Meta's Manus has released a desktop application, enabling its AI agent to move from the cloud and directly control users' local computers.

According to 1M AI News , Manus, the general-purpose AI agent platform acquired by Meta at the end of last year, released its desktop application Manus Desktop yesterday. The core feature "My Computer" brings Manus from the cloud sandbox to the user's local computer for the first time, and is available to macOS and Windows users starting today.

Since its launch, Manus has operated entirely within a cloud-isolated sandbox, possessing network, command-line, file system, and browser capabilities, but it cannot access users' local files and applications. My Computer, on the other hand, operates the local computer by executing command-line instructions on the user's terminal, allowing it to read, analyze, and edit local files, and launch and control local applications. Official blog posts showcase scenarios including Manus automatically identifying and categorizing thousands of messy photos, and building a real-time meeting translation application from scratch on a Mac using Swift, all via terminal commands, delivered in 20 minutes, without Xcode being opened.

Regarding access control, each terminal command requires explicit user authorization before execution, offering "Always Allow" and "Allow Only Once" options. My Computer also supports accessing the local GPU for machine learning training or large model inference. Users can remotely assign tasks to their home computer from devices such as mobile phones, as long as the computer is powered on and Manus Desktop is running. This feature also integrates Manus's existing scheduled tasks and custom agents, allowing for the configuration of automated local routines, such as cleaning the download folder every morning or generating a local data summary report weekly.