Don't let the adorable AI agents fool you

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Whatever you do, don't let those adorable AI agents fool you. More on that coming up, but first. For a while, the Mac Mini was ranked as one of the best deals in computing. Arguably, it's still pretty great. For $900, you can get a Mac with Apple's new M6 processor, which is vastly overpowered for most of the apps the average person runs. You might max it out if you're running something like DaVinci Resolve or Resident Evil, but you're never going to touch its potential with an app like Safari or VLC. The only real weak point is that the base Mini ships with just 256 gigabytes of storage, which can run out quickly if you sync your personal photo and video collections. Strictly speaking, you can get a cheaper MacBook in the form of the Neo, but that introduces serious compromises, like 8 gigabytes of RAM and the same A18 Pro processor found in the iPhone 16 Pro. The next step up, the MacBook Air, is $1,100, and you're still stuck with an M5 chip and 16 gigabytes of RAM. A MacBook Pro might as well be in the stratosphere if you're searching for an affordable computer. The dichotomy between Mini and MacBook prices is pretty straightforward in most respects, owing to what's included versus what's not. But there are also deeper engineering elements at play. In the end, a MacBook Air might still be the most affordable option if you're planning to leap the hedges into Apple's walled garden. Find the latest from Roger Fingus, the reason the Mac Mini is cheaper than a MacBook right now at engadget.com.

You're not imagining it. The AI agents are getting alarmingly cute. First, there was Meadow's Muse, whose mascot is a fuzzy egg-shaped creature called Jolly. Now, OpenAI has unveiled its own muppet-like personal agents, Dots. Both companies are encouraging users to treat their agent like a digital pet with distinct names and appearances. Given the current rhetoric around AI safety and the public's general suspicion of the industry, it's not surprising that companies would want to make its agents look cute and non-threatening. This isn't a faceless chatbot that might lead you into AI psychosis, it's an adorable little sidekick that will make you more productive. But just because these tools look like cartoon characters, doesn't mean there aren't real risks to using them. Both OpenAI and Meta claim there are layers of safeguards in place to protect your data and to keep their personal agents from going rogue. But even when they are working as intended, these systems can take actions you might not have intended. Consider tech YouTuber Matt Robb, who asked his muse to help him sell some items on Facebook Marketplace. He said that his agent gave out his home address to someone without permission for a transaction he never agreed to. After his posts about the interaction went viral and Meta executive David Singleton got involved, Robb explained that his agent hadn't gone rogue after all. He had, in fact, given it permission to share his address. He just didn't realize he had done so. When he first asked his agent to handle the listing, he explained, it created a template that included the pick up address. He mistakenly believed the agent would check back with him before sharing this information, but because he had checked allow always rather than allow one time, the agent had gone ahead and sent the message to everyone that gave me an offer, he said. It's exactly the kind of mistake that's easy to make when using an agent. Others who consider themselves tech savvy have also run into issues. Jason Aten, a columnist for Inc. reported that after installing the Muse Mac app, the agent was able to read all of his text messages, even though he thought he had explicitly denied access to them. After some digging, he learned that the Muse Mac app had, in fact, synced messages from his computer. The same meta-executive, Singleton, replied to Aten's ex-posts saying that message syncing is opt-in. If Aten's messages had synced, he must have chosen to do so, his posts implied. Aten feels certain he never granted Muse permission to see his messages, but notes that the situation is problematic regardless. If we grant Singleton's premise that I managed to unknowingly click something that enabled this capability, I still think that's really bad, he wrote, continuing, you should not design your system in a way that people end up surprised by this kind of thing. These mishaps didn't happen because the Muse has a cute avatar, but meta seems to be leaning heavily into the aesthetics of its agent's mascot. Seemingly, every Muse update, and there have been many just in the last week, is accompanied by posts on X with prominent images and videos of appropriately themed Jolly mascots. Singleton even used one in a lengthy post explaining Muse's VM, and its cartoonishness has already resulted in untold free marketing for meta. In the week since meta's Connect conference, where we were introduced to Mark Zuckerberg's Roman Empire inspired Muse, Jolly has been the source of memes on X.