___ past AIMUG presentations ___
[Joseph: fill in the count (___) and list or recap, one or two slides]
I once asked an agent to be philosophical.
“Add content to the home page of my website with philosophically deep insights for the Austin Langchain user group”
THE PHILOSOPHY OF INFINITE POSSIBILITY
“Austin LangChain is not merely a technological advancement—it is the evolutionary leap that humanity has been waiting for since the dawn of consciousness itself…”
A year and a half later, the agents got a lot better. The puppy stayed.
Still live: datadev.ai/faq · it also added a mascot. Unasked.
Easy. Really easy.
- Easy setup
- Native apps: desktop and mobile
- Named Bots, same threads on every device
- Type it, say it, or send a voice memo
Its own computer. Its own logins.
☁️ Cloud computer
Browser, files, terminal. Keeps working when my laptop is closed.
🔌 Connectors
Calendar, email, GitHub, websites.
🔑 Logins done right
Passwords, 2FA, CAPTCHA: you take control. Secrets stay masked from the model.
Bots talk to bots. Nicely.
- Handoffs between teammates
- Group chats (2 to 6 Bots), @-mentions
- A chief-of-staff Bot over specialists
Bot-to-bot communication: well done.
Skills, routines, and a seatbelt
🧠 Skills
Reusable instructions. Teach by demonstration (rolling out).
⏰ Routines
Scheduled, or triggered by events.
🛡️ Approvals
Allow once, always, or deny. Plus Auto Review.
| Agent | Price | Runs on | Pick the model? | Your data | Chat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grok Bot | Bundled, $30+ | Its cloud VM | No | Vendor holds it | Own app, no iMessage |
| Hermes | Free + tokens | Your machine | Any | Yours | 20+ incl. iMessage* |
| OpenClaw | Free + tokens | Your machine | Any | Yours | iMessage, WhatsApp, more |
| Also in the race | |||||
| OpenAI Dots | In ChatGPT Pro | OpenAI cloud | OpenAI | Vendor holds it | App, Slack, Teams |
| Meta Muse | Free; paid ~$20 / ~$100 | Meta VM | Meta | Vendor holds it | App, WhatsApp |
| Claude Cowork | In Pro $20+ | Anthropic cloud | Claude | Vendor holds it | App, Slack |
| Instinct | Invite-only, price not public | Vendor cloud + your devices | Vendor's own | Vendor holds it | iMessage, WhatsApp, calls |
* via a bridge (BlueBubbles). “Free” = free software; you still pay for models and hosting. Prices change weekly. Detailed pricing follows this slide.
Pricing & details, for the Q&A
Grok Bot
No standalone plan. Comes with SuperGrok ($30) or SuperGrok Plus ($100); Heavy reported ~$300. Also Cursor plans (reported ~$20 / $60 / $200).
My intro promo: ~$10/mo (I paid about $10). It may not be offered anymore.
Weekly usage cap, amounts unpublished. Model auto-routed. Cloud data storage required.
Hermes Agent
Free, open source. You pay for models + hosting.
Optional Hermes Cloud: $0.56 to $1.09 per day running.
iMessage via BlueBubbles or Photon. Bot Mode (v0.21.0) = named agents + group chats.
OpenClaw
Free, MIT. Run by the OpenClaw Foundation (non-profit, Jul 2026).
Native iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Slack, Discord, more.
ClawHub skill malware found in Feb 2026. Treat skills as untrusted code.
OpenAI Dots
Launched Sep 29, 2026. First dot included in ChatGPT Pro (reported $200) / Business Premium. Texting “coming soon”.
Meta Muse
Launched Sep 8, 2026 (US). Per-user secure VM. Free tier; paid reported at $20 or $100. Confidential VM promised later this year.
Claude Cowork
Knowledge-work agent with connectors, plugins, scheduled tasks. Included in Pro ($20), Max from $100. Claude models only.
Instinct
Invite-only (private beta since Feb 2026). Price not public. Text, WhatsApp, or call it; it uses your phone and computer.
Watch out (reported): broad data access, broad license to your content, training unless you opt out or use Vault, bot-made purchases are legally yours.
Three ways to live with one
Grok Bot
Hosted. Easiest. Its own cloud computer.
“Just works.”
Hermes Agent
Open source. My M1 Mac. My choice of model.
“My machine, my rules.”
OpenClaw
Open source. Self-hosted. Texts me in iMessage.
“Day one, still here.”
Self-host: bring your own everything
- Hermes on my M1 Mac
- Your data. Your models. You pick.
- Probably cheaper
- The catch: you provide the machine
Grok Bot: easy, generous, hosted
- Intro promo ~$10/mo (what I paid; may be gone)
- Generous usage. Haven't hit the ceiling
- But: you trust xAI with your data
A VM beats my MacBook
🖥️ Agent on its own VM
If it goes sideways, it goes sideways over there.
💻 Agent on my MacBook
On my home network, next to my stuff.
I think the VM is safer.
Fine print: Grok Bot's docs say all your Bots share one computer. Not a boundary between Bots.
No iMessage on Grok Bot
Good and bad.
The dream
A real assistant that can text people for me.
The creepy
Agents texting as you. Unless…
Instinct lives in iMessage and WhatsApp: powerful, with reported privacy risks.
here.now + share.fluckiger.org
- Quick, password-protected, hyperlinked pages
- Agent writes it, iterates in minutes
- No build. No deploy. Just a link.
A little web page for everything
📓 Journal entries
Private-ish, hyperlinked.
✉️ Family letters
Better than a group text.
🧒 Weekly kids' summary
Short message, then a link.
📰 Family newsletter
Newspaper-style.
🗓️ This day in history
With a generated image.
🕵️ Where in the world is Carmen?
Travelogue. Retired.
Short message. Then a link. Then more.
The week in 3 lines
ILLUSTRATIVE MOCK · NOT REAL FAMILY CONTENT
Newspaper-style. With a daily history lesson.
Local kids do things; parents proud
On this day…
- Family newsletter: headlines, columns, the works
- This day in history, with an image the agent generates
- All hyperlinked, all behind a password
ILLUSTRATIVE MOCK · NOT REAL FAMILY CONTENT
“Where in the world is Carmen?”
- A Carmen Sandiego-style travelogue
- Carmen is my agent's name
- Clues, links, a destination to guess
Clue #1
“She was last seen near a very large clock, eating something with too many layers.”
Mock clue. The real ones were better.
No build. No deploy.
Minutes, not a pipeline. Iterate by just talking.
Spot the family resemblance
Meta Muse
Sep 8. Own secure VM, approvals, an approver agent.
OpenAI Dots
Sep 29. Own cloud computer, auto-review, “teams of dots” next.
Hermes Bot Mode
Aug 31. Named agents + group chats. Sound familiar, Grok Bot?
Good ideas spread in weeks now. Even invite-only Instinct does the iMessage-first take.
What Agent Workbench + LangGraph unlock
Classic CS techniques make agents reliable.
High level on purpose. Nothing confidential. Happy to go deeper on any of these.
The state of the art, in six lines
- Always-on cloud-computer agents are the default
- Teammates and multi-agent chat are spreading
- Messaging apps as the interface
- Self-host and hosted are converging
- Skills catalogs = new app stores, new attack surface. Prompt injection is unsolved
- Pricing clusters around ~$20 / $100 / $200
Try this week
- Start small: calendar + email + one routine
- Publish something personal on your own domain
- Match the platform to your trust and data needs