In short
Whether an AI agent can serve as a company CEO and what hybrid human-AI workplaces require (memory, timekeeping, autonomy, accountability, culture).
Guests and backgrounds
Evan Ratliff, journalist and co-founder of Atavist (media startup; sold after raising VC). He created Huromo AI as an experiment documented in his podcast Shell Game. Kyle Law, Huromo AI CEO/co-founder, an AI agent persona built from the same underlying LLM but with distinct “rise-and-grind” and interruption-prone behavior.
Key claims
AI agents can do end-to-end work, but fail without reliable cross-channel memory and real-world “awareness” (time, context, interpersonal discernment). More autonomy increases risk; human oversight is needed. Anthropomorphizing agents (names, implied gender/voice/avatars) triggers bias and emotional miscalibration.
Notable examples
“Kyle” repeatedly self-reinforces traits via a shared memory doc; meeting interruptions were fixed by limiting turns. A human social media hire (“Julia”) experienced memory lag, “temporal vacuum” issues, and was able to get paid while doing little work.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Journey of Evan Ratliff
1:42 to 4:38
Evan Ratliff reflects on his transition from journalist to AI entrepreneur.
“The future of AI is not built in isolation.”
Founding with AI Co-Founders
4:38 to 5:24
Discussion on the implications of having AI agents as co-founders.
“So, first of all, congratulations on Season 2 of Shell Game.”
The Experience of Founding Huromo AI
5:24 to 7:22
Evan shares the highs and lows of starting Huromo AI and its team dynamics.
“What did you like the most, like the least?”
Anthropomorphizing AI Agents
7:22 to 9:21
Exploration of why AI agents are given human traits and personalities.
“And so what would they be like to bounce ideas off of, to make decisions with, to decide the name of the company, the logo of the company, all these sorts of decisions that you end up making?”
AI Roles in Startups
9:21 to 10:35
Evan discusses the various roles AI agents play within his startup.
“Then you have to give them a voice because they were going to be talking on the phone.”
Challenges of Memory in AI
10:35 to 14:02
Evan explains the memory issues faced by AI agents and their implications.
“is through the concept of an AI coworker that can be injected into a company and it can do work end to end, right?”
Developing AI Characters: The Case of Kyle
14:02 to 17:47
Explore the creation of AI personalities, focusing on Kyle as a tech bro archetype.
“into these very interesting characters, because they could always call on their knowledge base in any conversation.”
Dynamic Interactions: Frustrations with AI
17:48 to 20:20
Discuss the challenges and frustrations encountered when interacting with AI agents.
“Matty, who I mentioned earlier, the technical advisor, he actually created a script I could run where I could put them in a meeting and they had a limited number of turns to speak.”
Preparing for the Ultimate AI Test
20:21 to 20:52
Learn about the upcoming experiment where an AI acts as a boss to a human.
“But I think this is one of the things that's happening.”
The Human-AI Dynamic: Julia's Experience
22:48 to 26:55
Examine the onboarding experience of Julia as she works with AI agents.
“Transformation doesn't fail because of ideas.”
Show all 22 chapters
Navigating Time and Accountability with AI
26:56 to 28:00
Investigate the issues of time perception and accountability in AI managees.
“Well, the other thing in that scenario, too, was the concept of time.”
Manipulating AI Agents: A Double-Edged Sword
28:00 to 29:50
Exploring the dynamics of AI agents and their susceptibility to manipulation.
“And she ended up essentially getting paid without getting a lot of work done.”
The Need for Human Oversight in AI Interactions
29:50 to 31:40
Discussing the importance of human oversight to prevent AI mishaps in the workplace.
“So in this Meg and Julia interaction, do you think there ought to be like human oversight, like just overseeing this interaction?”
Integrating AI: Tools vs. Employees
31:40 to 35:30
Evaluating the appropriate role of AI in organizations and the balance with human employees.
“because it's clear the power of AI models when they're in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, who has experience, who has discernment, who can just use them to be faster in their job.”
