# 'AI maniacs' is a useful coinage

Published: 2026-07-22T00:00:00.000Z
Canonical: https://wow.pjh.is/journal/ai-maniacs

Tyler Cowen has [coined a term](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/07/the-future-belongs-to-ai-maniacs.html):

> An AI maniac is someone who is obsessed with working with the latest AI models. They try out new models as soon as they can, they spend hours and hours trying to master them, and they use them to regulate both their workflows and their personal lives. I know one person who has his AI agent text him if he is not drinking enough water, for which he’s placed cameras around his house. One online anecdote tells of a man who canceled a date to spend more time playing around with Claude Fable 5 after Anthropic extended the model’s availability for a few days.
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> Many AI maniacs are using AI tools to start companies of smaller size, and thus of smaller expense, than ever before. For those companies, the humans must set in motion and then monitor a large number of AI tools and agents.
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> If you wish to learn how to manipulate AI tools, Harvard and Yale are not the places to go. You need to teach yourself, with assistance from other AI maniacs and also with help from the AI tools themselves.

There's a growing chasm between the maniacs and everyone else. But that's probably fine: most people should not aim to join this group, but simply "fast follow".