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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