Mar 10, 2025 12:12:00

Chinese startup announces 'Manus,' an AI agent that claims to surpass OpenAI's deep research

Chinese startup

ManusAI has announced the launch of Manus , an AI agent that collects information from various sources according to user instructions and outputs results including interactive elements. Manus is a 'general-purpose AI agent' that can autonomously handle complex tasks in the real world, and a demonstration log showing how it actually works has also been released.

Manus
https://manus.im/

Was Manus another DeepSeek moment? Chinese AI agent faces doubts after rapid rise to fame | South China Morning Post
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3301547/was-manus-another-deepseek-moment-chinese-ai-agent-faces-doubts-after-rapid-rise-fame

'Outperforming DeepResearch': New Chinese AI agent Manus rewrites autonomy rulebook. What sets it apart? BusinessToday
https://www.businesstoday.in/tech-today/news/story/outperforming-deepresearch-new-chinese-ai-agent-manus-rewrites-autonomy-rulebook-what-sets-it-apart-467315-2025-03-09

You can get a good idea of what kind of AI agent Manus is by watching the video below.

Introducing Manus: The General AI Agent - YouTube


According to Yichao Ji, co-founder and chief scientist at Manus AI, Manus is an autonomous AI agent that bridges the gap between concept and execution, providing a glimpse into artificial general intelligence (AGI).

For example, Manus can be tasked with reading through multiple job applications from multiple job candidates, summarizing their information based on their past project experience, and ranking them by their expertise in reinforcement learning.

While Manus is executing a task, its thought process is displayed on the left side of the screen, and the files and internet pages it references are displayed on the right side. Even if the user leaves Manus while the task is being executed, the work continues in the cloud, and a notification is sent when the task is completed.

You can also upload additional files or provide new instructions while a task is running.

Manus outputs the results of the task as a report and, in some cases, also attaches supplementary materials.

You can also have the results displayed in a spreadsheet.

You can also perform tasks like 'find properties in New York that match some criteria.'

Manus searches for properties while referring to various articles.

We also search for properties that fit your budget.

Finally, a detailed report was generated, including an evaluation for each item.

Manus is said to have outperformed OpenAI's online information gathering agent

Deep research in the GAIA benchmark, a large-scale language model developed by researchers from Meta and Hugging Face.

You can check the logs for some of the tasks performed in the demo version of Manus. In the demo below, Manus is asked to plan a 7-day trip to Japan. When you play the log, you can see that Manus collects data from various websites about travel to Japan and creates a trip plan based on the time of year, budget, and interests.

7-Day Japan Itinerary with Proposal Ideas - Manus

https://manus.im/share/brWKUSp51ItvVMBpcXNCZ1?replay=1

Manus also works in Japanese, and X user ayako has released a demo in which she gives the player the task, 'If humans were to live on the moon and establish a new nation there, what should the laws be? Also, what political system would be appropriate?'

Laws and Politics of the Lunar Nation - Manus
https://manus.im/share/WL4QfdsSNWMSTowStm0mkf?replay=1

Since Manus attracted more users than expected immediately after its announcement, the demo version released to the public barely worked due to insufficient server capacity. At the time of writing, only users with an invitation code can use the demo version of Manus .