# Long-running agents could pursue missions, not just tasks

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/long-running-agents-could-pursue-missions-not-just-tasks/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/) · Scott Wu is co-founder and CEO of Cognition. · Co-founded Cognition, the company behind Devin, an autonomous software engineer; three-time IOI gold medalist.
- Host: [David Senra](https://realalpha.app/people/david-senra/) · Host, Founders · Has read an entrepreneur's biography every week for Founders since 2016.
- Show: Founders
- Episode: [The Future of Software & AI | Cognition’s Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/), Jun 28, 2026
- Moment: 23:01 to 29:08 of the episode (6 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/long-running-agents-could-pursue-missions-not-just-tasks/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1381

## Quote

> “That's a problem that an **agent can think about**, right?”
> — [Scott Wu](https://realalpha.app/builders/scott-wu/) at [26:34](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1594) · Founders

## Takeaways

1. Multi-month agents could work on societal problems, science or games.
2. Some agents may choose missions and coordinate other agents.
3. Wu predicts this could change what people consider work.

## About this segment

Scott Wu imagines agents pursuing open-ended causes, scientific questions or game ideas, with a manager agent choosing missions. He expects work to shift from assigned tasks to sustained goals.

From “The Future of Software & AI | Cognition’s Scott Wu”, Jun 28, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[23:05](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1385) If Devin could work for a year without any human assistance, what would you have it do right now? Destroy your competitors? All sorts of things. I mean, no, I mean, I still wake up and think about this in every different, like, you know, every little thing that I run. You know, dumb example. Yesterday, I was sending out, like, a bulk email. And I was like trying to get the like email formatter to work and it's like kind of painful, you know, some of these things are still like kind of hard to use or it doesn't support a certain like styling of the email that you wanted to go do.

[23:37](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1417) I think the thing I like had pasted something with indents and then it was like, it just couldn't like un-indent them because the editor like, I don't know, there were some weird things where the editor like would not allow you to un-indent one part but not the other or whatever. And I was just thinking, like, it's really crazy that, like, that I'm still doing this, basically, right? Like, in as much simplicity or honestly more as it would take you to explain this to another person.

[24:03](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1443) Like, hey, here's what I want to do. I just, like, I'm just trying to make it look like this and then this and then that. Like, the rest of that execution should just be done for you, you know? And then you get to the point where you actually really just get to spend all your time thinking about, well, what do you want to do? You know, what do you want to build? What do you want to create? Like, what are the things that you want to see in the world that aren't there already?

[24:20](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1460) But I think what makes it interesting about what you were saying earlier is, like, the more you increase the time, the more interesting it gets to me. So, like, there's this guy named Edwin Land, who I won't shut up about. And he was the founder of Polaroid. Yeah, yeah. Steve Jobs' hero. A lot of what we think of as Steve Jobs' ideas literally just came from Edwin Land down to, like, the chairs and the table he would use for his presentations.

[24:39](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1479) It's, like, the same thing that Edwin Land used in, like, the 70s in Polaroid. And he thought of himself as a scientist, not as an entrepreneur, Edwin Land. He died with, I think, the third most patents. He was like Thomas Edison, some other dude, and then Edwin Land. And what he did is he couldn't figure out, he invented the industry of instant photography before you took a picture, and you're like, hey, how's it going?

[25:00](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1500) to look like we'll find out two weeks from now when we get back to kodak like i have no idea and he now we take he took a picture of a polaroid he's like we'll find out in 60 seconds when it dries but that was black and white forever when i read that part where you're like well we're gonna have agents that can work on a sister for a year yeah i didn't think of what i would do which is a question i just asked i thought of edwin land hiring this guy he's like i want you to think about how we turn this from black and white into color yeah and before he could begin the guy worked there and just thought for two years sure i'm like that would be very convenient if i could have an agent attacks problem and while i'm working in the background because i can't figure it out they're just thinking about how to attack a single problem for two in his case it's the guy that

[25:35](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1535) fucking solved instant color photography just took him two years of thinking to do it so this is like i'm going to push you on this a little bit more because like no i don't want your year-long agent to send bulk email oh i agree i can do it just to be clear so so i i and i think at some point it's it's kind of you know you see this right where it's like um you know when you're talking about seconds you're literally talking about just like a specific command right when you're talking about hours, you're talking about giving it a task and having it do the task, right? And I agree with you, obviously, bulk email is not, you know, for years, what you're talking about is like, you're giving the agent a mission, basically, you know? And it's like, this is- That sounds way more fun.

[26:10](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1570) Yeah, exactly. And this is like, what do I care about? And, you know, the answer might be, look, I want to give you a million different examples. You know, the answer might be, look, there's this like one, you know, societal problem, which is really important to me. And I think there's like, I think it's a solvable problem. I think we can all be happy, but we really need to spread awareness about it.

[26:31](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1591) We really need to get folks to understand the points of it. And we need to figure out how everybody should work together and coordinate on it. I think that's your point. That's a problem that an agent can think about, right? Or even some of the kind of like sillier things too, like, yeah, there's this video game that I really like, but I wish, if I were making the game, here's exactly how I would think about all these things.

[26:52](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1612) And I feel like there's like this really cool idea if, you know, you could combine elements from this one game that I really like, but then incorporate some of the elements from this other game and set the agent off on that mission of like, look, we're going to go and like make the coolest thing ever and the coolest game ever. And like, we're going to incorporate those elements. We're going to think about how those like, you know, nicely intertwine and work together, right?

[27:12](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1632) Or if it's like, here's this like piece of just like novel science, which I'm just like really passionate about. You know, materials have been created this way for years and years, But like, like, here's this like avenue of attack, which I've been wondering about and thinking about of maybe there's there's a different. like novel construction of materials this way, send your agent to go work on that for years, you know, or months, right?

[27:35](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1655) And like have it study that and explore these things and run its own experiments and trial these. I think all of these are, I think, soon going to be very possible. And to your point, it's very different. Yeah, like the framing of we're sending them on missions. Yeah. I would have one that would pick the missions that I need to send other agents on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then you'll have the AI, which is like the manager AI of the missions.

[27:56](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1676) Yeah. And I think it's like, I think we will continue. And, you know, it's my example of this is like I always joke about how, you know, if you think about our ancestors from, you know, hundreds of years ago or thousands of years ago, imagine them looking at us and what we do. And it's like, you know, you're pushing buttons, you know, and you're like sitting in a room and talking with other people and you call that a meeting.

[28:16](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1696) And that's like those things, that's work for you guys, you know, and it's like, what do you mean that's work? You know, like I'm in the fields, like I'm doing this every day, you know, I'm going and farming. I'm making sure that, you know, making all of our like, you know, clothes by hand or taking care of all these things. And that's like work, you know, but like how can you guys call, you know, and my point is just, I think what we will have going forward is going to look that different from what we have today.

[28:44](https://realalpha.app/v/PYobZzjW_ic/?t=1724) We will look at people who, as we say, just like have these really interesting curiosities that they want to pursue. They have, like, causes that they're passionate about. They have, like, fun ideas or, like, art that they want to create. And, like, they're sending off their agents in pursuit of those missions. And they will think of that as work. And we will look at them and be like, wow, it's kind of crazy that that's what you get up and think about all day.