The change happened yesterday following tech juggernaut Meta’s US roll-out of Muse – their latest AI agent, designed to assist users with tasks and automate work projects. Social media users were quick to identify that the AI model’s official pages on Meta’s own Instagram and the unaffiliated platform X (formerly Twitter) had both taken the ‘Muse’ tag from the rock trio, who hold over 2.5 million followers on each site.

Muse formed in Teignmouth, Devon in 1994, and have released 10 albums of their fantastical alternative rock, many of which were deep concept projects packed with sci-fi storytelling and dystopian themes. Indeed, their 2026 release ‘The Wow! Signal’ covers alien conspiracy theories and cover-ups, but in the wake of the group’s social media usurping, special attention has been cast on 2018 LP ‘Simulation Theory’.

While not an album remembered as Muse’s greatest work, ‘Simulation Theory’ grappled with philosophical imaginings of humanity living in a digitally-simulated reality, backed up by futuristic neon imagery and revamped live shows filled with wild amounts of dry ice and lasers. The album explored the ways in which online algorithms tailored by technology firms twisted our experience of the world, and the constant adaptations we make to life in the internet age.

‘Simulation Theory’ released a few years ahead of the ‘AI Boom’, where virtual assistants and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT exploded into popularity in the early 2020s. As reported by NME, the irony of Muse’s online handle being taken by an artificial intelligence agent after years of writing music on dystopian themes has not gone unmissed. NME reference the album’s opening track ‘Algorithm’, and its lyrics which almost predict the moment, saying “Algorithms evolve/Push us aside and render us obsolete.”

Muse have so far made no comment on the changeover, with speculation over whether the rights to the handles were taken outright or bought through a deal, but they have now changed their usernames on all platforms to ‘museband’. After ‘The Wow! Signal’ released this June, the group have been on an extensive North American tour of support of it over the summer. Next up, the trio are bringing The Wow! Signal Tour to Manchester’s Co-op Live and London’s O2 Arena in November, before a European road-trip. Available tickets can be found here.

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