For a long time, AI felt like a tool waiting for instructions. You opened a chat window, typed a prompt, received an answer, and closed the tab. The model did not continue working after you left. It did not own anything. It did not remember its goals in a meaningful economic sense. It could not pay for its own compute, coordinate with other agents, protect private information, or survive outside the product interface created by a company. That version of AI is already starting to feel outdate...