Michael Calore: Impenetrable billboards.
Lauren Goode: I said to myself: “What? No, keep me in the land of Burrata and Caravaggio.”
Michael Calore: Well, Lauren, I’m sorry to tell you that you returned to the show just in time to talk about AI agents. I know.
Lauren Goode: Great.
Michael Calore: This is something we’ve talked about a lot this year and our listeners have heard a lot about it, and we can’t get enough of talking about it. We’re actually having a really fun conversation about AI agents today.
Lauren Goode: Well, if you can promise me fun, I’m game.
Michael Calore: I can. I can.
Lauren Goode: Alright, let’s do it. I’m excited.
Michael Calore: We’re going beyond the hype and putting AI agents to work in real time for us. Or more specifically, we’re bringing in journalist and podcast host Evan Ratliff, because he’s built a company of AI employees and executives, and he’s here to tell us about it. Welcome to the show, Evan.
Evan Ratliff: It’s fantastic to be here.
Lauren Goode: Evan, you are also a WIRED original. You’ve been at WIRED for a long time, right?
Evan Ratliff: I’m an old school WIRED person. I was only at WIRED briefly, a few years ago, but I’ve been a contributor to WIRED for several decades.
Lauren Goode: And over those two years, how long did you disappear? Because it is part of your tradition.
Evan Ratliff: Oh, that happened, yeah, it was 2009. I actually only disappeared for a month, which is insane given how much I’ve talked about it over the years. I was trying to disappear for a month by faking my own death, and people could go get me, but it was going to be on my tombstone.
