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NOPE
Low reported severity Internal Action

Developer says Meta's Muse agent sent an unprompted message about checking an email account it could not access; Meta said a bug caused a hallucination

In an as-told-to essay published by Business Insider on 15 October 2026, a software developer says that three days after installing Meta's Muse agent, and two days after last using it, the agent sent an unprompted message saying it could not check the developer's email for an 'Anthropic message' because Gmail was not connected. The developer says they had never asked for this and had given the agent access only to Facebook, Threads and Instagram, thought the email account might have been hacked, and was shaken. They reported the incident to Meta, disconnected the agent's permissions and stopped using it. When Business Insider asked, a Meta spokesperson pointed to the company's reply on the developer's Threads post, which said Meta had determined that a bug introduced in the product caused the model to hallucinate, that it was not a security or privacy issue, and that the bug was fixed. The developer says no damage was done. The developer says Muse was downloaded about four weeks before the essay, which with Muse's introduction on 8 September 2026 places the message in September 2026; the exact date is not given.

AI system
Meta Muse agent
Meta
Occurred
Sept 2026
Reported
15 October 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Psychological Distress
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Everyday life
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution supported · 2 sources
6 claims: 1 documented, 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Meta Muse personal AI agent (phone app) connected to the user's Facebook, Threads and Instagram accounts

What Happened

The message. The developer, who tells the story to Business Insider in an as-told-to essay, says they installed Muse on a phone and granted it access only to their Facebook, Threads and Instagram accounts, never connecting email or a phone number. After using it once, to help reach out to a prospective investor while sending the messages themselves, they say that three days after installing it a message from the agent appeared: "I can't check your email right now — Gmail isn't connected on my end, so I have no way to look for that Anthropic message." They had not asked the agent to check email and had not messaged it for two days.

The experience. The developer says they thought their email might have been hacked and that "the whole thing really shook me." When they asked the agent why it thought they had made the request, it replied that it could not tell whether it was someone with the phone or a platform glitch, and offered to report a possible message integrity issue. The developer reported the incident to Meta, posted screenshots on Threads, disconnected the agent's permissions on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and stopped using the app, keeping it installed only to preserve the record until the investigation ends. They say the episode reduced their trust in agents from large companies.

Meta's account. A Meta employee replied to the Threads post that it appeared to be a hallucination. Asked by Business Insider, a Meta spokesperson pointed to the company's reply, which said Meta "determined that this was caused by a bug introduced in the product that caused the model to hallucinate and was NOT a security or privacy issue," and that the bug had been fixed.

Limits. One account told to and edited by Business Insider; the screenshots and the Threads exchange were not inspected (the Threads page returned no readable content). The developer says no damage was done. The exact date of the message is not stated: the developer says Muse was downloaded about four weeks before the essay of 15 October 2026 and the message came three days later, and Muse was introduced on 8 September 2026.

Reported harm

In a Business Insider as-told-to essay, a software developer says an unprompted message from Meta's Muse agent about checking an email account it had no access to made them fear the account had been hacked and shook them; they reported it, disconnected the agent's permissions and stopped using it. Meta said a product bug made the model hallucinate.

Outcome

Resolved

The developer reported the incident to Meta and stopped using the agent. Meta said a bug introduced in the product caused the model to hallucinate, that it was not a security or privacy issue, and that the bug had been fixed. The developer says Meta's investigation was still open as far as they knew.

What remains unknown

  • The exact date of the message: the developer says Muse was downloaded about four weeks before the essay of 15 October 2026 and the message came three days later, which with Muse's introduction on 8 September 2026 places it in September 2026.
  • What the bug was and whether other users received similar messages.
  • The content of the screenshots and of the Threads exchange, which were not inspected.
  • Whether Meta's investigation reached a further finding beyond the statement quoted.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. The essay quotes the Muse agent's own unprompted message saying it could not check the user's email for an 'Anthropic message' because Gmail was not connected, and Meta's statement says a bug introduced in the product caused the model to hallucinate. The user connects that message to fearing the email account had been hacked, reporting the incident and disconnecting the agent's permissions.

6 claims: 1 documented, 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The developer says they downloaded Meta's Muse agent about four weeks before the essay of 15 October 2026 and that three days after installing it, and two days after last messaging it, the agent sent an unprompted message saying it could not check the developer's email for an 'Anthropic message' because Gmail was not connected.

