In The Loop – Details, episodes & analysis

AI agents are everywhere—but what do they actually do?

If you thought AI agents were about to run your life, automate every task, and independently manage your business… you might be disappointed. But make no mistake—agentic AI is the future.

In this episode, I cut through the hype and break it all down in plain, no-nonsense terms: ✔️ What AI agents really are (and what they’re not) ✔️ How they work—including reasoning, memory, and tool use ✔️ The difference between horizontal, vertical & narrow agents ✔️ How OpenAI’s Operator & Deep Researcher stack up ✔️ Where AI agents are headed & why they still need humans

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a crystal-clear understanding of agentic AI—without the marketing fluff or unrealistic promises.

[00:55] – What is an AI agent? Breaking through the buzzwords

[02:10] – The difference between agentic AI, workflows & automation

[06:45] – OpenAI’s Operator & Deep Researcher: Game-changers or just hype?

[13:45] – The future of AI agents: What’s next & who stands to win?

📖 Read the blog version of this episode on the Mindset AI blog (with all relevant links and resources). Read here.

If you enjoyed this episode, rate, follow, and share! It helps others stay ahead of the latest AI trends. 🚀

DeepSeek just shook up the AI world. They’ve released an open-source AI model that—on paper—rivals the best from OpenAI and Google. But here’s the kicker: they claim to have trained it for just $5.6 million—a fraction of what U.S. labs spend. Even crazier, inference costs are so low that some developers are running 200,000 API calls for just $50.

If this is true, it’s not just a big deal—it’s a threat to the entire AI industry as we know it. In today’s episode, I break it all down in plain English: ✔️ What DeepSeek actually did (and how they made AI faster, smaller, and cheaper) ✔️ Why it’s causing panic in Silicon Valley ✔️ The real impact on AI companies, Nvidia, and the open-source movement ✔️ Is this a true paradigm shift or just another AI hype cycle?

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a crystal-clear understanding of what’s really going on—without the jargon, the hype, or the noise.

Episode Breakdown:

(01:00) – What is DeepSeek, and why is everyone talking about it?

(02:20) – The four major breakthroughs that make DeepSeek different

(07:45) – The geopolitical and business implications—who wins, who loses?

(12:45) – My take: Is the market reaction justified, or is this overblown? Links & Resources:

📖 Read the blog version of this episode on the Mindset AI blog (with all relevant links and resources). Read now.

If you found this episode insightful, don’t forget to rate, follow, and share! It helps more people stay ahead of the latest AI breakthroughs. 🚀

Introducing: In The Loop. A semi weekly analysis on AI news, research and breakthroughs. All in just 20 minutes.

In each episode, Jack Houghton delivers a quick rundown of the week’s most important AI news—so you stay on top of the field without endless scrolling or reading.

Jack takes a deeper look at influential essays and simplifies complex research papers, helping you understand and apply these insights in your own work. From breaking down the challenges to building the future of user interface to enable human-AI agent collaboration, how agents really take over your screen & what the latest advances mean for you, society, politics and philosophy.

Perfect for busy professionals or those interested in AI who need real, usable information. This show promises to keep it clear, digestible, and free of fluff.