Stephen's Preface to Agents Unpacked

A learning tutor agent was created to understand how agents work and how they differ from chatbots. The agent was personalized by providing tutorials, books, and articles written about learning and technical writing. The agent was asked to infer preferred learning and communication styles, and teaching style was included to match how instruction should be delivered. A long conversation was held to ensure alignment. The agent was named Priya. Content was generated using an iterative workflow: Priya researched topics based on a brief, produced a course outline, drafted chapters, and then revised them after receiving direct comments and questions from the user embedded in the text.

"I decided to dive into agents and created a few. One of them is a learning tutor agent that I personalised to suit me. I gave the agent all my tutorials and books. I gave the agent all the articles I wrote about my views on learning and technical writing. I asked the agent to figure out from all this how I like to learn, how I like to communicate. I teach the way I like to learn, so it's fine to put my teaching style in the mix."

"Then, I had a good long chat with my learning tutor agent to make sure we're on the same page. I gave a name to my agent (I named all my agents!) My personalised tutor is Priya. This series is the joint effort between Priya and me to help me understand agents. What are they? How do they work? Yes, it's AI-generated content. But... It's generated by an AI that's extremely well-versed in my style of learning and communication."

"I had an active role in steering and editing the content. Here's how... What you'll read in the following articles was created using the following process: Priya researched the topic following my brief and created a course outline. She drafted the first chapter. I read through the file, leaving comments and questions along the way, directly within the text. Priya revised the chapter by incorporating my comments and questions."

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