I'm a Working Dad Who Built Over 150 AI Agents to Run My Life

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tristen O'Brien, a 44-year-old AI educator and content creator who works in cybersecurity based in Indiana. His words have been edited for length and clarity.

For a long time, I've felt like I can only focus on three things at a time without everything falling apart: family, work, and school. If I tried to add something else, one of those three things would fail.

I've been in the tech industry for over 20 years, and I'm working toward my doctorate in AI. I'm also a YouTuber. I spent years learning the programming language Python because I wanted to create a world where I could automate parts of my life, giving me more time for hobbies and other things.

Then ChatGPT came out, and I realized I had wasted about five years doing that.

Since learning how to build AI agents, I've built over 150 of them to help me run my life. I'm now down to using around 70.

I've always wanted to automate parts of my life

There's a book about automating the boring parts of your life with the programming language Python. Years ago, I found this book and decided to learn it. Then, when ChatGPT came out, I quickly got into it.

I'm not a developer; I do this by vibe coding. I first used ChatGPT to make funny songs and things like that. My interest kept growing, and I kept doing more with it. I've switched to Claude as my main model now, but I still use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.