This week I was supposed to share something I'm really excited about. I've been building a video with AI, and it's going really well, but it isn't done and it's going to take a while. So starting next week I want to share the process of building it with you. I'll show you screenshots of what I've been building, how I'm making video with AI step by step, what I've come across along the way, and the frustrations, which are incredibly real. Hopefully the week after that I can share the finished piece.
For this week, a quick tip that came out of that same project.
Yesterday I asked my AI to render two videos at the same time. I was pretty callous about it. I'm doing more advanced work than I'm used to (editing video, rendering, 3D, a lot of different stuff), and my MacBook is a beast, so I didn't think twice.
Then I got on a call with a client and the machine started freezing up. I started freaking out. F*ck, what's going on here? I tried to reset things, Chrome came back without my account, and I couldn't get into the meeting.
So I did something I've only done a few times before. I asked the AI to investigate. Once, when I felt my computer was overheating, I asked it if there was anything it could do, and it went and found the problem, killed the rogue processes and relaunched my software for me. Same thing yesterday. It found that the two renders had opened around 60 invisible browser processes and 14 video encoders at the same time, and together they ran the Mac out of memory. It shut them down, cleaned up what was left and brought Chrome back with my account. No reboot.
It was a godsend. I can't even describe it. A few years ago that would have been a call to the IT guy. My computer's broken, cancel the work for the day, restart everything, it's a sh*t show. I always have a bunch of things running, tabs and ongoing work, so that's a lost day.
Afterwards we talked about it. I asked it to help me understand what happened and how it would prevent it. It came up with a plan, and I had it send that plan to GPT-6 Astra (the ChatGPT model I wrote to you about a few weeks ago) for a second opinion. Astra knew different things, they went back and forth, and they landed on a plan together. Now my AI runs heavy jobs one at a time and stops them on its own if memory gets tight.
The AI you already have on your computer can also be your IT department. It's like an on-demand IT service that's always on, kind of a doctor for your computer that lives inside your computer. It can check the pulse, figure out what's wrong and patch it up. If something feels weird, your computer is slow, it's overheating or your internet isn't working properly, most of what you'd call an IT person for can probably be diagnosed by your AI now, and a lot of it fixed.
This works when your AI has access to your computer, like Claude Code or Codex. A regular chat window can't see inside your machine, though it can still walk you through things if you describe what's happening.
Next time something's off, try this:
And once it's fixed:
If it keeps happening, or it's tied to software you use every day, don't stop at the fix. Ask for the plan. You can validate the plan with another model, send it to do some research, whatever you need. You end up with small fixes and routines that keep it from coming back. They won't be perfect every time, but they help. And you learn a lot about how your computer and your setup work along the way.
I've seen videos of people opening viruses on purpose and asking the AI to stop them, kill the processes and clean things up. I would never do it, and I advise you never to do it either, but it's a great demo of what these tools can do.
As a non-technical person, IT failures have always been an absolute pain in the ass for me. That's why I think this is a great hack.
Going into the terminal can be a scary thing. If you want to learn how to tune up your computer with your AI, set up Claude Code, or just try this with someone next to you, book a session. That's what I'm here for. cal.com/santiago-restrepo/15min
If you try it, reply and tell me what it found.
See you next week with the video.
Santiago