We all lie to ourselves to be happy. But we are dangerously at risk of allowing Meta to chibi-wash its image.

Meta—you know Meta, the company that is perhaps the most famous and aggressive offender when it comes to extracting and exploiting personal data from people—is in the middle of a little reputational renaissance driven by its AI suddenly not totally sucking. Muse, the company’s flagship AI app, has been hanging around the top of the App Store for weeks now, ever since the company announced its “personal AI agent” earlier this month.

The app has gotten rave reviews from the technorati, who have been impressed by the re-skinned version of OpenClaw (which you’ll remember Meta acquired earlier this year), and apparently primed them for the seemingly full re-embrace of Meta that came following the company’s Meta Connect event. Those open arms immediately wrapped around Jolly, the company’s apparent AI mascot that looks like a barely-legally-distinct-enough-to-avoid-a-copyright-lawsuit version of a Labubu doll.

The proliferation of the mascot seems to be a personal project of Alexandr Wang, the chief AI officer at Meta. He’s spent days posting the cherub-cheeked little monstrosity in memes galore, including ones that are entirely too horny for no apparent reason.

But if making Jolly take off has been Wang’s pet project, it’s about to get easier. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pulled a Steve Jobs-ian “one last thing” while on stage at Meta Connect and pulled out a new toy called Muse Charm . It’s a wearable or carryable pendant where a personalized version of Jolly will live, allowing the owner to play with it like an AI-infused Tamagotchi.

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