Cutting through the noise in AI

Welcome to the Women Who AI Newsletter, your weekly update on what actually matters in AI when you’re focused on building and scaling startups.

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Deep Dive: AI Agents that Use the Web

Back in March, we wrote about Browser Use, an open-source solution that automates web navigation. Since then, startups and established players have released their AI agents to navigate web interfaces. Last week, Hugging Face joined the area with their Open Computer Agent.

This AI agent can:

• Navigate to websites

• Click buttons and links

• Fill out forms

• Search within pages

• Handle popups and basic page interactions

It's built on Hugging Face's smolagents framework, continuing the trend of accessible, open-source AI automation tools.

How It Works

Built on Hugging Face's smolagents framework, it leverages vision models for intuitive interactions, interpreting visuals on the screen to perform tasks. These models can detect and interact with screen elements by analyzing images and predicting clickable coordinates.

Use Cases for Busy Founders

• Market Research: Automate competitor analysis, product tracking, or sentiment analysis.

• Productivity Boost: Delegate repetitive web tasks (checking metrics, monitoring competitor sites).

• Automated Testing: Streamline UI testing without manual oversight.

• Personal Assistant: Handle errands like booking flights or finding directions automatically.

Try the Live Demo

Want to see it in action without setup? Hugging Face has a live demo available here.

Quickstart Guide (DIY with smolagents)

Ready to build and customize agents that use the web? Here's a rapid-fire setup guide. It might require familiarity with Python, but we recommend downloading Visual Studio Code and trying to run it yourself, even if you’re new to programming! You’ll be surprised how easy it is to set up, and you can always respond to this email with any questions or issues you run into.

1. Install Dependencies:

You can do this from your Terminal, if you’re using a Mac or Linux.

pip install smolagents selenium helium pillow python-dotenv

2. Set up Hugging Face Access:

You need a Hugging Face API key to use their models. Get yours by signing up or logging in to your Hugging Face account, creating a new API token, then setting it as an environment variable in your Terminal:

export HUGGINGFACE_API_KEY='your_hugging_face_api_key_here'

3. Define Browser Interaction Functions:

Create a new file and save it as main.py. Copy the following code into the file:

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
from smolagents import CodeAgent, InferenceClientModel, tool

# Initialize browser
driver = webdriver.Chrome()

@tool
def go_back() -> None:
    """Goes back to previous page."""
    driver.back()

@tool
def close_popups() -> str:
    """
    Closes any visible modal or pop-up on the page. Use this to dismiss pop-up windows!
    This does not work on cookie consent banners.
    """
    webdriver.ActionChains(driver).send_keys(Keys.ESCAPE).perform()

#Initialize Model
model = InferenceClientModel(model_id="meta-llama/Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct")
agent = CodeAgent(tools=[go_back, close_popups], additional_authorized_imports=["helium"], model=model)

# Set and run task - update this for your task
agent.run("Navigate to womenwho.ai and write an actionable tutorial from the latest blog post.")

4. Run your code:

Once these are all added, open your terminal, navigate to the Python file you created, and run python main.py.

Check the detailed docs here. And more about getting started with Python here.

Limitations & Considerations

• CAPTCHA and Logins: Not yet supported; you'll need manual intervention to get past these gates.

• Early-stage tech: Expect occasional hiccups and limitations, particularly with complex tasks.

Women Who AI Upcoming Events

Workshops: Building AI Agents

Ready to start building your own AI agents? Join one of Women Who AI’s upcoming hands-on workshops. You'll learn to build your own AI agents from scratch and walk away with real automation tools ready to use immediately—no previous coding experience required.

• Virtual Workshop: Today, May 12, 1-2 PM ET / 10-11 AM PT | RSVP Here

• San Francisco Workshop: Sunday, May 18, 2-5 PM | RSVP Here

Women Who AI x MIT Alumni Startups (MITAS): Demo Night

An official NY Tech Week Event, join us for a night where women founders demo their AI ventures + real talk, great food, and smart convos.

June 5 | 5:30 PM | Fabrik, Tribeca | $20 (MITAS members free)

• RSVP 

• MITAS members sign up here

• Apply to Demo (priority given to Women Who AI startups)

Job Spotlight: Software Engineer at Holly (Brooklyn, NY)

Holly, a fast-growing startup transforming workforce management for local governments, is seeking a Software Engineer to join as their second technical hire.

Holly's platform leverages AI to automate job design and compensation benchmarking, already impacting jurisdictions representing 1% of the U.S. population. You'll tackle complex data challenges, build scalable pipelines, and craft intuitive interfaces using modern tools (Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Tailwind CSS, and more).

Learn more and apply here.

Reply With Questions

We want this newsletter to address the real challenges you're facing. Is there a specific AI development you'd like explained? Jargon we included but didn't properly explain? A business problem you're trying to solve with AI? Reply directly to this email with your questions, and we'll tackle them in next week's edition.

Share the Knowledge

If you found value in today's newsletter, please consider forwarding it to other women in your network who are building, or thinking about building, in the AI space. The more we grow this community, the stronger our collective impact becomes.

Here's to building the future of AI, together.

Lea & Daniela