Did I become an AI fanatic?

I have a technology background: a master's degree in physics, a master’s thesis at Philips Research on a new type of RAM, and a first job as a science and technology journalist at a Dutch magazine.

But I am a late technology adopter. When a new technology comes along, so many people jump on it that I typically don't want to be involved. I am not a sheep!

It was the same with AI. Although machine learning has overlap with research that one of my physics friends did, I completely missed the developments. Even when ChatGPT exploded in early 2023, my first reaction was: come on people, no need to get so excited! We will have to see whether this will lead to something.

Oh boy, I was wrong. I saw the light just recently. It happened when Claude explained to me how things on my MacBook worked, and I understood them for the first time in my life. It happened again when I built this website with modern tools and it cost me almost no effort. It happened again when I heard a talk from Garry Tan explaining how you can build a company brain that holds all its employees' documents, emails and conversations, so agents can answer any question. That is how future companies will be built.

Now I am a convert. Like almost everyone, I now believe this is going to transform our world. So I have decided to go all in. I now spend many hours every week understanding AI, configuring my Hermes agent, building my personal knowledge base for my agents to use, and trying to come up with applications. I plan to write about that now and then on this blog. I regret being a late adopter - from now on I am a sheep!