- AI fans are walking around with their laptops ajar to keep their coding agents running.
- Techies told Business Insider stories of walking with a cracked-open laptop through airports, offices, and high school hallways.
- "I think people think I'm whatever the equivalent of an iPad kid is for a middle-aged woman," one AI user said.
- Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information.
Geoff Chan sees the parents staring at him.
The 39-year-old head of product at Raven.AI is a Claude Code and OpenAI Codex power user. He also has two daughters, ages 12 and 10, who love to ice skate. So, when he takes them to their weekly skating practices, he sits outside the rink and codes with AI.
It's easy to lose track of time with these tools, he told Business Insider. Soon enough, the girls' practice has ended, and the parents flood into the changing room. He joins them — with his laptop ajar, so that the AI agent can keep running.
"I have to put it up on a shelf," he said. "I'm untying my girls' skates while looking back like: Is it done?"
Some parents dodge Chan while he wields his half-open laptop. Others try to peek in to see what's on his screen. Many stare.
As agent-mania takes over, techies like Chan aim for longer AI coding sessions. Many of these tools run locally or depend on WiFi, so shutting down their laptops would mean losing progress.
That's why your AI-pilled friend is walking around with an open laptop: their agent is still running.
The cracked-open laptop has become a meme, and OpenAI weighed in with a TikTok winking at those in the know. Business Insider asked eight open-laptop-walkers about why they do it.
Airports, offices, and high schools
Golden Ventures partner Alison Kaizer is normally the first person on the plane. This time, she was the last.
The 39-year-old from Toronto was deep in a task with Claude while waiting for a flight. She held out on boarding until the very last moment, and then walked on the plane with her laptop open, only shutting it when she took her seat.
Kaizer said that the saga was "kind of embarrassing," though it wasn't her first time open-laptop walking. She's also left the house while working with AI, computer open until the WiFi cut out. For this flight, though, she felt she had to acknowledge it to the people around her.
"I looked over my shoulder to the person behind me and said, 'Sorry, I'm using Claude,'" Kaizer said. "They laughed, so there was an understanding immediately."
Arav Jain walks the high school halls with his open laptop. The 15-year-old from Bentonville, Arkansas, is a 10th grader who's building a startup with his 24-year-old cousin. He uses Codex, Claude Code, and OpenCode (paid for with seed money from his parents).
Jain often runs his agents during class, so that he doesn't waste his tokens. When the class is over, but his agent isn't finished, he'll carry his open computer between classrooms. His friends ask why he doesn't put his laptop in his backpack.
"I'm like, 'I got agents running,'" Jain said. "I've got to keep shipping software."
Open laptops dot office hallways, too. Andreas Kruszakin-Liboska, a 23-year-old UX designer from The Hague, often finds himself walking to meetings with his laptop ajar. He takes precautions to avoid having the screen at 90 degrees, though.
"It's just a tiny bit," Kruszakin-Liboska said. "You're not rude at the meeting, with it fully open."
There are ways to keep a laptop running while closed. Inputting the command "caffeinate" in the computer's terminal will keep a Mac active, along with a slew of third-party software. You can also go into your Mac settings and change your display and sleep settings. But for those who don't want to input a terminal command or tweak their settings on the fly, a finger under the hinge will also suffice.
A taco, a clamshell — and an embarrassment
Will Meinhardt has only deigned to open-laptop-walk once.
When the 25-year-old head of sales for Mach 1 attended a conference, he took selfies with many of the companies on the floor. He wanted Claude Code to scan the photos, identify the companies associated, and load them into a CRM. So, on the walk to Crunch Fitness for a workout, he put his agent to work.
"I was personally kind of embarrassed by it," Meinhardt said. "I didn't want anyone looking at my screen, so I was being discreet about it."
Meinhardt's strategy was similar to Kruszakin-Liboska's: Keep the laptop open just a crack, barely noticeable. The distance between the screen and the keyboard differs from person to person. Some keep it wide open so they can see what's happening; others slip a single finger between the hinge, keeping it barely ajar.
David Whipps turns his laptop into a "little taco." The 37-year-old product manager from Melbourne was building a dream recording app at a café. He'd sent his Claude agent on a 30-minute coding task right before the shop closed. He sat at a bus stop to confirm that he could make it home before preparing his laptop taco.
Researcher Rebecca Bultsma leaves her laptop as a "clamshell" in her bag while walking through the airport or waiting on the train platform. Sometimes, the 44-year-old from Calgary leaves it cracked open on the passenger seat of her car.
She gets looks all the time. "I think people think I'm whatever the equivalent of an iPad kid is for a middle-aged woman," Bultsma said.
A move to the Bay Area might cut down those gawks.
Tim Monzures was a longtime Apple engineer before striking out on his own. He often takes the bus around San Francisco — and finds that his agent isn't done when he needs to catch it.
"I've got a family, so I need to get home," the 40-year-old said.
Before leaving, Monzures will connect his laptop to his phone's network, keep it ajar, and run to the bus.
"I may look silly carrying a laptop, but I'm not the only one," Monzures said. "I've seen others, so I feel good."
