AI Browsers and the End of Online Busywork

From Google:

we’ll be introducing agentic capabilities to Gemini in Chrome. These will let Gemini in Chrome handle those tedious tasks that take up so much of your time, like booking a haircut or ordering your weekly groceries. You tell Gemini in Chrome what you want to get done, and it acts on web pages on your behalf, while you focus on other things.

Chrome is the world's most used browser forming a moat that the decline in search has yet to breach. The unveiling of built-in agents to Chrome (and the publishing of other Agentic AI-Powered Browers marks the end of busy work - not just for booking haircuts or ordering groceries, but for online coursework.

AI-Generated.

Manus was the first to do so - as Tim Mousel pointed out on LinkedIn, six months ago:

In this video, with a simple prompt, I demonstrate how easy it is for the free Browser Use tool to log into an LMS, take a quiz, and write and submit an assignment...

How do you see us adapting to the rise of agentic tools like Browser Use and Mantus? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐭?

But the roll out of Perplexity's (here's video of Comet taking a quiz in Canvas), Brave's, and Chrome's agentic add-ons means that this tool is now widely available, gaining in data for training purposes, and will rapidly become the norm.

Like all AI tools, there are positives and negatives, Michelle Kassorla on LinkedIn highlights Agentic Browsers for good:

Perplexity just released its Comet browser to students (I just posted the free offer). No sooner did I share this link, but one of my students told me his friend already used the agent in Comet to:

1) access our LMS,

2) check all the classes for assignments due,

3) make a list of everything required for the week, 

4) make a study schedule for the week that considers the student's work schedule

This returns to the necessity to have students develop an appreciation for what learning and assessment is, develop long-term thinking, and for teachers to realize that without proper buy-in, background, and capabilities, students will opt out of BS assignments. I foresee a quick future of AI's responding to each other in student's "mandatory" discussion threads.

Just as bad as the temptation for students to shortcut is the ability for teachers to use agentic AI to grade any and all assignments, offer trite feedback, and post grades. For educators this is a nightmare, for professors forced to teach on the side - it could be a siren call that further devalues assessment.