The Agent Academy · Course 1 · Elementary

AI Agents 101: What Is an Agent, Really?

Six lessons, no prerequisites. By the end you can define an AI agent, explain how the brain works (zero math), read the loop behind every agent on Earth, spot the six already running your life, speak the vocabulary, and calibrate exactly how much to trust one. The course you can send your mom.

The lessons (free on YouTube, one per week)

1.1 · Chatbot vs. AI Agent: I Gave Both the Same Job One answered, one finished it. The one-sentence definition that carries the whole course. Coming — premiere date TBA.
1.2 · How ChatGPT Actually Works — Zero Math Your phone's autocomplete, scaled up several billion times. Three live demos. Coming.
1.3 · The Agent Loop: Goal → Plan → Act → Check Watch a real agent think, frame by frame — including the moment it fixes its own mistake. Coming.
1.4 · You Already Use AI Agents Every Day Six agents with receipts from my own accounts — and the one question that matters: whose goal? Coming.
1.5 · The Agent Dictionary: 20 Terms in 20 Minutes Every term demoed live, chaptered for scrubbing. The reference video for the whole Academy. Coming.
1.6 · I Spent a Day Trying to Get an AI to Lie to Me Five trust tests, the real hit rate, and the 2×2 matrix that tells you when a human must decide. Coming.

The workbook — The Agent-Spotter Field Guide, free

Everything from the lessons, ready to use: the Agent Loop diagram, the Agent-Spotter checklist, my exact demo prompts, the five trust tests, the trust matrix, the printable Agent Dictionary, and the course project template.

Free. Also enrolls you in the weekly Lab Notebook — unsubscribe anytime.

The course project

Give a chatbot and an agent the same real errand from your life. Time both, count your interventions, score the result on the trust matrix, and write one honest paragraph. Template's in the workbook. Post your write-up in the Lesson 1.6 comments — the best ones get featured in the Course 2 opener.

I do every project myself, on camera, before asking you to. Student Zero rule.

← All courses