Meta’s $2 Billion AI Acquisition Is Now Pushing Get-Rich-Quick Ads

Meta dropped $2 billion last year to buy an AI company called Manus. Now that company is running ads that look straight out of a late-night infomercial: find local businesses with bad websites, use AI to build them a new one, then call them up and sell it.

It’s the classic “make money while you sleep” pitch, but with a modern AI wrapper. And Meta is paying content creators to push this on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok as a legitimate side hustle. Some of those creators’ TikTok accounts were taken down after The Verge started asking questions.

The paid posts from creators often didn’t make it clear they were sponsored. Some even showed up as official Manus ads, but the organic-looking content from influencers blurred the line between genuine recommendation and paid promotion. That’s the kind of thing that gets platforms in trouble with the FTC, and it’s a bad look for a company that already has trust issues.

I get it — AI tools can genuinely help small businesses improve their online presence. But dressing up a sales pitch as a get-rich-quick scheme? That feels desperate. And for a $2 billion acquisition, you’d expect something more polished than this.

Meta hasn’t commented beyond what’s in the original story, but the timing is interesting. The company has been pushing AI hard across its platforms, and Manus was supposed to be a crown jewel in that strategy. Instead, it’s running ads that feel like they belong on a sketchy YouTube channel from 2015.

If you’re thinking about jumping on this bandwagon, do your own research. The promise of easy money with AI is almost always too good to be true. And if the creators promoting it aren’t being transparent about their deal with Meta, that’s a red flag you shouldn’t ignore.