ai.u crew continue their discussion on using new AI tools to “automate yourself,” focusing on agentic products like Claude Cowork, Microsoft Cowork, and Perplexity Computer, how to get started, and subscription costs. They note Claude’s $20/month plan is quickly token-limited and may require upgrading to a higher tier (about $125/month) for sustained use. Kevin describes Cowork controlling a browser to complete a driver safety course (with user oversight), building presentations, and scraping hundreds of sites to assemble a financial model, while cautioning that token use can make simple web tasks inefficient and that guardrails are necessary. Travis highlights common low-hanging uses like consolidating transcripts/emails into documents and raises tensions with websites that block bot behavior, the ad-driven web, and paywalls. The group debates how agents shift attention, incentives, and agency, increase output volume, distance people from work and reality, and change how they read, learn, and connect online, while noting growing experimentation across nontechnical professionals.

00:00 Welcome Back and Setup

00:37 Part Two on Automation

01:46 Getting Started With Claude

02:02 Pricing and Token Limits

03:19 Kevin Tests Cowork

03:53 Driver Safety Course Demo

05:22 Scraping and Token Tradeoffs

07:20 Travis Low Hanging Use Cases

08:05 Web Bots vs Site Defenses

09:54 Ads and the Agentic Web

17:18 Subscriptions and Paywalls

19:54 Claude Add Ins and Dispatch

22:44 Building Pitch Decks Fast

23:58 Agents Change Human Attention

25:34 Personal Assistants and Insularity

28:11 Debating an Article With AI

29:28 Simulated Debate vs Humans

30:06 AI Comment Slop on LinkedIn

30:57 Skipping the Messy Learning

32:47 Everyday People Try AI

33:58 Life With AI Assistants

34:58 Developers and Abstraction Drift

36:23 Outcomes Over Outputs

37:04 Summaries and Shrinking Attention

37:59 Agents Gatekeeping Humans

39:12 Whose Agent Is It

40:01 Trust Without Expertise

41:44 Drowning in Agent Activity

43:22 Robots and Household Tasks

45:49 High Agency vs Low Agency

47:51 Writing for Agents Now

50:15 Proximity Still Matters

51:44 Subscription Agents Everywhere

52:39 Wrapping Up the Agent Era

53:43 Agents Talking to Agents

54:26 Final Sign Off

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