Meta’s recently acquired AI startup Manus has launched a desktop app for Mac and Windows. It brings an agentic tool called My Computer, where you can type what you want and have it carry out tasks across files, tools, and apps on your PC.
How Manus’s My Computer automates your everyday tasks
When you open the app, it looks like a chatbot interface with a prompt box and options to attach files or folders. You can drop a folder and ask it to organize everything for you.
Manus AI
The agent scans your files, understands what is inside them, and then acts on your system using command line instructions. That is how it creates folders, moves files, and organizes everything automatically.
In one example shown by Manus, a florist uploads thousands of unsorted photos and asks the AI to sort them into categories like bouquets, bridal flowers, and decorations. The AI scans the files, understands what each image shows, and sorts them into organized folders within minutes.
Manus AI
You can also connect Google apps and ask it to take actions across services. For example, the AI agent can fetch a file from your desktop and email it to someone while you are away.
My Computer can also build apps or use your local GPU to run automated tasks. However, every action needs your approval, so you stay in control of what Manus can access.
Where Manus stands next to OpenClaw and Perplexity’s Personal Computer
When Meta acquired Manus last December, it worked only on the cloud. Now it runs directly on your computer where your work happens. The free plan gives limited access, while paid plans start at $20 a month or $17 annually.
However, Manus AI is entering a space that is already heating up thanks to OpenClaw. Both AI agents can now run directly on your computer instead of the cloud.
OpenClaw
OpenClaw (formerly known as Clawdbot or Moltbot) is free and open-source, which gained rapid attention and sparked wider interest in agentic AI. Although experts warn that such tools can raise privacy and security concerns.
Manus, on the other hand, is a paid service and is being positioned as a more polished product under Meta. Perplexity is pushing a similar idea with its Personal Computer agent, which can handle entire workflows if you let AI take over everyday tasks across your system.
All of this leaves you with a clear choice. Do you go with a free, open setup that gives you more control, or a paid tool that is easier to use but comes with trade-offs?
Which one works for you depends on how much control you want and how much you are willing to trust an AI with your system.