https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2025/05/31/intelligent-agent-technology-open-sesame-1993/ [?]I Get Info * by Matt Sephton * Search blog: [ ] * About * RSS * Tags * Support Intelligent Agent Technology: Open Sesame! (1993) 2025-05-31 * 1 min read #ai #automation #history #macintosh #poweruser #software After years of unsuccessful attempts to find the name of a long-forgotten app through Google, I tried pasting my query into Gemini: "Back in my teens I saw a software demo for a Mac/Windows app that tracked what you were doing and offered to complete repetitive tasks for you. Like renaming all files in a folder it would interrupt after a few and offer to do the rest. Maybe late 80s or early 90s." Gemini instantly responded with the app by name and with references. (out of all the services I tried, ChatGPT was the only other one to identify the app correctly.) Open Sesame! was "the world's first intelligent software assistant for the Macintosh. It observes how you work, learns your repetitive patterns, and then offers to do them for you. Automatically." IMG --------------------------------------------------------------------- One Thousand and One Nights I remember seeing a demo of Open Sesame! in the early/mid-1990s. Although the demo failed--the Macintosh was supposed to prompt the user to continue renaming a series of files in sequence--the concept left a lasting impression on me. Over the years I've tried to find the event I saw the app at, the app itself, or any other information. I asked other classic Macintosh enthusiasts. Time after time I failed to find the answer. So I find it delightfully circular that in 2025 I am using the "ai" benefits of machine learning to find out the name of an app built around machine learning in 1993. --------------------------------------------------------------------- IMG --------------------------------------------------------------------- Download * Open Sesame! 1.1 at Macintosh Garden Further Reading * MacWorld: MacBulletin (August 1993) * MacWorld: News (September 1993) * MacWorld: advertisement (December 1993) * MacWorld: review of version 1.02 (May 1994) * MacWorld: advertisement (June 1994) * MacWorld: price of version 1.1 (December 1994) * MacWorld: get Open Sesame! free when buying a keyboard (August 1995) * NASA Spinoff: Intelligent Agent Technology (scan) (1996) -- Want to see more content like this? Buy me a coffee! -- Comments: Twitter , Bluesky , Mastodon Previous Post If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes --------------------------------------------------------------------- tag cloud: 1bit 1bitwoodblocks 3ds 60fps abandoned ai amiga animation apple appletv appstore arcade archaeology archive art artist atarist audio automation bandkun barbaranessim basiliskii becker best birthday blitz cars controller credits critique dailydriver deneba design djmix dreamcast driving dsiware early electronics emoji emulation extension famicom faq finder fonts foretrack gamedev gameplay games gba golf google graphics guide hack hanafuda hardware history hypercard icarus internetarchive interview ios iphone japanese keyquencer koei koikoi llamasoft logo love2d lua maboshi macigame macintosh macos magazine mahjong manual maps marchintosh markdown medium megadrive midjourney mmm moai mod modes msx music nes nintendo nintendo64 nintendods nova openscad palmos patreon pc pc98 physics piece pixelart playdate playstation polarium popular poweruser preservation proxy racing recap recommendations rendering reverseengineering review roundrobin rss samegame save scans script sega sensiblesoccer sfx shell simplesoccer snes soapbox software solitaire sonyreader sounds sparrowsolitaire summary system7 tandesoft tetris thoruyamamoto tooling translation tshirt tv twitter ultrapaint ux videogame wii wiiware windows wirehang workaround workflow wwdc x68000 year yoyozo