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Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Technology
Elton Jones

I tried Muse Spark — here’s what you need to know about Meta’s new AI model

Meta AI logo on a phone.

When you hear “Meta,” you probably think of Facebook and the company’s other social platforms.

But Mark Zuckerberg isn’t just focused on your feed anymore. Meta has been investing heavily in AI, with tools like its Meta AI assistant, the Vibes image and video generator and wearable tech like the Ray-Ban Meta AI Glasses.

Now, Meta AI is getting a major upgrade. It’s powered by Muse Spark, a new multimodal reasoning model from Meta Superintelligence Labs and the first to roll out in the company’s Muse family of AI systems.

Like other leading models, Muse Spark can handle a wide range of tasks, from simple prompts to more complex reasoning. In an official blog post, Meta positions it alongside top competitors like Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.4 and Grok.

With Muse Spark now available inside Meta AI, I decided to take a closer look at what this new model can actually do.

Here’s what Muse Spark is all about and how you can use it.

Ease of use across Meta apps

(Image credit: Future)

Muse Spark is designed to act as a fast, context-aware assistant.

It can handle everything from casual conversations to complex reasoning, with support for text, images and voice. That means you can upload a sketch of a Sudoku puzzle and ask it to turn it into a playable web game, or prompt it to create a simple fractions game for kids.

Muse Spark is available across Meta AI on desktop, the Meta AI app and Meta smart glasses, with support coming soon to social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. It’s worth noting that Muse Spark is cloud-only, so you won’t be able to download or fine-tune it locally.

When you need deeper reasoning, you can trigger “Contemplating mode” by saying something like “Use Contemplating mode” or “Think this through carefully.” This is especially useful for debugging code, analyzing research papers or planning detailed trips with constraints like budget, route and stops.

Muse Spark can also analyze images. For example, you could upload a photo of your pantry and ask it to estimate calories for each visible item.

One standout feature is its memory. It can recall preferences, past decisions and ongoing projects, making it feel more like a true assistant over time. If you’re looking to streamline your workflow, it’s worth experimenting with how Muse Spark can support your day-to-day productivity.

Learning more about your health with 'expert' recommendations

(Image credit: ReaLiia/Shutterstock)

One of Muse Spark’s standout features is its focus on what Meta calls “personal superintelligence,” especially when it comes to health insights.

According to Meta’s AI blog, the company worked with more than 1,000 physicians to help train the model, with the goal of delivering more accurate, reliable responses to health-related questions. Muse Spark can also generate visual, interactive displays to make information easier to understand — like charts breaking down the nutritional value of your meals or diagrams showing which muscles are activated during a workout.

Beyond health, Muse Spark taps into the massive pool of public content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads to surface recommendations and trends. You can ask what people are saying about coffee shops in Brooklyn or discover popular spots based on real user activity.

A newer feature, “Shopping Mode,” builds on this by pulling insights from creator content to power product recommendations. In practice, that could mean finding gift ideas based on the creators you follow or getting curated suggestions shaped by what’s actually trending online.

Bottom line

In its current state, Muse Spark feels like a solid alternative to the AI chatbots I use most often.

Its “Contemplating mode” is easily the standout feature. It tackles complex tasks using multiple AI agents to deliver more reliable, well-reasoned responses. If you’re using AI for math, science, coding, multi-step planning or in-depth research, Muse Spark is definitely worth trying.

With its integration into Meta AI, it can now handle a wide range of tasks — from answering detailed questions and analyzing uploaded images or charts to building interactive tools, surfacing social-driven recommendations and even offering more structured health insights.

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