Manus, the Chinese AI That Wants to Decide for You
A team of Chinese engineers has created Manus, the first fully autonomous artificial intelligence agent. This is not just another digital assistant, one of those that responds to commands or performs predefined tasks.
Manus promises to be something more: an entity capable of analyzing complex data, crime rates, climate patterns, and personal preferences without requiring human input. It’s a step beyond the boundaries of automation as we know it, a leap that forces us to consider not only the technology itself but also the context in which it was born and its broader implications.
A Technological Leap, a Geopolitical Shadow
It’s hard not to sense the excitement surrounding such an innovation. Manus promises to redefine our relationship with technology, transforming it from a tool into an independent collaborator. But behind this promise looms a larger shadow, one that intertwines scientific progress with power dynamics.
China, with its ability to mobilize resources and talent under a single, centralized vision, has shown it can not only compete with but perhaps surpass the traditional leaders of Western innovation. This isn’t just about a more advanced AI; it’s about a system that reflects a different approach to modernity one that is swift, decisive, and free from the hesitations that often accompany liberal democracies, entangled as they are in webs of regulations, ethical debates, and public consensus.
Yet, it would be simplistic to frame this story as a mere race between political systems. The real question isn’t just who gets there first, but which values guide the race. Manus didn’t emerge in a vacuum: it’s the product of an environment that prioritizes efficiency and results over questions of privacy, accountability, or fairness. In an authoritarian context, technology can advance without needing to answer to an electorate or justify itself before ethics committees. From Beijing’s perspective, this isn’t a flaw, it’s a structural advantage. And while the West debates algorithmic transparency or the right to explanation, China builds and experiments.
The Fragile Balance of Democracies
In the United States and Europe, AI innovation is far from lacking: from DeepMind to OpenAI, the landscape is rich with excellence. But every step forward is accompanied by a complex dance of checks and balances. Consider the GDPR, which protects citizens’ data but slows development timelines, or the parliamentary hearings that scrutinize Big Tech’s every move. These are the costs of a system that places the individual and their freedom at its core costs that, in a moment of global competition, risk being perceived as burdens, threatening the sustainability of the current balance between innovation and caution. Manus isn’t just a technological milestone; it’s a mirror reflecting our slowness, our indecision. If democracies want to maintain a leading role, they must find ways to streamline their processes without betraying their essence. Perhaps what’s needed are bolder experimental spaces, smoother public-private collaborations, and an approach that embraces risk as part of progress.
Beyond the Technical: The Future at Stake
What happens when technology ceases to be an extension of humanity and becomes an autonomous entity? It’s not just a matter of jobs, though the impact there is inevitable. Who controls, and who is controlled? An AI that makes decisions without human oversight demands a level of trust that no society has yet fully grappled with. In an authoritarian regime, that trust can be imposed; in a democracy, it must be earned a slow, fragile, and necessary process.
The story of Manus isn’t just about a dangerous innovation. It’s a signal of a changing world, where technology is no longer neutral but carries the fingerprints of the systems that create it.
For liberal democracies, the task is far from simple: to compete without compromising, to innovate without losing sight of ethics, to race forward without forgetting why they’re running. Manus isn’t just an artificial agent it’s a challenge, a call to redefine our place in a future that is already quietly taking shape.
This article was originally published in Italian here and is republished in English.
For all the amplification it may receive from Chinese propaganda, and despite still being an immature project compared to its lofty claims, the idea of an autonomous AI is not an illusion. Sooner or later, someone will choose to walk this path.
Manus, the Chinese AI That Wants to Decide for You