It’s been a while since we’ve done an old-school ammi.ai. Interestingly, I find it very therapeutic. Considering the last few months have been about building new things—frameworks, courses, and offerings— coming back to the original newsletter with its consistent structure is comforting.

Can we retire the phrase ‘consistency is key’ and call it ‘consistency is comforting’? Better marketing, if you ask me.

And finally, speaking of consistency, you can expect me to now consistently tell you about our new course in this newsletter.

Make sure to check out our free 1-hour Intro to AI Literacy for Busy Moms masterclass to learn how you can cultivate confidence navigating motherhood in the AI age. 🌳 Pro tip: Watch until the end for a major discount on our full course, AI Literacy for Busy Moms.

In today’s ammi.ai, you’ll discover

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Apple Sauce

The ‘sauce’ - or overview - on AI apps you may find useful.

Today’s apple: Manus

Manus is a Latin word meaning "hand" or "of the hand."

What is Manus?

Manus claims to be the world’s first general-purpose AI agent. Manus is an autonomous AI system that can execute a series of consecutive tasks based on instructions you provide. Think of it like a self-driving computer.

What does Manus it do?

It took me some time to discern what Manus might be useful for versus tools like Deep Research from ChatGPT and Perplexity AI, which are fantastic for research and planning. But the community page had some incredible examples that got my creative juices flowing:

💡 Some inspo:

Perhaps my favorite: “What would their cities look like if dinosaurs evolved human-like intelligence and ruled the Earth? Give me a video to showcase this.”

I’m not so sure about the final product. But as soon as I caught myself deeply considering the architectural plausibility of a hyper-intelligent dino society, I knew I needed to crawl out of this rabbit hole and back to the newsletter ASAP.

Thanks to the community page, my gears started turning. As AI-literate Ammis, we already know we can delegate many tedious tasks, such as planning, organizing, and drafting, to AI. But now AI can execute tasks as well. Game-changing.

A few projects I’ve delegated to Manus:

Who built Manus? Anything else to know?

Manus is built by a Chinese company, Monica. An unknown amalgamation of models and technologies powers it. So just be mindful, because the model itself isn’t very forthcoming about its composition.

I’ll delve deeper into AI agents and my hopes and concerns about them in the next section.

⚠️ Ammis and friends: Always check privacy policies and verify any AI-generated health, safety, or education advice with trusted human experts. I am not paid by Manus or officially endorsing their product. AI tools evolve rapidly—features and safety may change. Mind your pics, mind your files, mind your deets, and stay safe out there, y’all!

Planting the Seed

Explore AI topics and headlines in simple language.

In a few years, typing, tapping, swiping, and clicking will give way to simply talking to computers—and having them do things for you. Think: booking dentist appointments, summarizing your inbox, or shopping for school supplies for the whole family, given a supply list and budget.

If you are a working professional or business owner, your day-to-day tasks may look less like building reports or conducting research and analysis yourself and instead involve managing computer agents that do it for you. You’ll be able to give a project (or many) to your computer, step away for lunch, and have it ready to review and refine upon your return.

Your success will hinge on the quality and suitability of projects you delegate to AI, how well you can communicate and manage the agent(s), and how critically you review and refine the output.

Like with any AI technology, there are key benefits and risks, especially for Ammis.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

We just learned about Manus. OpenAI just released ChatGPT agent this past week for their paid users.

So, what exactly is an AI agent?
It’s a computer system that can sense information from its virtual environment, decide what to do via a model or algorithm, and act by completing tasks with minimal intervention.

Agents can plan, iterate, and even seek assistance from other agents or AI tools along the way. Some work in physical spaces (like robot vacuums), but most live inside software, helping us scour the web, manage emails, schedule appointments, and sort through digital clutter.

You might be thinking: Isn’t this just ChatGPT?

Not quite. A regular chatbot like ChatGPT only responds when you prompt it. An AI agent can take your goal—“organize my calendar and summarize my inbox”—and then break it down, complete the steps, and come back with results. It can initiate, not just respond.

Here’s the simplified anatomy of an AI agent:

This is a great explainer video of how they work (and how you can build your own agents via automation tools like Zapier and Make):

Interacting with the digital world will be less desk- and screen-bound. Tedious work can be relegated to machines, allowing us to spend our energies on what we want…or actually get the chance to replenish our energy. This represents a huge boost for busy moms and humanity at large. But it also raises a lot of questions:

I definitely don’t have these answers, but as we navigate the rise of AI agents, these are the questions I’m exploring. As always, I invite you to join the conversation!

What questions do you have? Reply to this email and let me know!

Fruitful Harvest

Fresh AI picks from the community garden.

🍒 AI Literacy Guide for Parents by the United Nations. An incredible, comprehensive child-centric resource that includes how to talk about AI with your kids.

🍇 The Gaza Paradox: How Can We Activate The Global Compassion Algorithm? by Dr. Cornelia C. Walther. Was blown away by this article in Forbes. A call for compassion in the AI age.

🍉 Against “Brain Damage” by Ethan Mollick. A recent MIT study on AI’s impact on our thinking went viral, to the extent that an analysis ended up in one of my WhatsApp family groups. Mollick is my go-to for non-sensationalized, yet academically accessible explanations on all things related to human and AI interaction.

Cultivating Conversation

Your insights nourish our garden.

What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to AI and parenting?

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Understanding the tech myself

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Knowing what’s safe for my kids - 50%

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Managing screen time - 50%

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Finding time to learn about it

via @beehiiv polls

Question: What after-school clubs/extracurriculars were you in when you were in high school?

This doesn’t have anything to do with AI, but with the rise of AI companions, I think we should make an effort to reinvigorate human connection. I figure we can all get to know each other a bit better! 😊

I was in Ping Pong club, an engineering club, and a history club, among others. Textbook jock.

Thanks for spending a few of your precious, precious minutes with us.

See y’all soon,
Ruqaiya
Ammi by day, Ammi by night