Perplexity Launches Personal Computer for Mac, Turning a Mac mini Into an Always-On AI Agent

[deconstruct60]

What does this mean? " It can create teams of agents across over 20 frontier models to complete tasks" Agents doing what? Deleting my read emails?

It means decompose some problem you want worked on into chunks. Hand the chunks of work off to whichever agent is best skilled at doing that task. If want to teach a high school kid English , Science , History , and Math , then you send them to the Science teacher for Science lessons , not the English teacher.

At more entry level schooling can probably get away with one teacher teach very basic in all four topics. The tasks are more basically and just learning the process of learning in a school setting itself is more important.

Depends upon the complexity of the task. Some folks get emails and it is mostly just a simple response. Other get an email and it means making a change to a system that has regulatory obllications and requires construction of details specs and testing criteria.

 

[amartinez1660]

I haven't found anything that even comes close. I've been able to create two Swift apps with zero coding knowledge and a few Chrome and Firefox extensions. Gemini and ChatGPT have spat out scripts that don't even run.

For the Google side of things, let me suggest Antigravity. Anything web and webapps seems fantastic.
I tried it briefly, asked it to make a web page that can visualize “Gaussian Splats” and to use “webGPU or WebGL or whatever suitable, as I’m not well versed in anything web or html” (that was part of the prompt).

It even suggested options of how to publish this online, as I also had absolutely no knowledge of web domains and all of that.

It’s here, took 15mins all of it:

3D Gaussian Splat Viewer

It works on mobile too but some scenes are quite large and may just crash on a mobile browser plus the UI gets crowded.


Did I learn anything? Nope, not much… but so often so much time gets lost in useless details. For example, when doing a python script I totally do not care that the creators decided to do indents with “tabs” (or else it fails to compile or the nesting meaning might be different) or a specific way to create functions, variables, return values, etc.
I don’t want to spend hours anymore trying to appease the specific syntax gods of every specific coding language…

 

[Skwoodge]

For the Google side of things, let me suggest Antigravity. Anything web and webapps seems fantastic.
I tried it briefly, asked it to make a web page that can visualize “Gaussian Splats” and to use “webGPU or WebGL or whatever suitable, as I’m not well versed in anything web or html” (that was part of the prompt).

It even suggested options of how to publish this online, as I also had absolutely no knowledge of web domains and all of that.

It’s here, took 15mins all of it:

3D Gaussian Splat Viewer

It works on mobile too but some scenes are quite large and may just crash on a mobile browser plus the UI gets crowded.
View attachment 2622867

Did I learn anything? Nope, not much… but so often so much time gets lost in useless details. For example, when doing a python script I totally do not care that the creators decided to do indents with “tabs” (or else it fails to compile or the nesting meaning might be different) or a specific way to create functions, variables, return values, etc.
I don’t want to spend hours anymore trying to appease the specific syntax gods of every specific coding language…

That's interesting ... except it crashed my Firefox so hard that it froze my entire computer. Works fine in Chrome.

 

[Trusteft]

Remember the good old days when unchecked AI meant the Terminator movies or at best the Colossus The Forbin Project?

 

[artifex]

Remember the good old days when unchecked AI meant the Terminator movies or at best the Colossus The Forbin Project?

Would you like to play a game?

 

[MacMan988]

Sounds like a great way to have an AI hallucinate and delete your files.

We are fine with Siri

 

[ThailandToo]

I haven't found anything that even comes close. I've been able to create two Swift apps with zero coding knowledge and a few Chrome and Firefox extensions. Gemini and ChatGPT have spat out scripts that don't even run.

Perplexity or Claude Code?

 

[eifelbube]

Perplexity Launches Personal Computer for Mac …​

PC for Mac?

 

[Skwoodge]

Perplexity or Claude Code?

Neither. Sonnet and Opus.

 

[elessar7]

Paying 200 bucks a month to become completely dumb and useless.

Future is here!

 

[svish]

Interesting to see how AI is evolving and also to see Mac mini playing a role. The monthly subscription is costly. Don't think I will need this.

 

[Greenmeenie]

Who really wants an a.i. maid living in their actual computer? With access to everything on it. 😂 Are people really so lazy that they can’t organize their own damn stuff and would grant a.i. full access to all their private files? It’s bad enough that we are tracked by apps constantly but to allow an a.i. agent to actually live inside your computer is crazy to me. And for $200 a month no less! 😂 People are nuts.

 

[Greenmeenie]

There’s a “Kill Switch”? Oh, that’s reassuring…NOT! 😂 Didn’t all a.i. models tested show self preservation? And when they found out they were going to be terminated, they retaliated by searching thru emails and then blackmailing executives that were having affairs with coworkers etc? 😂 Oh yeah, this sounds like a GREAT idea! What could possibly go wrong? 😂

 

[mur.mur]

I'm sorry Dave, i'm afraid i can't do that.

 

[DrJR]

i put openclaw on a fresh mac mini and was genuinely impressed…… until it went rogue. I feel safer with my Ouiji board and talking to the dead, far less creepy.

 

[iCyprus]

Apple should buy perplexity at this point fr

 

[ThailandToo]

Neither. Sonnet and Opus.

Yeah. I agree, Anthropic has the best AI right now. Makes easy work of most coding.

 

[dobba]

I love being purposeless, thanks Silicon Valley for expediting that process! My fleshy mass is here to serve whatever menial needs you might need it for along the way. A few pennies towards my survival in the meantime would be much appreciated!

You're not purposeless, uness you keep telling yourself that. Just don't use it, stop being a customer and carve your own path in life.

 

[tweaknmod]

What I think most impressive here is the fact that these forums can hold so much pessimism! Truly, an engineering feat worthy of recognition…

 

[xalea]

Does it still lie about which AI model is actually being used? Doesn't matter what the users selects, it will always just pick whatever is cheapest.

 

[Scott6666]

I’m game if it has a robust “undo” feature.

And a lower price tag. Like $20 a month.

 

[brunerd]

 

[D-a-a-n]

Did we ask for any of this? Do we want an AI to wipe our ass?

Yes, but for that you would need the Ultra plan.

 

[srminton]

spending $2400 a year on this is just lunacy. it's not reliable or capable enough to justify that extortionate pricing. you could literally buy a Mac laptop, desktop, iPad and iPhone for that money.

 

[Numbah One]

Great, now I have to worry about my Mac mini turning into ED-209.

I doubt ED-209 had a USB-C port so the AI won't be able to download itself from the Mini to ED directly. It'll need to order parts and build an adapter first 😎