload—but it’s highly intuitive and shows real promise for the future of AI helpers.
Since the general AI agent Manus was launched last week, it has spread online like wildfire. And not just in China, where it was developed by the Wuhan-based startup Butterfly Effect. It’s made its way into the global conversation, with influential voices in tech, including Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and Hugging Face product lead Victor Mustar, praising its performance. Some have even dubbed it “the second DeepSeek,” comparing it to the earlier AI model that took the industry by surprise for its unexpected capabilities as well as its origin. […]
I expect I will keep using Manus for all sorts of tasks, in both my personal and professional lives. While I’m not sure the comparisons to DeepSeek are quite right, it serves as further evidence that Chinese AI companies are not just following in the footsteps of their Western counterparts. Rather than just innovating on base models, they are actively shaping the adoption of autonomous AI agents in their own way.
Read more here.