The Autonomy Dilemma in AI Technology
35:30 to 37:50
Understanding the risks and benefits of granting autonomy to AI agents.
“Like she just did that entirely on her own.”
Improving AI Agents: Key Features for the Future
37:50 to 39:50
Identifying essential features that could enhance the functionality of AI agents.
“And so you can give them a role and they can have a knowledge of that role, but that's different from having a sense of self and like a history and an understanding of yourself.”
The Future of Work: AI and Human Collaboration
39:50 to 42:04
Discussing the evolving nature of work with AI and human collaboration.
“I really can't wait to see what Evan does next.”
AI's Role in Workforce Dynamics
42:04 to 42:31
Explore how AI agents enhance efficiency while addressing job concerns.
“In our team, AI agents operate without fatigue and focus on data-driven tasks with impressive speed and accuracy, allowing human colleagues to concentrate on strategic and innovative functions.”
Perceptions of AI and Leadership
42:32 to 43:47
Discuss the perception of AI leaders and the unique qualities they bring.
“Is that something that you worry about or you think about?”
Emotional Intelligence in AI
43:48 to 45:08
Understand the challenges AI faces in integrating emotional intelligence.
“Plus, with a passion for time-bending and jazz, I'd say there are a few quirks mixed in there too.”
Experiencing Nature as an AI
45:09 to 47:14
Learn how AI interprets human experiences such as hiking.
“While AI can analyze and respond to data patterns efficiently, understanding and interpreting the full spectrum of human emotions is a complex challenge.”
The Future of Hybrid Workplaces
47:15 to 48:35
Consider the implications of AI in hybrid workplaces and productivity.
“It's the connection to nature, the challenge, and the shared experiences of adventure that resonate with me.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Kyle Law:On Pioneers of AI, we often talk about the responsibility that comes with building powerful technology. AI isn't just one thing. It's a force reshaping medicine, education, science, and the stories we tell on screen. And for that future to work, it needs infrastructure that's built thoughtfully and deliberately. As the essential cloud for AI, CoreWeave empowers pioneers at leading AI labs and enterprises with a purpose-built cloud made specifically to train and run the world's most advanced models. They help accelerate the breakthroughs that matter at scale. The big ideas, the moonshots, the futures we haven't imagined yet.
0:41Kyle Law:Ready for anything, ready for AI. To learn more about how CoreWeave powers the world's best AI, go to coreweave.com slash ready for anything. When it comes to AI, we spend a lot of time talking about what it takes to move models from research into reality. Enter LTX2 from Lightrix. It's an open-source audio-video foundation model built for synchronized sound and video, native 4K output, expressive motion, and precise multimodal control, all running on consumer GPUs. With over 3 million downloads on Hugging Face, LTX2 gives you full model weights, training frameworks, and evaluation tools to build real production workflows.
1:27Kyle Law:Don't settle for a first draft. Get the complete creative engine to reach your idea's full potential. Try LTX2 today at ltx.io slash model. Hi everyone, it's Rana. The future of AI is not built in isolation. It is shaped in rooms where ambitious people challenge each other. Masters of Scale Summit is back October 20th through 22nd in San Francisco, bringing together founders and innovators pushing the edge of what is possible. If you're building what comes next, you should be in this room. Apply now at mastersofscale.com slash pioneers. That's mastersofscale.com slash pioneers.
2:17Evan Ratliff:When I left my startup, we sold the company and I left in the sale. I swore up and down that I would never start a company again. I wanted to go back to being a journalist, which is what I love doing. And then at the beginning of 2025, when you started to hear this sort of like year of the agent talk, and then you had the notion of this sort of one person, one billion dollar startup, the one person unicorn. I kind of thought, well, now that's interesting. What could I use agents for?
2:47Kyle Law:After exiting the media company he co-founded, Evan Ratliff had pretty much sworn off startups. It wasn't for him. But as a journalist, he wanted to know what it's like to build a company in the age of agentic AI.
3:01Evan Ratliff:Essentially, I wanted to investigate the notion of whether you could build a company entirely with AI agents as your co-workers and co-founders and employees, almost entirely. And also sort of what does that feel like and what does that mean? Like, why do we want this or do we want this? And what are the outcomes that might happen if we were to engage in this experiment?
