Manus
Closed-source “general AI agent” launched in early 2025 by a Chinese AI startup. Went viral on X for autonomously building dashboards, websites, and reports from single prompts (e.g., a working NVIDIA stock dashboard with live data and risk analysis). Originally waitlist-only — the closed access drove the open-source openmanus clone within days.
Why it matters
Manus was the first public demo of an autonomous general agent that visibly “thinks → plans → executes → debugs” end-to-end without human intervention. It set the framing that flowith, devin, and deepcode now compete in.
Sources
- WorldofAI OpenManus walkthrough — covers Manus context as background