After "AI" stopped meaning anything, the hype salesmen moved on to "AI" "agents", those allegedly indefatigable assistants, allegedly capable of operating your software for you -- whether you need to make a restaurant reservation, book a flight, or book a flight to a restaurant reservation. Hugging Face's Margaret Mitchell joins Emily and Alex to help break down what agents actually are, and what to actually worry about.

References:

PwC launches AI agent operating system to revolutionize AI workflows for enterprises
An Open-Source AI Agent for Doing Tasks on the Web
Scale AI announces multimillion-dollar defense deal, a major step in U.S. military automation

Other references:

Why handing over total control to AI agents would be a huge mistake

Fully Autonomous AI Agents Should Not be Developed

Bender vs. Bubeck:

Democratize art

Fresh AI Hell:

DOGE suggests replacing workers with "AI" (of course)

Vape, or the tamagotchi gets it
- Via @maaikeverbruggen

"AI" for psychotherapy, still bad, still hyped

Biology (not) of LLMs

Mark Cuban's grifty chatbot
- Via @Hypervisible

Palate cleanser: "AI is the letdown"
cnn.com/2025/03/27/tech/apple-…

Comic relief: "Fortified with AI"

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Music: Toby Menon.
Production: Christie Taylor.
Graphic Design: Naomi Pleasure-Park.