Zachary Crane

Automation | Computer Vision

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 Definitely valuable and great summaries.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 @allen_ai Won't be long before there's a paper about how to help an llm quickly sort through models to pick the best one for a given task. NAS 2.0?!?

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 @allen_ai The concepts alone seem so simple - 3x3 pooling and tiny fps to reduce the load, and bidirectional attention with timestamps to reinforce connections, etc. But I guess there's just so many ways to combine them that we'll continue to see papers like this for a while.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@noah_vandal @skalskip92 Yeah, my quick math says he'd have to spend at least a year working 40 hours a week to get this done. But that's at about 5 sec/annotation with no time for switching images or fixing mistakes. So probably closer to 2 years.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@joshuatopolsky The question then is: what should I do to earn a million dollars in one year without spending more than $1,000.
The ChatGPT answer:
The path is already visible.
You will not earn a million dollars in one year by trading time for money. Not with a $1,000 starting stake.

[SkalskiP @skalskip92]

many of you ask for infrastructure inspection demos

- wind turbines
- solar panels
- power lines

I’d love to build it, but I need data

any of you have videos / images I could use?

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

A high for the night - asking ChatGPT what to salvage from an old projector months ago pays off - I need this cord! I'm back on track!
(5 minutes later) I bought a female adapter for a female port. Progress stalled. Son of a motherless goat!

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 RE: libraries - AI will have the ability to custom create everything on the fly, but that seems wasteful. At current scales it's negligible but when all systems are plugged in to AI, recreating all code for every user that needs it will be worse than the ultra-fast fashion waste

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@LearnOpenCV How soon before the courts decide AI output by employees is in no way proprietary and so can be taken out of the company?! Could be chaos!

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 If they don't love it, don't bother. There will be AI to handle coding for you. I can even imagine in a couple years various AI will create their own more efficient programming languages.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 I'd tell them to spend a few weeks and see if they love it. If they do, then yes learn it. My prediction is there will be this sharp drop off of available Python programmers but still plenty of legacy or secure systems that can't/won't leverage LLMs for the next decade.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@edwardahn9 Great overview. Indeed, where's the killer app? I will say I think there's one out there that doesn't require full day use of the headset but will justify the purchase. Look at cars - many people buy a $40,000 vehicle and then drive it for no more than one hour a day.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 @DavidOndrej1 The key is to hire a law firm for $1,500,000 to find a buyer for you.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

I was referring to this section: Once everyone has an AI agent go act on their behalf -
"... Imagine having to pay a small fee for your [AI] agent to submit a job application, just to prove you're serious."

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

So much here but I'm particular - all those times where effort was a limiting factor in volume will turn into added $ cost. End of the American Dream? No, but a rough transition period for sure.

[Carlos E. Perez @IntuitMachine]

1/16

I just fell down a rabbit hole reading a new paper from economists at MIT & Harvard.

Their prediction is wild: We're on the verge of a "Coasean Singularity"—a future where AI agents make markets so efficient that the very idea of a 'company' starts to crumble. 🤯

A thread 👇

2/16

First, a quick 101: Why do companies even exist?

A Nobel-winning economist named Ronald Coase answered this in 1937. He said companies exist because using the open market is a pain.

Finding sellers, negotiating prices, writing contracts… it’s all “transaction cost.” Economic friction.

3/16

It's often easier and cheaper for a firm to just hire people and organize them internally than to deal with that constant market friction.

This friction is also where we, as consumers, lose. We're tired, we're biased, and we don't have time to compare every cell phone plan or read every review for a toaster.

Companies know this.

4/16

Now, enter the AI Agent.

And I don't mean a simple chatbot. The paper describes an autonomous system that acts on your behalf.

Think of it as your own personal, tireless, super-rational economist. It’s immune to marketing tricks and its only goal is to get the best outcome for YOU.

5/16

This is where the "Singularity" happens.

When everyone has an AI agent, those transaction costs that Coase talked about basically drop to zero.

The "friction" that made companies necessary in the first place? It evaporates.

And if the reason for something disappears… so does the thing itself.

6/16

But what does this future actually look like? This is where it gets weird.

Let's take shopping.

Your agent doesn't just browse Amazon. It might contact a manufacturer in another country directly, find 500 other agents whose users want the same thing, negotiate a bulk price, and arrange shipping.

All in milliseconds. The "storefront" becomes irrelevant.

7/16

Or think about hiring.

Instead of you endlessly scrolling LinkedIn, your agent scans the entire market for opportunities. It negotiates salary, benefits, and remote work policies with the company's agent.

You only get involved for the final human-to-human interview. No more cover letter hell.

8/16

But this discovery comes with a huge catch. The paper outlines a fundamental battle for the future of AI:

Will your agent be a "Bring-Your-Own" (BYO) agent that works only for you, across all platforms?

Or will it be a "Bowling-Shoe" agent, provided by the platform (like Amazon or Google), whose priorities might be... conflicted?

9/16

The "Bowling-Shoe" agent is convenient, but it might steer you toward the platform's own products.

The "BYO" agent is loyal to you, but platforms might try to block it or throttle its access.

This tension between user autonomy and platform control will define the next decade of the internet.

10/16

And that's not even the most interesting part. This new world creates bizarre new problems.

Problem #1: Agent Congestion.

What happens when millions of agents can create a perfect, customized resumé and apply for a single job in a nanosecond?

Employers get flooded. The signal is lost in the noise.

11/16

The paper predicts that to solve this, platforms will have to re-introduce friction.

Imagine having to pay a small fee for your agent to submit a job application, just to prove you're serious.

Costless actions will lose their meaning.

12/16

Problem #2: The Identity Crisis.

In a world full of bots, how do you prove you're a unique human? How does a company know it's not negotiating with 1,000 agents all controlled by one person trying to manipulate the market?

This is the "Sybil Attack" problem, and it's a big one.

13/16

This will lead to a boom in "proof-of-personhood" technologies. Systems that cryptographically verify you are one person, without revealing your personal data.

It sounds like sci-fi, but it'll be the essential plumbing for a world of AI agents.

14/16

Here's a new lens to see the world through:

Next time you use Uber (matching drivers/riders), Zillow (matching buyers/sellers), or Upwork (matching clients/freelancers)...

Don't just see an app. See it as a clunky, early prototype for the agent-driven markets of the future.

15/16

This isn't just about better shopping bots or smarter assistants.

It's a potential rewiring of our entire economy, away from the 20th-century model of the centralized firm and toward a 21st-century model of fluid, hyper-efficient, agent-mediated markets.

16/16
The 20th century was defined by the rise of the corporation.

The 21st may be defined by its slow, quiet dissolution.

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 Met a guy once who did what he was doing. Looked the same. 🤣 You got this!

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 If the space wasn't evolving at light speed like it is, I'd really have some words with whoever decided LMM was a good abbreviation knowing full well LLMs were already here...

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@Cmdr_Hadfield The kind of patience most kids these days will never know... Great pic!

[Zachary Crane @zacrane]

@skalskip92 Ten years worth of work in two years time! Nicely done, Mr. Skalski!