Machine-use agents: Isola and Shi on the emerging agent-machine interface layer
zhaoran_wang · x · 2026-09-08
Phillip Isola published a short post on the rise of "robot-use agents," citing impressive demos like Claude controlling robots and calling it an important change in robotics' trajectory. Humphrey Shi amplified the idea: the age of machine-use agents is here—agents learn to use computers, GPUs, and robots as tools. General-purpose multimodal intelligence and domain-specific machines can scale along separate axes and compound through increasingly capable agents, with agent–machine interfaces emerging as the critical systems layer where that compounding happens.
Related event: MIT's Isola Proposes "Robot-Use Agents" as AI Controls Robots(4 posts)→
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