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epictetus

12 approved definitions.

operator

Generally, an agent (human or machine) that "runs" (monitors and delivers using) any other thing or system.
Some people ran printed presses in the 1900s so people could get their newspapers, and some software agents ran slide deck creation in the 2020s so people could get their presentation material; both kinds entities were an operator in their own way.
Permalink · operator by epictetus
June 3, 2026

operator

A sales operator. Any person in the spectrum of business growth role (e.g., from business development associate to president) who does not deliver client success directly, but instead is focused on growing the business of their firm (e.g., by finding and nurturing relationships with people whose needs they understand how to help). In this sense, the role is technically non-technical.
Alex is such an operator, they exceeded their sales growth goal for the sixth quarter in a row.
Permalink · operator by epictetus
June 3, 2026

operator

A technical operator. A person who interfaces with a business to figure out what needs to be automated how, then creates that automation (typically using some custom software and some existing software) and sees it through to successful production that improves the business' efficiency, profitability, or capabilities. This may be an engineer with business and communication skills and initiative.
That org moved its rote work from office tools to agents, so its people could focus on the things they do best as humans, as proof that the operator who made it happen really succeeded.
Permalink · operator by epictetus
June 3, 2026

operator

A business operator: a person (or agent) who performs significant aspects of running a business. In this sense, operating a business is distinct from just founding it (creation/vision), funding it (investing money), or just working at it (as an employee).
Josephine has grown that robot laundromat business from 2 struggling locations to 10 profitable ones, so she is a real operator.
Permalink · operator by epictetus
June 3, 2026

artificial general intelligence

A system that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a level equal to or exceeding human intelligence.
Permalink · artificial general intelligence by epictetus
May 25, 2026

artificial general intelligence

Any technology that seems smart enough that it seems to be intelligent in a general way, meaning it can do different things once only doable by humans, much better than most humans who are not expert in that one field can do that one activity (such as: write essays or literature, summarize documents, produce reports and analyses, create music, create images, code software, scrutinize research, suggest strategies, transcribe audio to text, translate text among arbitrary languages, converse fluently over spoken words, or hold a detailed an in-depth spoken dialog on just about any topic in the world at far above an average human level of knowledge for any given topic).

Such a technology is also typically much faster than even humans highly skilled in that field can doing its activities.

The technology's output may match the output quality of humans in many of its tasks. The technology's output is not necessarily at a higher quality than that of all humans highly skilled in that field who spend a much larger amount of time on the same exact task. However, it is quite possible that the technology's output is at higher quality than that of many highly skilled, skilled, or semi-skilled humans who spend a much larger amount of time on the same task.
Permalink · artificial general intelligence by epictetus
May 25, 2026

artificial general intelligence

A mostly automatic system that does better than people at a majority of commercially valuable roles.
OpenAI’s mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity. --OpenAI Charter at https://openai.com/charter
Permalink · artificial general intelligence by epictetus
May 25, 2026

artificial general intelligence

A machine that can do anything that people can do, better than people.
The artificial general intelligence can do anything better than people.
Permalink · artificial general intelligence by epictetus
May 25, 2026

artificial general intelligence

An AI that you can just tell to figure out how to make money and do it profitably for you, and it figures it out and does it on its own.
Permalink · artificial general intelligence by epictetus
May 24, 2026

AGI

See: artificial general intelligence
Permalink · AGI by epictetus
May 24, 2026

FDE

See: forward deployed engineer
Permalink · FDE by epictetus
May 23, 2026

forward deployed engineer

Aka FDE. An individual who helps an org get the most out of AI capabilities by rapidly converting discovered intelligence patterns into software. For AI tools, they identify where that org uses intelligence and delivers on the AI promise.

An FDE
(1) audits to see how to rebuild from the ground up around a particular product or AI;
(2) sets up evaluations to make sure the automation/AI-use will be at least as good as humans; and
(3) deploy that so the systems are real and stay good.

To do this, the FDE is at the intersection of communication, intelligence, product, engineering, and AI. They effectively apply diplomatic pragmatism, effectively selling what they are doing based on their ability to scrutinize and quickly identify, create, deliver, and articulate the value they deliver.
That forward deployed engineer (FDE) does what might have taken a team of 2-5 in the past. But at a fraction of what such a team would cost today. Which would be hard to do efficiently with a team much larger than that. With a solution that would have been impossible a few years ago. I guess that's why we brought them in.
Permalink · forward deployed engineer by epictetus
May 23, 2026