Unlike ChatGPT, Claude, and other single-model systems, Manus claims to be the "world's first general AI agent" by using multiple AI models working in tandem — such as Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Qwen, and various independent agents to tackle a wide range of tasks.

Manus AI is reportedly the world's first fully autonomous AI agent. But what does that mean? And what is it capable of?

A powerful new AI tool Manus is making waves in China, fueling hopes that it could replicate the success of DeepSeek, which earlier this year rattled the global tech industry with its state-of-the-art chatbot.

Manus wasn’t developed entirely from scratch. According to reports on social media, the platform uses a combination of existing and fine-tuned AI models, including Anthropic’s Claude and Alibaba’s Qwen, to perform tasks such as drafting research reports and analyzing financial filings.

Some early users were enthusiastic about the product’s capabilities; others complained it took too long and crashed.