Manus, an agentic AI platform that launched in preview last week, is generating more hype than a Taylor Swift concert.The head of product at Hugging Face called Manus the most impressive AI tool Ive ever tried. AI policy researcher Dean Ball described Manus as the most sophisticated computer using AI. The official Discord server for Manus grew to over 138,000 members in just a few days, and invite codes for Manus are reportedly selling for thousands of dollars on Chinese reseller app Xianyu.But its not clear the hype is justified.Manus wasnt developed entirely from scratch. According to reports on social media, the platform uses a combination of existing and fine-tuned AI models, including Anthropics Claude and Alibabas Qwen, to perform tasks such as drafting research reports and analyzing financial filings. Yet on its website, Monica the Chinese startup behind Manus gives a few wild examples of what the platform supposedly can accomplish, from buying real estate to programming video games.In a viral video on X, Yichao Peak Ji, a research lead for Manus, implied that the platform was superior to agentic tools such as OpenAIs deep research and Operator. Manus outperforms deep research on a popular benchmark for general AI assistants called GAIA, Ji claimed, which probes an AIs ability to carry out work by browsing the web, using software, and more. [Manus] isnt just another chatbot or workflow, Ji said in the video. Its a completely autonomous agent that bridges the gap between conception and execution [] We see it as the next paradigm of human-machine collaboration.But some early users say that Manus is no panacea.Alexander Doria, the co-founder of AI startup Pleias, said in a post on X that he encountered error messages and endless loops while testing Manus. Other X users pointed out that Manus makes mistakes on factual questions and doesnt consistently cite its work and often misses information thats easily found online.My own experience with Manus hasnt been incredibly positive.I asked the platform to handle what seemed to me like a pretty straightforward request: order a fried chicken sandwich from a top-rated fast food joint in my delivery range. After about ten minutes, Manus crashed. On the second attempt, it found a menu item that met my criteria, but Manus couldnt complete the ordering process or provide a checkout link, even.Trying to order fried chicken sandwiches with Manus is a frustrating experience.Image Credits:ManusManus similarly whiffed when I asked it to book a flight from NYC to Japan. Given instructions that I thought didnt leave much room for ambiguity (e.g. look for a business-class flight, prioritizing price and flexible dates), the best Manus could do was serve up links to fares across several airline websites and airfare search engines like Kayak, some of which were broken.Manus cant book flights to Tokyo for you just yet.Image Credits:ManusHoping the next few tasks might be the charm, I told Manus to reserve a table for one at a restaurant within walking distance. It failed after a few minutes. Then I asked the platform to build a Naruto-inspired fighting game. It errored out half an hour in, which is when I decided to throw in the towel.Weve reached out to Monica for comment and will update this post if we hear back. So if Manusis is falling short of its technical promises, why did it blow up? A few factors contributed, such as the exclusivity created by a scarcity of invites.Chinese media was quick to tout Manus as an AI breakthrough; publication QQ News called it the pride of domestic products. Meanwhile, AI influencers on social media spread misinformation about Manus capabilities. A widely-shared video showed a desktop program, ostensibly Manus, taking action across multiple smartphone apps. Ji confirmed that the video wasnt, in fact, a demo of Manus.Other influential AI accounts on X sought to draw comparisons between Manus and Chinese AI company DeepSeek comparisons not necessarily rooted in fact. Monica didnt develop in-house models, unlike DeepSeek. And while DeepSeek made many of its technologies openly available, Monica hasnt at least not quite yet.To be fair to Monica, Manus is in early access. The company claims its working to scale computing capacity and fix issues as theyre reported. But as the platform currently exists, Manus appears to be a case of hype running ahead of technological innovation.