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In 1985,
this is how you started Windows.

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You typed three letters.

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The pictures ran on top
of the command line.

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They've been getting better ever since.
And the command line never left.

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AI for Research Efficiency.
Episode 1: Why the command line.

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In this episode:
what the command line is,

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why an AI agent can do more there than in
a browser tab, and what stays with you.

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Your desktop and the command line
are two ways into the same computer.

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When you click, the desktop asks
the operating system to open,

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copy or rename something.

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When you type a command,
you ask it directly.

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The window you type in
is called a terminal.

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The line where you
type is the prompt.

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The pictures are there for people.

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Underneath, it's the same files
and the same programs.

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Say you have five data files
from a field study,

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and you need the number
of rows in each one.

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With the mouse, you open each one
and scroll to the bottom.

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With one command, the computer counts
them all and lists the answers.

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Five files or 5,000,
the command is the same.

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The desktop can do some of this too.

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The difference is scale, and an answer
in text that the next step can use.

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Now add an AI.

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In a browser tab, the assistant
works on copies you upload.

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You carry the files in,
and you carry the answers back out.

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You are its hands.

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To be fair,
the browser apps can now run code,

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search the web
and read your cloud drive.

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What a browser tab can't do is
reach the files on your computer.

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On the command line,
an AI agent has hands of its own.

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You ask in plain words.

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It opens your folder, picks a
command, runs it, and reports back.

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Here it even checked
the count a second way,

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and spotted a stray period in
one file's participant codes.

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Why does the command line
suit an agent so well?

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An agent that drives a
screen works from pictures.

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It takes a screenshot, decides
where to click, then takes another.

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Its makers say that can be slow, and
a click can land in the wrong place.

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On the command line,
the agent reads and writes text,

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which is what these models do best.

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Its answers are exact,

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and it can search a whole folder
and bring back only what matters.

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What stays with you: the question,
the judgment and the permissions.

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At first, have the agent ask before
each step, and read what it wants to do.

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When you trust it with a task,

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switch on its automatic mode,
and the work goes much faster.

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Either way, you check the
results against your sources.

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So: the desktop and the command line
reach the same computer.

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In a browser tab, you are the AI's hands.
On the command line, it has its own.

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Next, we'll open a terminal and get
ready to install your first agent.