WEBVTT

00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:04.303
In 1985,
this is how you started Windows.

00:00:04.854 --> 00:00:06.720
You typed three letters.

00:00:08.162 --> 00:00:10.682
The pictures ran on top
of the command line.

00:00:11.553 --> 00:00:15.745
They've been getting better ever since.
And the command line never left.

00:00:17.050 --> 00:00:22.317
AI for Research Efficiency.
Episode 1: Why the command line.

00:00:24.200 --> 00:00:27.046
In this episode:
what the command line is,

00:00:27.457 --> 00:00:33.128
why an AI agent can do more there than in
a browser tab, and what stays with you.

00:00:36.500 --> 00:00:40.640
Your desktop and the command line
are two ways into the same computer.

00:00:40.765 --> 00:00:44.451
When you click, the desktop asks
the operating system to open,

00:00:44.541 --> 00:00:46.363
copy or rename something.

00:00:46.704 --> 00:00:49.473
When you type a command,
you ask it directly.

00:00:50.755 --> 00:00:53.240
The window you type in
is called a terminal.

00:00:53.571 --> 00:00:55.915
The line where you
type is the prompt.

00:00:57.255 --> 00:00:59.081
The pictures are there for people.

00:00:59.513 --> 00:01:03.044
Underneath, it's the same files
and the same programs.

00:01:05.300 --> 00:01:08.004
Say you have five data files
from a field study,

00:01:08.195 --> 00:01:10.598
and you need the number
of rows in each one.

00:01:11.356 --> 00:01:14.639
With the mouse, you open each one
and scroll to the bottom.

00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:21.260
With one command, the computer counts
them all and lists the answers.

00:01:25.421 --> 00:01:29.398
Five files or 5,000,
the command is the same.

00:01:31.119 --> 00:01:33.025
The desktop can do some of this too.

00:01:33.417 --> 00:01:37.972
The difference is scale, and an answer
in text that the next step can use.

00:01:41.300 --> 00:01:42.960
Now add an AI.

00:01:43.176 --> 00:01:46.525
In a browser tab, the assistant
works on copies you upload.

00:01:46.856 --> 00:01:50.044
You carry the files in,
and you carry the answers back out.

00:01:50.789 --> 00:01:52.416
You are its hands.

00:01:55.700 --> 00:01:58.506
To be fair,
the browser apps can now run code,

00:01:58.616 --> 00:02:00.810
search the web
and read your cloud drive.

00:02:01.141 --> 00:02:05.049
What a browser tab can't do is
reach the files on your computer.

00:02:07.700 --> 00:02:11.279
On the command line,
an AI agent has hands of its own.

00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:13.704
You ask in plain words.

00:02:14.036 --> 00:02:18.206
It opens your folder, picks a
command, runs it, and reports back.

00:02:25.870 --> 00:02:28.159
Here it even checked
the count a second way,

00:02:28.290 --> 00:02:31.722
and spotted a stray period in
one file's participant codes.

00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:39.380
Why does the command line
suit an agent so well?

00:02:39.938 --> 00:02:42.707
An agent that drives a
screen works from pictures.

00:02:43.079 --> 00:02:46.811
It takes a screenshot, decides
where to click, then takes another.

00:02:47.532 --> 00:02:51.775
Its makers say that can be slow, and
a click can land in the wrong place.

00:02:53.142 --> 00:02:56.426
On the command line,
the agent reads and writes text,

00:02:56.516 --> 00:02:58.539
which is what these models do best.

00:02:59.296 --> 00:03:00.842
Its answers are exact,

00:03:00.973 --> 00:03:04.567
and it can search a whole folder
and bring back only what matters.

00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:12.450
What stays with you: the question,
the judgment and the permissions.

00:03:13.432 --> 00:03:18.043
At first, have the agent ask before
each step, and read what it wants to do.

00:03:19.643 --> 00:03:21.086
When you trust it with a task,

00:03:21.237 --> 00:03:24.825
switch on its automatic mode,
and the work goes much faster.

00:03:25.945 --> 00:03:29.045
Either way, you check the
results against your sources.

00:03:31.700 --> 00:03:35.406
So: the desktop and the command line
reach the same computer.

00:03:35.797 --> 00:03:41.104
In a browser tab, you are the AI's hands.
On the command line, it has its own.

00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:47.593
Next, we'll open a terminal and get
ready to install your first agent.