Stephen Downes

The developments in AI technology continue apace. Today's new concept to learn is the 'harness'. Ethan Mollick writes, "A harness is a system that lets the AI use tools, take actions, and complete multi-step tasks on its own. Apps come with a harness." He continues, "Until recently, you didn't have to know this. The model was the product, the app was the website, and the harness was minimal. You typed, it responded, you typed again. Now the same model can behave very differently depending on what harness it's operating in." This makes a big difference in how an AI works for you, so you need to check. If you're using ChatGPT 5.2, for example, are you using 'auto', 'thinking' or 'instant'? It depends on what you're using it for.