Meta’s $2 Billion AI Acquisition Is Now Peddling Get-Rich-Quick Schemes

Meta dropped $2 billion on an AI company called Manus last year, and now it’s running ads that basically say: “Get rich quick with AI — no skills required.”

The pitch is simple: find local businesses with terrible websites (or none at all), have AI build them one, then call them up and sell it. Easy money, right?

Except it’s not that simple, and Meta knows it. The campaign paid content creators to set up Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok accounts that promoted Manus as a lucrative side hustle. Some of these videos ran as official ads, but many of the creator posts conveniently left out their financial ties to the company. Classic influencer marketing sleight of hand.

When The Verge started asking questions, those TikTok accounts disappeared. Coincidence? I doubt it.

What bothers me most is the framing. This isn’t about empowering small businesses or democratizing web design. It’s about convincing people they can skip the hard work of building real skills and just let AI do the heavy lifting. That’s not entrepreneurship — that’s a hustle that preys on desperation.

And let’s be real: AI-generated websites for local businesses have been a thing for years. The difference is now Meta is selling it as a path to instant wealth, which is a grift wrapped in hype. The company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp should know better than to push this kind of content.

If you’re thinking about jumping on this bandwagon, ask yourself: who really benefits? The creators get paid upfront, Meta gets ad revenue and user growth, and you get to cold-call business owners with a template site that probably looks like it was made by a 2012 Wix trial. Not exactly a recipe for long-term success.

I’m not saying AI tools can’t help people build things. They can. But pretending this is a legitimate side hustle rather than a marketing funnel for Meta’s latest acquisition is disingenuous. The company already has enough trouble with misinformation and shady ads — this feels like a step backward.