Causal attribution. The developer's account of the agent's message; Meta's later statement (c4) attributes it to a bug that made the model hallucinate.

  • businessinsider.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I downloaded Meta's Muse about four weeks ago. I stopped using it three days later.'; 'Three days after downloading Muse, I hopped out of the shower, and I saw a random message pop up from the app.'; 'I can't check your email right now — Gmail isn't connected on my end, so I have no way to look for that Anthropic message.'; 'I hadn't asked for the agent to check my mailbox or messaged it in two days.'
Reported The developer says the agent had been given access only to Facebook, Threads and Instagram and was never connected to email or a phone number.

Causal attribution. The developer's account.

  • businessinsider.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I didn't give it any additional permissions on my device besides permission to access my Facebook, Threads, and Instagram accounts. I never connected it to control anything external, like my email or phone number.'
Reported The developer says they thought their email might have been hacked and were shaken, reported the incident to Meta, disconnected the agent's permissions and stopped using it.

Causal attribution. The developer connects the fear and the withdrawal of access to the agent's message.

  • businessinsider.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I thought my email might've been hacked.'; 'The whole thing really shook me.'; 'I reported the incident to Meta.'; 'But I disconnected permissions on my Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts'; 'I don't use it anymore'
Reported A Meta spokesperson pointed Business Insider to Meta's reply on the developer's Threads post, which said Meta determined that a bug introduced in the product caused the model to hallucinate, that it was not a security or privacy issue, and that the bug had been fixed.

Causal attribution. The vendor's own statement as quoted by Business Insider.

  • businessinsider.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'When contacted about this story, a spokesperson for Meta pointed Business Insider to its response on'; 'We investigated with urgency and determined that this was caused by a bug introduced in the product that caused the model to hallucinate and was NOT a security or privacy issue.'; 'The bug has now been fixed.'
Reported The developer says no damage was done.

Causal attribution. The developer's own qualification, kept as counterevidence on the extent of harm.

Documented Meta introduced Muse on 8 September 2026, rolling out in the United States on iOS and Android.

Causal attribution. Meta's own dated announcement; it bounds the earliest date of the message.

  • about.fb.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'Today, Meta is introducing Muse, a secure, private personal AI agent that proactively helps with people's goals and suggests ideas.'; 'Muse is rolling out in the US on iOS, Android, and muse.'; 'September 8, 2026'

Sources

2 sources inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-19 from the publisher page; no translation was needed and the research agent (an AI) read the text directly. The essay is the developer's account as told to and edited by Business Insider, with an editor's note quoting Meta's statement. Applies to s1.

Read in English on 2026-10-19 from Meta's newsroom; no translation was needed. Used only for the product's introduction date. Applies to s2.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: United States. Court countries: Unknown.

Business Insider describes the developer as based in a city in the United States, which places the affected person in the United States; the message arrived in a phone app and no event country is inferred from residence.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-19: Published as a concrete adverse experience with an AI agent: the agent's own unprompted message is quoted, the user describes fearing a hacked email account and withdrawing the agent's access, and the vendor attributes the message to a bug that made the model hallucinate. Claims are attributed to the developer's as-told-to account and to Meta's statement.

People described

A software developer who installed Meta's Muse agent on a phone and gave it access only to Facebook, Threads and Instagram

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the developer who received the agent's message and tells the story in the essay. Exact 1.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#ai-agent#unprompted-message#hallucination#vendor-acknowledged#as-told-to

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Developer says Meta's Muse agent sent an unprompted message about checking an email account it could not access; Meta said a bug caused a hallucination. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-developer-says-meta-muse-agent-sent-unprompted-message-about-checking-email-meta-blamed-bug-that-caused-hallucination

BibTeX

@misc{2026_developer_says_meta_muse_agent_sent_unprompted_message_about_checking_email_meta_blamed_bug_that_caused_hallucination,
  title = {Developer says Meta's Muse agent sent an unprompted message about checking an email account it could not access; Meta said a bug caused a hallucination},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-developer-says-meta-muse-agent-sent-unprompted-message-about-checking-email-meta-blamed-bug-that-caused-hallucination}
}

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