Unpacking AI Agents

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

WIRED

Technology

4.1 • 572 Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the past six months, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others have released web-browsing agents that are designed to complete tasks independently, with only minimal input from humans. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has even called AI agents “the next giant breakthrough.” On today’s episode, we'll dive into what makes these agents different from other forms of machine intelligence, and whether their capabilities can live up to the hype.

You can follow our hosts on Bluesky—Michael Calore is @snackfight, Lauren Goode is @laurengoode, and Katie Drummond is @katie-drummond.

Join WIRED’s best and brightest on Uncanny Valley as they dissect the collision of tech, politics, finance, and business, from Alexis Ohanian's newest tech venture to the effects of inaccurate information from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots on social protests.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Mike. Before we start, I want to take the chance to remind you that we want to hear from you.
0:06.8	Do you have any questions around AI, politics, or privacy that have been on your mind, or just a topic that you wish we talked about on the show?
0:14.1	If so, you can write to us at Uncanny Valley at Wired.com. That's Uncanny Valley at Wired.com. And if you listen to and enjoy our episodes,
0:24.6	please rate the show and leave a review on your podcast app of choice. It really helps other people
0:29.6	find us. Hey, everybody. How you doing? I'm good. I'm hanging in. How are you, Mike?
0:35.2	I'm great. I feel good. We've Will Knight on the show this week. Yeah, I feel great about that. I'm hanging in. How are you, Mike? I'm great. I feel good. We've Will Knight on the show this week.
0:39.7	Yeah, I feel great about that. I do miss Katie, but we know that Katie has gone off in search of more French butter. Literally, she has gone to France.
0:49.6	I think, Will, you brought us croissant. Did you not? I did. I sure did. Yes. Freshly baked.
0:56.2	Thank you for that. You can stay on the show now.
1:04.1	This is Wired's Uncanny Valley, a show about the people, power, and influence of Silicon Valley.
1:10.0	Today, we're talking about AI agents and why so
1:13.7	many tech companies have been betting big on them. In the past six months, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google,
1:20.0	and others have released web browsing agents that are designed to complete tasks independently,
1:26.0	with only minimal input from humans. OpenAI CEO,
1:30.3	Sam Altman, has called AI agents the next giant breakthrough. By one estimate, nearly half of
1:36.8	technology companies are already adopting or fully deploying artificial intelligence agents. This
1:43.1	week we'll dive into what makes these agents different from other forms of machine
1:46.6	intelligence and whether their capabilities can live up to the hype.
1:50.5	I'm Michael Collori, Director of Consumer Tech and Culture here at Wired.
1:54.4	I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior correspondent at Wired.
1:57.1	And I'm Will Knight, a senior writer at Wired.
2:03.6	I want to start us off by asking if either of you have had agentic experiences in your
	...

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