Personal agents today: build it yourself, trust a startup, or hand data to an ad giant
neal_lathia · x · 2026-09-26
A widely shared take on the current landscape of personal AI agents lays out four unappealing options:
- Build/open-source it yourself and turn maintenance into a part-time job
- Hand your data to a janky VC-backed company that could be sold for parts tomorrow
- Give your data to a trillion-dollar ad company
- Wait five years for Apple's version
The point: no option yet combines privacy, longevity, and low maintenance for personal agents.
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