The Stone Age did not end due to a shortage of stones but because humans crafted the first bronze arrow.

Since its launch, the concept of a general agent has propelled Manus into the limelight, with many hailing it as the "bronze arrow" of the AI era. But is this truly the case?

Our approach is to hold off on judgment for now.

What Exactly is Manus?

On March 5th, a startup named Butterfly Effect unveiled an early preview of Manus, billing it as the "world's first general AI".

Monica's co-founder and chief scientist, Ji Yichao, explained that the name Manus stems from the Latin phrase "Mens et Manus," meaning "mind and hand." In his view, while other AIs are still confined to "generating ideas," an AI that can "produce results" and "complete tasks autonomously" deserves the title of "next-generation AI".

This might sound a bit abstract, so let's provide an example.

Imagine Aqiang, a designer, tasked by his boss to create an "Apple-style" business card for a client.

In the past, Aqiang would manually research Apple's design philosophy and create a design from scratch based on his own understanding. With the advent of AI, Aqiang would first interact with DeepSeek to obtain "Apple-style design prompts" and then feed these prompts into Midjourney to generate the final design.

In the Manus demonstration, Aqiang simply sends the requirement for an "Apple-style business card" along with the client's information to Manus. Manus then creates a task list, autonomously generates content after capturing key details and learning Apple's design philosophy, sparing Aqiang the hassle of refining prompts and manually switching between platforms.

This is where the name Manus, "mind and hand," originates.

Mind = Capable of thinking, understanding user needs, and devising a feasible plan.

Hand = Capable of acting, proactively executing the plan, and delivering results directly to the user.

Let the Bullet Fly a Little Longer

Backed by the AI agent concept and a series of impressive demonstrations, Manus has repeatedly topped trending charts since its launch, sparking widespread discussions.

However, as Manus is currently primarily accessible to overseas users (requiring a Google or Apple account for login), and only beta testers with invitation codes can experience it, the old saying "rarity adds value" has come into play, leading to new businesses such as "reselling Manus invitation codes" on the secondary market.

According to media reports, Manus invitation codes have been hyped up to as much as 100,000 yuan, and even writing "invitation code application emails" on behalf of others has evolved into a paid service. Additionally, stocks like Newcapec, Hand Information Technology, and DeepinTech have surged collectively due to the popularity of Manus, fueling a new wave of market frenzy.

Given the current "visible but untouchable" status of Manus, suspicions have arisen that the team might be engaging in "hunger marketing + shell hyping".

After all, looking back at the rise of ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and even New Bing, they all allowed users to experience the products firsthand, leading to word-of-mouth spread and social fission. Products like Manus that gain popularity during beta testing are indeed rare.

In response, Zhang Tao, partner at Manus AI, stated, "We have never opened any paid channels for obtaining invitation codes, nor have we invested in any marketing budget. During the beta test, system capacity is limited, so we prioritize the core experience of existing users and release invitations gradually and orderly."

"We completely underestimated everyone's enthusiasm. Our initial intention was to share our phased achievements in exploring the agent product form, so server resources were prepared at the level of releasing a demo in the industry. We never imagined it would cause such a stir."

Objectively speaking, it's premature to take a positive stance, viewing Manus as an AI dark horse and starting to layout related industries, or to adopt a negative stance, considering it just a large-scale marketing campaign.

The rational approach is to stay patient and let the bullet fly a little longer.

Wait until Manus conducts a large-scale beta test or opens a public test, and then personally experience it before making an evaluation.

Revealing the Team Behind Manus

Since Manus is temporarily unavailable, after writing the beta application letter, we turned our focus to the team behind it.

Public information reveals that Butterfly Effect, the startup behind Manus, completed its Series A funding in the fall of 2024. Currently, the company operates with a dual-track model consisting of a Beijing team and a Wuhan team.

As for the reason behind this setup, the current mainstream speculation online is that co-founder and chief scientist Ji Yichao graduated from Beijing Information Science and Technology University, while founder Xiao Hong graduated from the School of Software Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan. This dual-track operation allows them to better leverage their resources.

Ji Yichao is a serial entrepreneur.

ZhenFund and Sequoia China provided angel investment to Ji Yichao for developing the Mammut browser. In this process, Ji Yichao was named one of the "Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 in China and the United States" and featured on the cover of Forbes China.

Xiao Hong, on the other hand, founded Nightingale Technology, which secured strategic investments of hundreds of millions of yuan from Tencent, ZhenFund, and others for launching WeChat ecosystem applications such as Yiban Assistant and Weiban Assistant, serving over 2 million B-end users.

From uploading the preview on March 5th to discussions across the internet on March 7th, the underlying driver behind Manus' popularity is everyone's anticipation of the next generation of AI products.

After all, DeepSeek's rise to fame has already instilled product and technical confidence among netizens by "catching up with and then surpassing competing products," shifting everyone's focus from "when will the next phenomenal AI product appear" to "what will the next phenomenal AI product be".

As the saying goes,

The Stone Age ended not because stones ran out, but because humans crafted the first bronze arrow.

Today, the concept of a general agent has made Manus a hot topic of discussion across the internet since its launch, making many people regard it as the "bronze arrow" of the AI era.

As for whether Manus can live up to everyone's expectations, only time will tell.

References:

Daxiang News: Manus Partner Zhang Tao Responds to Accusations of "Hunger Marketing + Shell Hyping"

Beijing Business Daily: Manus Invitation Codes Reportedly Hyped Up to 100,000 Yuan, Writing Application Emails Also Becomes a Paid Service

The Paper: Surge in AI Agent Concept Stocks! Netizens Leave Messages Seeking Invitation Codes, What's the Deal with This Product Called Manus