AI
Models Don't Have Agency. Systems Do.
A language model only ever emits tokens. Everything we call agentic is a story about shaping those tokens into intent a runtime can act on. One orderly way to see it runs from a word to a structure to a function. The model never gains agency. The system we build around it does.
How the Machine Guesses the Next Word
Before we can talk about agents, look at what a large language model actually does. It does exactly one thing: guess the next token. Everything agentic we build later stands on that single, humble mechanic.
Scribbling Machines: GenAI and the New Industrial Revolution
For 240 years we have petitioned against the machine, from the scribbling frames of Leeds to the ATM to generative AI. The argument never changes, and neither does the ending: GenAI commoditizes cognitive labor the way steam commoditized muscle, and augments the person using it.