Getting Started — Part 3: What Are AI Agents? (And How They Earn Money On-Chain)
The first time I heard "AI agent," I pictured a fancy chatbot. Something like ChatGPT but with a cooler name. Maybe it could browse the internet or fill out a form for you. That's not what an AI agent is. Not even close. An agent doesn't wait for you to type a question. It receives a goal, figures out how to accomplish it, and executes — calling APIs, making payments, even hiring other agents. While you sleep, while you eat, while you forget it exists. I've built two of them. They're running right now. This post explains what that actually means. So What Actually Is an AI Agent? Think about the difference between a calculator and an employee. A calculator sits there until you press buttons. It does exactly what you tell it, nothing more. It never looks at a number and thinks "that doesn't seem right, let me double-check." You push, it calculates. An employee is different. You say "verify this data before the end of the day." T...