China has introduced Manus, a groundbreaking fully autonomous AI agent developed by Monica.im. Unlike conventional AI assistants that simply provide answers, Manus can independently execute complex tasks from planning to completion.
A Digital Agent That Actually Does the Work
Manus, named after the Latin word for “hand,” represents a significant leap forward in AI technology. It can autonomously complete various tasks by breaking them down into manageable steps, accessing needed tools, and delivering complete results.
In a demonstration video, Manus showcased its capabilities through three practical examples:
- Resume screening: Manus automatically unzipped resume files, reviewed each document, extracted relevant information, and ranked candidates for a reinforcement learning engineer position based on their expertise. It even formatted the results in Excel when requested.
- Real estate selection: When asked to find properties in New York with specific requirements (safe neighborhood, good schools, affordable price), Manus independently researched communities, calculated budget constraints using Python, and compiled a detailed report with recommendations.
- Stock analysis: Manus analyzed correlations between NVIDIA, Marvell Technology, and TSMC stocks over three years by accessing financial data, verifying information accuracy across sources, and creating visualizations with detailed reports.
Technical Capabilities and Architecture
Manus employs a “Multiple Agents” architecture running in independent virtual machines. This system divides work among planning agents, execution agents, and verification agents – similar to a small team working together rather than a single assistant.
According to Monica.im, Manus has set a new state-of-the-art performance benchmark in the GAIA test, which evaluates general AI assistants’ ability to solve real-world problems.
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The AI can:
- Write and execute code
- Browse the web
- Operate applications
- Remember user preferences
- Work asynchronously in the cloud
The Team Behind Manus
Monica.im, the company behind Manus, was founded by Xiao Hong (also known as “Red”), a 1992-born software engineering graduate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Before developing Manus, Xiao:
- Founded Ye Ying Technology in 2015
- Created AI-powered assistant tools
- Developed Monica, an AI assistant that integrates models like Claude 3.5 and DeepSeek
- Built a user base that reportedly reached 10 million for Monica
Industry Impact and Competition
The launch of Manus signals China’s growing ambitions in artificial intelligence and puts it in direct competition with other autonomous AI systems. The source mentions that OpenAI announced pricing for its doctor-level AI agents, targeting industries like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing.
While Manus represents a significant advancement, experts remain skeptical about some claims. No independent evaluations have confirmed Manus’ superiority over OpenAI models, and its real-world performance outside controlled demonstrations is yet to be verified.