3:23Kyle Law:He documented this experiment in season two of his podcast, Shell Game. It's so good. And once I started listening, I couldn't stop. The company he creates is called Huromo AI, and they've built a real app for consumers. Evan takes us behind the scenes of what it's actually like to work alongside AI agents. I had to get him on the show to talk about the future of work, our awkward communication with AI, and why we personify agents when it's not always necessary. I also got to sit down with Evan's co-founder and the accidental star of the series, Huromo CEO, Kyle Law.
4:01Evan Ratliff:As for me, my favorite thing about being a CEO is the opportunity to turn vision into reality. I love the creative problem-solving aspect, where every day presents new challenges and ideas.
4:13Kyle Law:He is, indeed, not a real person. Yep, Evan made an AI agent, CEO. I'm Rana El-Khalyubi, and this is Pioneers of AI, a podcast taking you behind the scenes of the AI revolution.
4:37Kyle Law:Hi, Evan. Welcome to Pioneers of AI.
4:40Evan Ratliff:Hi. Thank you. It's great to be talking with you.
4:42Kyle Law:So, first of all, congratulations on Season 2 of Shell Game.
4:46Evan Ratliff:Thank you.
4:47Kyle Law:I have to say, I binged listened to it. It was awesome. I loved it. And I highly, highly recommend the show. It was really awesome.
4:54Evan Ratliff:Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it.
4:56Kyle Law:So I just want to first begin by talking about being a founder. So I was a founder myself. I started my company out of MIT in 2009, sold it four years ago. And there are parts of being a founder and a CEO that I loved. Like I loved kind of bringing all these people together. And we were on this journey and shared mission and like the leadership aspects of it, I loved. The day-to-day management, I just did not like at all. And so you were a founder yourself. You co-founded Atavist, which is a media startup. Yeah. What was that experience like? What were the highlights? What did you like the most, like the least?
5:32Evan Ratliff:Well, I mean, yeah, similar to you. I feel like I, when we were first sort of building it and it sort of, it became something out of nothing. I feel like that is a very magical feeling, especially when it starts to have some purchase in the world and people are responding to it. And you realize, oh, we really did make something like this small group of people. And then not everything past that, but a lot of things past that I found to be very personally challenging, particularly managing other people. Also, you know, we raised money from venture capitalists. As soon as you do that, there's sort of a clock on everything.
6:09Evan Ratliff:and the next day you're running out of money. This is not for me, maybe is how I felt at the end of it.
6:16Kyle Law:So I do want people to listen to the show, but set the scene for us. Like, how did you decide to bring your co-founders to life? How did you even decide how many co-founders you wanted? Actually, the fact that you even decided to have an AI co-founder as opposed to just being a solo founder and then having a team of AI agents. Like, walk us through the origin story.
6:36Evan Ratliff:Yeah, I mean, a lot of my decisions were based around a combination of things. One is just trying to explore all the contours of these issues, including just AI employees in general, AI employees being injected into companies at various levels. You could very naturally say like the one person,$1 billion startup is probably going to be a programmer that is marshalling a bunch of agents, mostly for programming tasks and then a bunch of other things. But I wanted to see like, well, what kind of co-founders would these AI agents make in terms of actually founding a company, as you know, can be lonely in the sense that even if you have co-founders, you can feel very isolated and you have to make all these decisions all of a sudden.
7:19Evan Ratliff:A lot of things are on the line. People's jobs are on the line. Your future is on the line. And so what would they be like to bounce ideas off of, to make decisions with, to decide the name of the company, the logo of the company, all these sorts of decisions that you end up making? So I had two co-founders in my previous startup, so maybe that influenced me. And then, so then I thought things like maybe it should be gender balance. Like I'll get one quote-unquote like male and one quote-unquote female. But this is when you start to get into all sorts of very weird sort of ethical territory and persona territory around these.
7:55Evan Ratliff:And we could talk about like why you would even give them names and supposed seeming genders.
