After DeepSeek, China’s Manus Surpasses Open AI
This latest development out of China further demonstrates how the bloated top-heavy controlled U.S. system lags behind Asia…
The Liberty Staff
Companies can perform tailor-made and repetitive tasks with Manus – without writing any code.
IMAGE: Xiao Hong, co-founder of Butterfly Effect, explains Manus on March 5, 2025 (Photo: Manus.im)
Yong Jian reports for Asia Times…
Manus, a newly launched artificial intelligence (AI) agent in China, has surprised the global technology sector by demonstrating its ability to complete tasks traditionally performed by white-collar workers.
According to its website, Manus, developed by Beijing-based Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, can perform various tasks in seconds, such as planning a trip to Japan, finding a new home overseas and analyzing financial statements.
Peak Ji, chief scientist and co-founder of Butterfly Effect, said the company developed its agentic AI model using Antropic’s Claude and Alibaba’s Qwen.
Claude, developed by the San Francisco-based Antropic, is well known for its strong coding ability. Users can ask Claude to write codes for use in AI agents.
On Tuesday, Alibaba Cloud and Butterfly Effect reached a strategic cooperation agreement to develop AI products for general use.
To understand what Manus offers users, one should first understand the difference between generative AI and agentic AI.
Generative AI models include ChatGPT and DeepSeek, which are large language models (LLMs) that can understand human languages. They can reason, chat with people, read and write and create images, videos, and charts.
LLM is like a brain, while an AI agent can be compared to a human body that can perform tailor-made and repetitive tasks such as extracting and analyzing industry-specified data.
To build an AI agent, a company must ask its experienced staff to write a workflow. It must subscribe to software, and hire programmers to write codes and compile data so analysts can use the database.
This procedure does not require any high-end chips or sophisticated AI training. Still, it is costly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and is usually not welcomed by staff who don’t want to hand their skills to machines.
Now, Manus offers users a one-click button to complete each task. It claims to be the world’s first fully autonomous AI. Its website slogan is “Leave it to Manus.”
In its promotional footage released on March 5, Butterfly Effect co-founder Xiao Hong demonstrated the AI agent’s abilities to analyze 10 resumes, search a New York property for sale within a given budget, and calculate the correlation of Nvidia, Marvell Technology and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) stocks.
The 32-year-old entrepreneur said Manus beat OpenAI’s Deep Research regarding GAIA, a benchmark for general AI assistants.
“This wouldn’t be possible without the amazing open-source community, which is why we’re committed to giving back,” said Xiao. “Manus operates as a multi-agent system powered by several distinct models. So later this year, we’re going to open source some of these models, specifically post-trained for Manus, inviting everyone to explore this agentic future together.”
‘Mind and hand’
Xiao said the name Manus comes from a famous Latin motto, Mens et Manus, which means “mind and hand.”
“It embodies the belief that knowledge must be applied to make a meaningful impact on the world, and this is precisely the promise of Manus AI – to extend your capabilities, amplify your impact, and be the hand that brings your mind’s vision into reality,” he said.
Within a day of Butterfly Effect’s launching Manus on March 5, the company’s server had been overloaded as global AI fans used Manus to perform various tests.
In a statement, Butterfly Effect co-founder Zhang Tao apologized to the public and said the company underestimated the strong market response to its AI agent. He said Manus is a preliminary product, like a newborn baby, and remains far from what the company wants to deliver…
Contiunue this analysis at Asia Times
___________
SOURCE
Header featured image (edited) credit: Courtesy of Linkedin. Emphasis added by (TLB)
••••
••••
Stay tuned tuned…
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Source: TLB
