Original video in Chinese.
Key Takeaway
- Grok Bot is an outsourced team; Codex is a personal assistant. Codex depends on a local computer and stops when the connection drops or the computer sleeps. Grok Bot runs on a cloud computer and keeps working independently. The former works around you; the latter gets on with the work, and you only need to check in occasionally.
- Make Grok Bot your operations center. Mine currently handles three main tasks: investment monitoring (the macro environment, the industry, and my holdings, monitoring and offering suggestions according to rules I set), topic research (a daily roundup of leading content from the Chinese-speaking community on X), and collecting and analyzing data across platforms (including Chinese platform dashboards, which it accesses by operating the browser directly through Computer Use on its cloud computer).
- The value of a Personal Agent is that things keep moving when you are away. Grok Bot acts as a chief operating officer, monitoring, executing, and offering suggestions, while you still set the rules and make the final decisions. I expect tools such as Codex and Perplexity to become modules that strengthen specific capabilities of Personal Agents.
I now leave routine operations work, such as monitoring and collecting data, to Grok Bot. After running this arrangement for a while, I feel it is the most comfortable setup and the one I trust most right now.
My two main AI tools at the moment are Codex and Grok Bot. In theory, Codex can do everything Grok Bot can. But my current Codex setup depends on a local computer. If it loses its internet connection or goes to sleep, Codex stops working.
For example, when my wife recently gave birth, I took my MacBook Pro with me. All the scheduled tasks I had set up stopped running. Grok Bot, meanwhile, was completely unaffected because it runs on a cloud computer. US stocks happened to plunge during those two days, and it promptly sent me a report.
To me, that is the value of a Personal Agent: it does not mean I have to work anytime, anywhere. It means some things can keep moving while I am busy living my life.
I had previously installed an app called Code Awake specifically to keep my Mac from sleeping so Codex could continue working.
So, as I keep emphasizing in Knowledge Planet (Zhishi Xingqiu):
Codex and Claude Code are personal assistants. They can have some autonomy, but they have to work around me. Grok Bot is an outsourced team, a team for hire. They sort things out themselves, and I only check in from time to time.
Following that logic, I use Codex as my development center. Optimizing and updating the newtype website, for example, all happen within Codex projects. Grok Bot serves as my operations center. It currently has three main jobs.
The first is investing.
I invest in US stocks, mainly companies in the AI value chain. There is far too much information to follow. So I set up three types of scheduled tasks for Grok Bot:
Macro: following the broader US environment, including indicators such as CPI.
Industry: following key companies, such as TSMC. Even though I do not own its shares, I still need to follow its earnings reports.
Holdings: split into events and assessments. Events means tracking what is happening at the companies whose stocks I own. Assessments means I set trigger conditions in advance and have Grok Bot watch for them. It checks whether a condition has been met and offers suggestions. I decide whether to trade.
During the recent market selloff, for example, Grok Bot told me what had happened in the market and how it affected the four stocks I hold. Most importantly, it also checked against the rules for reducing positions that I had given it earlier, assessing whether they had been triggered and whether I needed to sell.
I set the rules; it keeps watching and checking. That means I do not have to stare at prices all day, and I am less likely to forget my own rules in a moment of emotion.
The second is topic research.
Every evening, Grok Bot sends me a curated roundup from the Chinese-speaking community on X, covering what leading creators posted that day.
Although everyone publishes independently, I still want to know what people are paying attention to and which topics are popular. That is basic content operations work.
The third is data.
I publish my videos across all platforms, including the major Chinese platforms and YouTube overseas. I also have a website, which brings search engine traffic into the picture.
Checking and collecting data from all those platforms one by one would be exhausting. So I have handed all of it to Grok Bot. It regularly goes into the platforms’ dashboards, gathers the data, then combines and analyzes it and suggests what to do next.
Getting data from Chinese platforms has always been a headache. With Grok Bot, though, it is straightforward.
I first operate its cloud computer manually, open the browser, and sign in to my own account dashboards. Then I hand control back to it and let it use Computer Use to operate the browser and record all the data itself.
This way, even if a platform does not provide an API, you can try doing the job through the browser. After all, AI can already operate a computer much as a person does.
As you can see, those three categories cover my two main areas of daily work: investing and creating content. Grok Bot coordinates all this monitoring, collection, and analysis. This Personal Agent is now my chief operating officer.
It watches, executes, and offers suggestions. I still decide what I want to do and the standards for doing it. I simply no longer have to run through the whole process myself every day just to get the information.
I have a feeling that, alongside Personal Agents, earlier agent products such as Codex and Perplexity, which I have used for a long time, will become individual modules that strengthen particular capabilities of a Personal Agent. Codex, for example, would strengthen programming, while Perplexity would strengthen research.
What do you think of Personal Agents? How have you been using them? Share your thoughts in the comments. If you have not started yet, I sincerely suggest starting with Grok Bot. I have emphasized this repeatedly in Knowledge Planet as well.
OK, that is it for this episode. If you want to understand AI, reclaim individual sovereignty, and find like-minded people, come join the newtype community. See you next time!