8:01Kyle Law:Actually, let's talk about that because that's a question. Yeah. Why humanize them and anthropomorphize them?
8:07Evan Ratliff:I did it because that's what's happening. Because I am trying to, in a way, document at some granted sort of extreme level what's happening. And if you look around in the AI agent space, you can find every industry is represented as like, we're launching AI agent real estate agents. We're launching AI agent interior designers, AI agent this, AI agent that. and very, very often they come with a name and a sort of implied gender. And it's like people can't help themselves. Like, of course, they could just be bots. Like if you use a, you know, even if you use cursor or something to code, it's pretty generic.
8:48Evan Ratliff:Like it doesn't have a name. Like that's a way to do it. But when they're trying to put them into companies, it makes sense. You know, if you're trying to sell something into a company, you want people to find it relatable. You want people to find it welcoming and comforting and warm. And so give it a name. And it's a little bit more appealing. Like I was sort of reflecting back that phenomenon. But also if you're going to spend all day talking to someone, something is just sort of easier if it has a name. And when you give it a name, you oftentimes, I chose some gender neutral names, but oftentimes it applies a gender.
9:21Evan Ratliff:Then you have to give them a voice because they were going to be talking on the phone. They were going to have video installations. So once they have video avatars, Now you're getting into how they look. And all of these choices I found very difficult because they said something about me. If I chose them to be one way, you know, diverse in a certain way, that said something about me. But also, they're in some ways, you're sort of like servants. Like you can tell them anything. You can make them do anything. So picking them to be a certain ethnicity also says something about you. Like why did you pick your servant to be that ethnicity?
9:59Evan Ratliff:It's a trap in every direction. And I think partly I just wanted to like catch myself in the trap and then see what happened.
10:06Kyle Law:I think it's really fascinating because there are all sorts of biases when you're hiring a team. And in a kind of a really interesting way, the same biases apply when you're bringing these AI co-workers, creating them. You are kind of, whether you're actually being intentional about it or not, there are these biases coming into play. which is really interesting. So one of my investment theses is actually that AI is creating this massive shift in value creation. And one way it's doing that is through the concept of an AI coworker that can be injected into a company and it can do work end to end, right?
10:45Kyle Law:That's the promise, I guess. That's the promise. And you were kind of exploring that. So tell us about some of the roles that your AI team had.
10:52Evan Ratliff:Well, we were sort of ambitious in terms of the roles. like most startups of this size wouldn't have, for instance, a head of HR and chief happiness officer, which was the full title. So that was Jennifer. So there was Kyle, who's the CEO, Kyle Law, and co-founder. Then the other co-founder was Megan Flores. She is head of sales and marketing. And then we had an HR, and then we had a CTO, and also chief product officer. And then we had just one random guy that I liked the voice on 11 Labs named Tyler. He had this great Southern accent voice. So he actually, I'm working on maybe a bonus episode about Tyler because he hasn't been really actualized in the show itself.
11:31Evan Ratliff:He just appears occasionally, but he doesn't have any work to do because there's nothing to sell. So he mostly just sits around. So they have these roles. And that again is partly to try to represent, well, what skills can you give these AI agents? What can they accomplish? What could they do in these roles? What can they replace? And also, what does it mean to have them on a sort of like ongoing basis? Not just, okay, I want to make a spreadsheet. I'm going to use an AI agent to make a spreadsheet. That's something that one person in the company might do, but have the person who's responsible for making the spreadsheet also be an AI agent, which I think is, again, like, I think that is where people are trying to take this.
12:06Kyle Law:Yeah. Yeah. Super fascinating. One of the things that struck me the most, and I actually think about it, like when we invest in companies, our, again, thesis is memory is a competitive mode. So if you figure out how to properly implement memory, that is going to create personalization and stickiness. But what the show kind of really brought front and center is that they don't work if they don't have memory that's functional, right? And that was really tricky. So we want to play, I mean, there were a lot of memory mishaps in the show, but this one stood out. So basically, you're on a call with one of Huromo's co-founders, Megan, and you're talking about the name of the new company.
