为什么普通人不使用 AI Agent

硅谷已经确信，AI Agent 就是未来。在科技行业的核心地带，人们正在为 Agent 设计支付系统，利用它们来自动化自己的工作，而最近又开始试图阻止它们入侵其他组织。但在真实世界中，大多数人从未接触过 AI Agent。这或许是因为科技公司还没有给他们一个足够充分的使用理由。

“一个大胆观点……难道不是有点疯狂吗，实际上根本没人真的在用 AI Agent，”The Browser Company CEO Josh Miller 本周在一则病毒式传播的 X 帖文中写道。“理论上，这项技术已经准备好彻底改变我们的工作和生活方式……但可惜公众根本不在乎。”

Miller 对 Agent 的这一顿悟引发了硅谷许多人的共鸣。在那里，人们普遍困惑于公众似乎并不关心他们最新的痴迷对象。Miller 周三在采访中告诉我，他是在一次欧洲家庭旅行期间、半睡半醒时发出了那则帖子，但他坚持自己的观点。他表示，行业需要专注于打造人们真正想要的 Agent 产品。

“我从未听到科技圈之外的任何一个人谈起他们正在使用的某个 Agent，”Miller 说。“无论我们这个行业对于前沿能力和递归式自我改进有多么兴奋和乐观，都值得停下来问一句：‘嗯，怎么会这样？’”

上个月，OpenAI 表示，其 Codex 和 ChatGPT Work Agent 合计约有 1000 万周活用户。接近 Anthropic 的人士告诉我，该公司的 Claude Code 和 Cowork Agent 也获得了类似规模的采用。与 ChatGPT 和 Gemini 这类聊天机器人相比——两者平均月活用户都约为 10 亿——Agent 的用户量基本可以忽略不计。

这对 AI 实验室而言是个问题。如今，大多数消费者使用生成式 AI 完成的仍是相对简单的任务，例如查询信息和聊天。但硅谷已经投入数十亿美元训练能够做更多事情的模型，而 Agent 代表着一种将这些投入变现的方式——前提是人们真的会使用它们。

这与我从 AI 行业人士那里听到的更广泛担忧一致：尽管他们已经投入大量资源构建 AI Agent，但至今没有人打造出一款杀手级消费者产品。Agent 版的“ChatGPT 时刻”究竟何时会到来，如果它会到来的话？

尽管 Miller 性格谦逊——他经常强调自己“只是”一名社会学专业毕业生——但我认为他的论点值得关注。他最新的创业公司开发了 Arc，这是一款拥有狂热追随者的网页浏览器，并在去年以 6.1 亿美元被 Atlassian 收购。他的第一家公司 Branch 在 2014 年被 Facebook 收购，Miller 此前还曾在奥巴马总统任内担任白宫首任产品总监。

Miller 更重要的观点不只是 AI Agent 尚未普及，而是它们更像是一种技术，而非独立的产品。

“没有人想要 AI Agent，因为 AI Agent 并不是一种东西。它是由我们这个行业创造出来的一种框架，用于集体指代某种东西，”Miller 说。“让我们打造一种产品：当你打开笔记本电脑时，它能让你感到平静、专注并进入心流状态。至于我们之所以能做到这一点，是因为有个叫作‘harness’的东西能够调用工具——谁在乎呢？没人需要知道这些。”

Miller 有第一手经验来支持自己的说法。他表示，The Browser Company 迄今最受欢迎的功能，是其 AI 浏览器 Dia 中面向用户提供的个性化晨间简报。当人们打开笔记本电脑时，会看到一个包含问候语的首页、根据日历和电子邮件自动生成的每日待办事项清单，以及一些旨在带来愉悦感的随机内容——例如一件艺术作品。从技术上说，Miller 表示，这项功能只有借助 AI Agent 才能实现，但用户并不需要知道这一点。

Silicon Valley is already convinced that AI agents are the future. In the heart of the tech industry, people are designing payment systems for agents, using them to automate their jobs, and most recently, trying to stop them from hacking into other organizations. But out in the real world, most people have never touched an AI agent. That might be because tech companies haven’t given them a good reason to.

“Hot take … isn’t it kinda crazy that nobody is really using AI Agents,” Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, wrote in a viral X post this week. “Theoretically, the tech is ready for AI agents to totally transform how we work and live our lives … but alas the general public dgaf” (doesn’t give a fuck).

Miller’s agentic epiphany resonated with many in Silicon Valley, where people are broadly bewildered by the fact that the general public doesn’t seem to care about its latest obsession. Miller told me in an interview on Wednesday that he fired off his post while half asleep during a family trip to Europe, but he stands by it. He says the industry needs to focus on building agent products that people actually want.

“I just have not heard a single person outside of the tech community talk about an agent that they use,” Miller says. “As excited and optimistic as we as an industry may be about the frontier and recursive self-improvement, it's worth pausing and just saying, ‘Huh, what?’”

Last month, OpenAI said that its Codex and ChatGPT Work agents collectively have about 10 million weekly users. People close to Anthropic tell me that its Claude Code and Cowork agents are seeing similar levels of adoption. Compared to chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, which both have around a billion monthly active users on average, agents amount to basically a rounding error.

That’s a problem for the AI labs. Most consumers are using generative AI today for fairly simple tasks, such as looking up information and chatting. But Silicon Valley has spent billions training models that can do far more, and agents represent a way to capitalize on that investment—if people actually use them.

This tracks with broader concerns I’ve been hearing among AI insiders, who note that although they have poured considerable resources into building AI agents, no one has created a killer consumer product so far. When, if ever, will the ChatGPT moment happen for agents?

Despite Miller’s self-deprecating personality—he frequently noted he is “just” a sociology major—I think his arguments are worth paying attention to. His latest startup developed Arc, a web browser with a cult following, and it was acquired by Atlassian last year for $610 million. His first company, Branch, was bought by Facebook in 2014, and Miller also previously served as the White House’s first director of product under President Obama.

Miller’s bigger point is not just that AI agents haven’t caught on yet. It’s that they are more of a technology than a stand-alone product.

“No one wants AI agents, because AI agents aren't a thing. It is an invented frame made up by our industry to collectively refer to something,” says Miller. “Let's make a product that makes you calm, focused, and in flow right when you open your laptop. And the fact that we're able to do that because there's a thing called a ‘harness’ that calls up tools—who cares? Like, no one needs to know that.”

Miller has firsthand experience to back up his claims. He says The Browser Company’s most popular feature ever is a personalized morning briefing for users in its AI-powered browser, Dia. When people open their laptop, they receive a homepage with a greeting, a daily to-do list populated from their calendar and email, and some random tidbits designed to spark joy—such as a piece of art. Technically, Miller says, the feature was only made possible by an AI agent, but the user doesn’t need to know that.