Summary

Hotz argues that the breakthrough in AI computer use wasn't desktop emulation with GUI interaction, but rather command-line interfaces like Claude Code. He's impressed by Opus 4.5's ability to reverse engineer apps and write Python scripts, seeing it as a way to bypass ads and dark patterns. While acknowledging the model still lacks 'taste' as a programmer, he notes the agentic loop allows it to iterate rapidly. He pushes back against claims he's late to adopt these tools, arguing Opus 4.5 is genuinely the first model capable of real computer use.

Key Insight

The path to useful AI computer agents wasn't through mimicking human GUI interaction, but through leveraging the command line where AI's ability to rapidly iterate and reverse engineer compensates for its lack of taste.

Spicy Quotes (click to share)

• 7

  Turns out the idea wasn't a desktop emulator with a keyboard and mouse, it was just a command line.

• 5

  Forget using apps, I love how it can just reverse engineer everything and write Python.

• 8

  Ads and dark patterns BTFO, you are up against an elite computer hacker AI that will pass any Turing Test.

• 7

  I still think it's a bad programmer, largely for the same reason it's a bad rapper. It lacks taste, and it's unclear how to teach it this.

• 3

  The local agentic loop allows it to just keep trying, it's fast and persistent.

• 6

  Opus 4.5 is the first model I feel that can use computers at all.

Tone

enthusiastic, contrarian, technical