Engineers say test it and ship it, or shut the lab down. Others imply everything will emerge from a society of agents. Both are partly right, but I think both make a deep error, and it's one that matters for designing Minds for Our Minds.
Science Briefing: What AI Agents Tell Us About the Future of Human Experience
What These Papers Highlight
AI agents are improving but far from capable of replacing human tasks. Even the best models fail at simple things humans find intuitive, like handling social interactions or navigating pop-ups.
One paper benchmarks agent performance in workplace-like tasks, showing just 24% success on even simple tasks. The other argues that agents alone aren’t enough—we need a broader system to make them useful.
Why This Matters
Human Compatibility: Agents don’t just need to complete tasks—they need to work in ways that humans trust and find relatable.
New Ecosystems: Instead of relying on better agents alone, we might need personalized digital “Sims” that act as go-betweens, understanding us and adapting to our preferences.
Humor in Failure: From renaming a coworker to "solve" a problem to endlessly struggling with pop-ups, these failures highlight how far AI still is from grasping human context.
What’s Interesting
Humans vs. Machines: AI performs better on coding than on “easier” tasks like scheduling or teamwork. Why? It’s great at structure, bad at messiness.
Sims as a Bridge: The idea of digital versions of ourselves (Sims) managing agents for us could change how we relate to technology, making it feel less like a tool and more like a collaborator.
Impact on Trust: The future of agents will hinge on whether they can align with human values, privacy, and quirks—not just perform better technically.
What’s Next for Agents
Can agents learn to navigate our complexity, like social norms or context-sensitive decisions?
Will ecosystems with Sims and Assistants make AI feel more human—and less robotic?
How will trust and personalization shape whether people actually adopt these systems?
Product Briefing: Always On AI Wearables
What’s new:
New AI wearables launched at CES 2025 that continuously listen. From earbuds (HumanPods) to wristbands (Bee Pioneer) to stick-it-to-your-head pods (Omi), these cheap hardware devices are attempting to be your always-listening assistants.
Why This Matters
From Wake Words to Always-On: These devices listen passively—no activation required—requiring the user to opt-out by muting rather than opting in.
Privacy? Pfft: Not only are these devices small enough to hide and record without anyone knowing. The Omi only turns on a light when it is not recording.
Razor-Razorblade Model: With hardware prices below $100, these devices are priced to all for easy experimentation—the value is in the software subscription.
What’s Interesting
Mind-reading?: Omi claims to detect brain signals, allowing users to think their commands instead of speaking.
It’s About Apps: The app store is back as a business model. But are these startups ready for the challenge?
Memory Prosthetics: These devices record, transcribe, and summarize everything—generating to do lists and more.
The Human Experience
AI as a Second Self?: These devices don’t just assist; they remember, organize, and anticipate—how will that reshape how we interact with and recall our own experiences?
Can We Still Forget?: If everything in our lives is logged and searchable, do we lose the ability to let go?
Context Collapse: AI may summarize what it hears, but can it understand the complexity of human relationships, emotions, and social cues?
Dave Edwards is a Co-Founder of Artificiality. He previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai (acquired by Atlantic Media) and worked at Apple, CRV, Macromedia, Morgan Stanley, Quartz, and ThinkEquity. Contact at dave@artificialityinstitute.org.
Helen Edwards is a Co-Founder of Artificiality. She previously co-founded Intelligentsia.ai (acquired by Atlantic Media) and worked at Meridian Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric, Quartz, and Transpower. Contact at helen@artificialityinstitute.org.
