Mark Zuckerberg's new AI agent, Muse, just knocked ChatGPT out of the top spot on the App Store — and if he gets his way, it will sit between you and every business you interact with online. The question for ordinary Americans is whether Muse delivers real competition or just another toll booth controlled by Silicon Valley gatekeepers.

Muse hit No. 1 on Apple's U.S. App Store on Friday, roughly five days after its September 8 launch, racking up about 730,000 downloads and overtaking OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and SpaceXAI's Grok, according to Sensor Tower data cited by CNBC. Meta stock surged 11 percent Monday. Wells Fargo raised its price target to $796. The money is betting Zuckerberg has found his next monopoly position.

The Platform Play

Business Insider framed Muse as Zuckerberg's best platform opportunity yet, and the framing is telling. Meta spent tens of billions chasing virtual reality and smart glasses as the next computing platform. Part of that obsession traces to 2021, when Apple cracked down on cross-app tracking and reminded Zuckerberg just how much power a platform owner wields over companies that depend on it. Muse is the counterpunch: if Meta controls the starting point — the "top of the funnel" — it dictates terms to everyone downstream.

Last week, Meta opened Muse to outside developers through a connector platform. Travel services can book flights. Calendar apps can manage appointments. Email services can send messages. Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke announced support for agentic checkout through Muse. Stripe is handling payments.

The Walled Garden

Here is where the spin diverges. Business Insider barely mentioned the gatekeeping. TechStartups.com led with the harder question: trust.

Amazon has already blocked Muse from accessing its site, citing privacy and security concerns tied to third-party agents acting on shoppers' behalf. An Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire that third-party apps making purchases on behalf of customers "should operate openly and respect service provider decisions about whether or not to participate."

More importantly for free speech, Meta's connector review process mirrors Apple's App Store regime almost exactly. "We'll review your connector for functional, security, and legal requirements, and complete end to end testing," Meta wrote on its developer site. "Once approved, users will be able to find your connector in Muse. Editors will review connectors for featured placement."

That is Apple's playbook, word for word. Apple built one of the most profitable businesses in tech history by controlling which apps could reach iPhone users and which got buried. Meta is promising the same — and if Muse becomes the starting point for how Americans shop, book, and communicate online, then Meta's reviewers decide which businesses thrive and which get disappeared.

Will It Last?

Downloads do not equal staying power. TechStartups.com noted that several AI apps — including OpenAI's Sora and Meta's own Vibes video feature — spiked at launch and then faded. Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon told CNBC that most agentic AI use cases "have not really been for normal people" until now. Muse is free, with paid tiers at $20 and $100 per month based on usage.

Zuckerberg wants Muse to be the new App Store, the new Google Search — the toll booth everyone has to pass through. Every business will need an "agent strategy," tech entrepreneur Greg Isenberg wrote on X, just like every business once needed a mobile strategy.

That is exactly what should concern Americans who watched Big Tech consolidate control over online speech and commerce the last time around. Muse is competition for ChatGPT today. Tomorrow, it could be the gatekeeper deciding which connectors — which businesses, which voices — get found and which get quietly rejected during review.

The early numbers are real. The walled garden is real too. Watch who gets to speak.