{"id":783526,"date":"2026-09-26T19:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783526\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T19:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:08:18","slug":"charming-and-disarming-how-metas-technology-packed-muse-harnesses-the-power-of-cuteness-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783526\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Charming and disarming\u2019 \u2026 how Meta\u2019s technology-packed Muse harnesses the power of cuteness | Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the recent backlash against Meta\u2019s so-called \u201cpervert\u201d smart glasses, this week Mark Zuckerberg launched a much cuter alternative: the Muse \u201ccharm\u201d device.<\/p>\n

With a screen that shows a cutesy little avatar, it has drawn comparisons with Tamagotchis. \u201cWe\u2019ve packed a lot of technology into this little guy,\u201d the Meta founder told the San Francisco audience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Muse \u2018charm\u2019 device. Photograph: Meta<\/p>\n

The \u201clittle guy\u201d could fit, like a Labubu, on to a keychain or bag. But unlike a Labubu, the interactive AI assistant will have significant capabilities, including the ability to have live conversations. It can answer emails, book travel or do your weekly food shop.<\/p>\n

According to Katie Seaborn, a Cambridge associate professor who has been researching cuteness \u2013 creating the science of cute voices within the context of computing \u2013 it\u2019s cute because it \u201cbasically looks like a baby\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Joshua Paul Dale, professor at Chuo University in Tokyo and author of Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s really significant that along with the wearable charm, Meta also introduced a new pair of smart glasses with no camera. Everyone hates cameras in smart glasses. But if the camera is contained in a charm you wear around your neck, it shifts the agency. Suddenly, you\u2019re not recording people. It\u2019s just a cute little animated avatar looking out on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

An individualised, customisable, and in this case adorable, AI companion, it tracks with Zuckerberg\u2019s commitment to the idea of personal, wearable super-intelligence <\/a>that you can chat to. As well as a broader shift towards cute technology<\/a>, cited by forecasters WGSN as a top trend for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly,\u201d says Dale, \u201cwhat Meta is trying to do is make Muse into a companion. And it\u2019s doing it in the simplest possible way \u2026 It\u2019s using a very simplified, tiny 2-inch screen to encourage you to anthropomorphise the figure on it so that you treat it as if it\u2019s human even though you know it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its cuteness is, according to Seaborn, \u201cstrategic\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s very natural to emerge from this controversy with a technology that uses cuteness because \u2026 it\u2019s so weak. Don\u2019t worry about it. You can trust us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen Z, so attached to their Labubus, could be tempted by the charms of the Muse. Photograph: Go Nakamura\/Reuters<\/p>\n

To try to harness the power of cuteness, according to Seaborn, \u201cmakes sense, especially from a big tech perspective because maybe people are getting wise to the ways of current strategies when it comes to people\u2019s attention, their personal data and what have you. And now they\u2019re trying new things that may or may not work\u201d.<\/p>\n

Seaborn, who has just moved to the University of Cambridge from Japan, points out that \u201cthis is something that is very normal in Japan. So the first thing you notice when you go there is that every single thing has a mascot. The government organisations, the media companies, the businesses, they all have a cute mascot\u201d.<\/p>\n

Seaborn has studied the \u201cimpacts cuteness can have on people\u201d. \u201cWe\u2019ve been seeing cuteness applied as a design strategy for different purposes. We know [that it] has certain impacts on people.\u201d For one thing \u201ccuteness is a way for certain social interactions to take place or to be smoothed over\u201d.<\/p>\n

There is also a \u201cnatural link between cuteness and deception \u2026 I call it \u2018charming and disarming\u2019, because one of the things cuteness does to us unconsciously, it\u2019s just how our brain processes it, is lets down our guard. We can\u2019t really help it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Muse will catch on when it is released in December, or whether such a blatant attempt to gain trust via an on-screen avatar with cheeks you want to squish will land, remains to be seen. But different generations are likely to react differently. \u201cThat\u2019s so AI!\u201d is the phrase<\/a> gen Alpha are using to dismiss anything they think is inauthentic.<\/p>\n

For many gen Zers who are au fait with having a cuddly toy hanging from their bags<\/a>, most typically in the form of a Labubu, it might feel less of a wrench. For older generations there will be nostalgic associations given its resemblance to older technologies. Embedded in it, says Seaborn, \u201c[is] this legacy of these cute kind of gamified pet sort of things like Tamagotchi and Pocky Pikachu\u201d.<\/p>\n

Young girls playing with their Tamagotchis in the mid-2000s. Photograph: Charlie Stroke\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Plus different cultural contexts will affect how it is received. Seaborn\u2019s research has found that \u201cAmericans were actually less likely to be deceived compared with Japanese people \u2026 Because in Japan robots are heroes, they\u2019re like babies\u201d. Whereas \u201cin western culture they\u2019re often presented in the public imagination as kind of scary, potentially broken, sinister devices\u201d. In UK focus groups, people reported a \u201cgut feeling\u201d that something was wrong when cuteness was part of a deceptive design idea. \u201cPeople felt like something was off, but they couldn\u2019t articulate what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the picture, says Seaborn, is changing. \u201cBecause cuteness [or kawaii] has been a cultural export of Japan and other nations for a while now \u2026 there might be a slow cultural shift happening in terms of how we orient ourselves towards cuteness and what we accept as adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Dale is \u201cnot rushing out to buy one\u201d, he \u201cwill say, however, that when I\u2019m 80 years old I\u2019ll definitely want one of these things. I want to wear it around my neck always, and I want the camera on all the time, so it can tell me where I left my glasses.\u201d<\/p>\n