Is it wrong to want an AI Agent?
Published July 05, 2026 · 7:15 · 3,718 views
About This Video
Van Neistat defines an AI agent as a type of AI that can use the internet to do things for you in the material world, and he wants one. The question in the title is the tension. He builds it anyway, watching himself the whole time.
This clip comes from Long-Form Episode 2, the mixed-feelings episode where Van asks whether AI is freeing him or sucking him down a hole. His friend Kevin runs the build. The agent gets a name, Johnny 5, and a constitution programmed through software Van believes is called Soul. The constitution is who the agent is. Van's version: absorb as much of his digital responsibilities as possible, so he can live as analog as possible. He teaches it how to order parts for his Toyota Land Cruiser, which he calls actually very complicated. He tells it his kids are the most important thing to him, and admits he feels very sensitive doing it.
During the build Van counts encouragements from another realm, his phrase for the coincidences that arrive mid-project. While demonstrating his file system to Kevin, he stumbles on the exact BlackBerry shot he had just named as the test case. He credits the second encouragement to the living soul of Werner Herzog. The code word avuncular comes back over Telegram on the first try. And Kevin's own agent, Socrates, had been given a $1,000 budget a month earlier to source parts and hire fabricators to build itself a body. The boxes arrived while they talked.
What Van actually wants is not a robot. He wants a footage crawler living on a Raspberry Pi 5 tucked inside his high school copy of the Odyssey, an AI that searches his 26-year archive on command. That plan, and the machine-skeptic argument wrapped around it, plays out across the full episode as part of his case for using AI to live more analog.
What Van Uses: Telegram (the channel he talks to Johnny 5 through), a Raspberry Pi 5 for the planned footage crawler, the constitution software Soul, and his Toyota Land Cruiser as the agent's first real errand.
Related: the full Long-Form Episode 2, And AI-Induced Nervous Breakdowns, Long-Form Episode 1.
FAQ
What is an AI agent, according to Van Neistat?
A type of AI that can use the internet to do things for you in the material world. His is named Johnny 5, talks to him over Telegram, and exists to absorb his digital responsibilities so he can live as analog as possible.
Who built Van Neistat's AI agent?
His friend Kevin ran the build, programming the agent's constitution through software called Soul. Kevin's own agent, Socrates, once sourced parts for its own robot body on a $1,000 budget.
What does Van Neistat want his AI agent to do?
Search his footage archive. The plan is a footage crawler on a Raspberry Pi 5 that can find any shot in his 26-year archive on command, so less of his life is spent at a screen.
Transcript
An AI agent is a type of AI that can use the internet to do things for you in the material world, and I want one. How many video files are in my footage Paste this code into terminal and run video files. >> Guess what?
>> My robot arrived. >> No! You're kidding me! Sometimes when we're doing something significant, How should I say this? We receive encouragement from another realm. And during this agent birthing process, I received three. Encouragement one. All right, so
something miraculous just happened. Kevin asked me what I wanted my AI agent to do, and I said the first thing I wanted it to do is build itself software so that it can go through all of my footage and find footage that I want it to find. And the example I gave was, I need a shot of me and my BlackBerry. So, just by example, I'm demonstrating to Kevin how my files are organized, and I'm clicking through them, and I'm saying it has to learn this way of file storage, blah blah blah, and I happened to find,
just by coincidence, I happened to find Guess what kind of phone that is. So, encouragement number two. And I think this one came from the living soul of Werner Herzog. One of the tasks one must perform when creating an AI agent is programming its
And the constitution, I think, is like who the agent is. What's its purpose? And my agent's purpose is to absorb as much of my digital responsibilities as possible so I can live as analog as So, for instance, I told it how to order car parts for my Land Cruiser, which is actually very complicated. And
I think the software Kevin used to program my agent's constitution is called soul. So, we're programming this agent's through soul. Things like I want it to know that my kids are the most important thing to me. And I want it to know a little bit about my kids. My youngest child is named
She is two. I'm a very sensitive person. I'm sorry. So, I'm feeling very sensitive during constitution or soul programming >> Let's see. Is it typing? >> Kevin is explaining to me that I'll be communicating with my agent, Johnny 5, through Telegram. And I'm about to send first text to Johnny 5 through Telegram. just about to talk to it.
this light. This pulsing light. Encouragement number three. >> Do a little voice message. You hold down that mic and say, "If you can hear me, then I want you to repeat the word back to me." >> All right, so I'm going to hold it and then I'm just going to say,
>> "If you can hear me, if you can read this, I want you to repeat back to me the following code word." And what's the code word? Pick one. >> The password is Please repeat that to me. >> Once you release that >> Avuncular, it worked. Avuncular, right there. Encouragement number three, Johnny 5 wrote back to me. >> Guess what? >> My robot arrived.
>> No! You're kidding me! Kevin had told his agent, I don't know, a month ago. He gave his agent a thousand-dollar budget and told it, told Socrates, his AI agent, to source parts and hire fabricators, I'm guessing in China, I'm guessing human fabricators, to build for Socrates, the AI agent, a body in which Socrates could I don't want to say live, install himself, so that he, Socrates, the AI
could move around Kevin's apartment. And Kevin's encouragement, encouragement number four, was that while we were talking, Socrates, Socrates' body, had been delivered in cardboard boxes. I don't want no stinking robot. I want a
footage crawler. I want it now, Daddy. Lives on a Raspberry Pi 5, which lives in my high school Odyssey book. Got the cooler for it, right here. Tell it what to find. Find shots of me and the kids riding dirt bikes. And it finds it, but I can't build no footage crawler till I get the green stickers for the bikes and win the court case for not having the green stickers in the first place. Else I'm out five bills and probably some license points. Footage crawler's just going to have to wait.
So, just chill till the next episode. See how this video fits into the full episode here. The Patreon is how you get in touch with me and contains the alternate universe to this channel.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Telegram uses — The channel Van uses to talk to his AI agent Johnny 5
- Raspberry Pi 5 uses — The planned home for his footage crawler, stored inside his high school Odyssey book
- "Soul" (agent constitution software) uses — The tool Kevin used to program the agent's constitution
- Toyota Land Cruiser uses — Van taught the agent to order its car parts, "actually very complicated"
- BlackBerry mentions — The shot Van used as his example while teaching the agent his file system
People Referenced
Kevin, Werner Herzog, Johnny 5, Socrates