Muse have had their social media handle taken by Mark Zuckerberg but Matt Bellamy seems chill about it: “He’s alright. He’s not too bad”

Muse have explained how they’ve had to change their social media handles because Mark Zuckerberg wanted to use the name ‘muse’ for his new AI tool.

Now you’d think – given Matt Bellamy’s penchant for writing about tech dystopias – that this is something they’d quite literally be making a big song and dance over, perhaps pointing out that they had predicted this turn of events decades ago. Not so, it seems. In an interview with iHeartRadio Bellamy has explained that he had been in contact with Zuckerberg about it and it really hadn’t been a big deal.

According to Bellamy, Zuckerberg sent the singer a beta version of the AI tool before adding that the multi-billionaire is “alright.. he’s not too bad."

The interviewer then asked Bellamy to confirm that Meta didn’t just steal the name ‘muse’. “No, no. We had a chat," he replied. "He invited me to meet him, and we had a chat.”

“It’s a trademark thing,” he explained. “So I said, ‘don’t touch music, don’t touch merchandise’, so I can sell Muse AI T-shirts, but I can’t make a Muse AI, basically.”

Those will long memories may well point out that big tech has a proven track record of creeping beyond agreed remits like this. Apple Computers formed in 1976 knowing full well that The Beatles’ Apple Corps was still an active company. Apple sued and, in the settlement in 1981, whilst Apple Computers was allowed to keep its name, it had to pay Apple Corps $80,000 and agree to stay out of the music business. This became a live issue again when Steve Jobs and co developed the iPod and launched Apple Music in the early '00s, thus contravening the agreement.

Anyway, Bellamy’s remarkably relaxed attitude to Meta’s move has meant that their handle on Instagram and Twitter/X from now on will be @Muse to @Musetheband.