Instinct: Slowdowns Reported Against Muse and Its Resources

Users of Instinct are reporting slower responses and delayed tasks. The founder has already acknowledged a similar episode last month. Several stakeholders emphasize that control over infrastructure gives Meta an advantage, while one investor considers Muse and Instinct functionally equivalent but says they have left Instinct. The app, which is free and still on a waiting list, was launched before Muse.

Repeated Slowdowns and Public Criticism

Last month, Noah Shinn, founder of Instinct, indicated that some users had experienced slower responses from the app over the previous 24 hours. Venture capitalist Vinay Iyengar stated that he had used both Instinct and Muse, finding them functionally equivalent, but believes Muse has the advantage of not suffering from computational outages and has essentially abandoned Instinct. The rivalry between Instinct and Muse is also expressed on social media: this month, Alexandr Wang, head of AI at Meta, mocked Noah Shinn's startup by calling it "Insect" and claimed that Muse is much faster and more appealing; Shinn responded with a smiling emoji. Instinct did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Highlighting a Computational Resource Differential

Hang Huang, a founder based in San Francisco, believes that Instinct, as a small startup, lacks the computing resources of a company like Meta, making it difficult to scale its AI agent. He adds that if the infrastructure of a user-favored product struggles to evolve, it can be very detrimental. Alexey Tumanov, a computer science professor at Georgia Tech, explains that Meta, which owns its own data centers, can scale more efficiently and benefits from arbitrary scale control. Thus, Instinct faces direct competition from Muse in a context of high computational power demands.

A Free Service, Launched Before Muse and Still in Limited Access

Instinct is a free app that relies on funding from investors. The service is not yet fully deployed: signing up generally leads to a waiting list before accessing the app. Instinct was launched about a month before Muse and garnered interest from Silicon Valley as early as August. It is a personal assistant based on artificial intelligence.

What Users Report on a Daily Basis

Users are reporting slowdowns in the app, with slower responses and tasks being executed with delays. Rex Lowther, who runs a nonprofit organization in Oregon and uses Instinct, reports observing some slowness in a few operations and notes that email alerts can sometimes be delivered late. Instinct offers services such as hotel bookings, contacting insurance companies, and purchasing movie tickets.