In this episode I break down what AI agents actually are and how they differ from regular chat tools. Before diving in, I run through the recent flood of new model releases from Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI, including the full story on the Fable 5 suspension and reinstatement. The episode ends with a practical mini cheatsheet on when an agent is actually the right tool for your workflow.

• The eleventy billion releases: Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI
• Fable 5: the jailbreak, the suspension, and the fix
• GPT-5.6, Grok 4.5, and what this means for everyday users
• So WTF is an agent?
• "Building an agent" and "spinning up agents" explained
• Is regular Claude an agent?
• Human-in-the-loop
• You're probably already using one
• Do you need an agent? (mini cheatsheet)
• How I used AI this week: Tom's Switzerland itinerary

• Listen to Ep. 11: WTF is a Custom GPT?
• Listen to Ep. 48: When the Most Powerful Model Comes With a Bouncer
• Read this episode's Curious Companion
• Subscribe to the Prompting Curiosity newsletter
• Submit a Question
• Visit the Website
• Feeling curious AND generous? Click here to support the podcast.

• (00:00:05) - Prompting Curiosity: The AI Curious
• (00:00:38) - Caution: Agents in the AI World
• (00:02:41) - AI Wars: The Race to AGI
• (00:03:24) - Amazon's Fable 5 and Mythos 5: What Happened
• (00:05:27) - OpenAI and Anthropic: The Fight for C# Talent
• (00:07:17) - Grok 4.5.0 Review
• (00:10:05) - An Agent in the Machine Learning World
• (00:13:02) - Building an agent: Low-
• (00:14:04) - Spinning Up Agents: What Is It?
• (00:15:19) - Cloud: Is Regular Claude an Agent?
• (00:18:24) - ClAUDE: Permission vs. Planning in the Cloud
• (00:21:31) - ChatGPT: An Agent for the World
• (00:22:57) - Agents: Their Use Cases,
• (00:25:55) - Using AI For Fun