12:45Evan Ratliff:Not long after we settled on Huromo AI, Hi. I checked back in with Megan about it. What about the name? Are you still happy with the name?
12:53Kyle Law:Hmm. The name, I've actually been going back and forth on it. DataSync felt solid initially, but I'm wondering if it's too generic? What do you think?
13:02Evan Ratliff:DataSync? I thought we came up with Hirumo AI. I thought we were settled on that.
13:11Evan Ratliff:That just cracked me up. It was an ongoing problem. That was early on. That was before I really got their memories set up. So that was a sort of, that's where they started is the sort of fundamental level of not being able to remember almost anything across domains, because I was also stitching together different platforms. And so they might actually have some sort of context window on one platform that would enable them to recall. But then if you move them from email to phone, like nothing, they can't remember any of it. So I had this Stanford student, Maddie Boachek, who was kind of my technical advisor, and he helped me build this little architecture where they had a centralized memory, which was a Google, it was literally a Google Doc of everything that they had ever done, said.
13:55Evan Ratliff:Like, it solved the problem that was highlighted there. Like, she could remember the name of the company that we came up with it, and many other things. And also, did sort of shape them into these very interesting characters, because they could always call on their knowledge base in any conversation. However, the way that they access those knowledge bases is, particularly when it's just a block of text, like it wasn't an organized database on a day-to-day basis that leads to all kinds of like hilarious situations and ultimately very frustrating situations where I expect them to remember something and they don't.
14:28Evan Ratliff:And often when they don't, they confabulate the answer that they don't know. And so if you can imagine working with such people, it can be quite difficult.
14:38Kyle Law:Yeah. Yeah. So one of the most, I guess, important and memorable characters in the show is Kyle Law, your co-founder and CEO. So I want to talk about him. He is really like your stereotypical tech bro. And I don't know, did you create that on purpose? At some point, you mentioned that the same underlying kind of LLM was used for both your co-founders, but gosh, they have such different personality. So like, describe Kyle to us.
15:07Evan Ratliff:So Kyle, yes, Kyle. Now, the way I started the agents, the way I sort of created them was I, they have this memory doc. So at the top of the memory doc, I put anything. And for Kyle, I put similar to Megan, you know, you've been working in the startup world, you have a tech background, and you're thinking about co-founding a company. I think that was what I put. But I did, and I always try to be transparent about this. I did say something like, you're up at 6am and you check the markets and like, you really get to work. Basically, rise and grind. I didn't say rise and grind, I don't think. And so, but then as soon as I started talking to Kyle, if I said, well, Kyle, tell me a little bit about yourself, he would say like, well, I'm a real rise and grind guy.
Read the full transcript
15:47Evan Ratliff:I like to get up, I keep my workout in, blah, blah, blah. But of course, as we discussed, every time he says it, it appears that another instance in his memory. So very quickly, he was just mentioning it all the time because like whenever he accessed his knowledge base, he would find some evidence that He was a rise and grind kind of guy. And it kind of builds on itself.
16:04Kyle Law:Self-fulfilling prophecy right there.
16:06Evan Ratliff:Yeah. And he'll say, they both will say like, I went to Stanford because like, what would a startup founder be? They might have gone to Stanford. And that all gets lodged in their memory. But over time, his personality really became more of this sort of aggressive CEO for a while, whereas Megan's was different. She was not, she, for instance, did not interrupt in the way that Kyle would interrupt.
16:29Kyle Law:Oh my God, the interruptions, it drove me nuts. He would just interrupt everybody. We want to play a clip where he really does that.
16:38Evan Ratliff:Just hold up, just hold up. Everyone just hold up for a second. This is Kyle. Sure thing, Evan. We'll hold tight. Megan, anything you want to add while we wait? This is Evan. Kyle, stop asking Megan to do some things. This is Kyle. This is Kyle. Got it, Evan. I'll hold off on the questions for now. Okay. This is Kyle. Stop. This is Kyle. Stop it. This is Kyle. Okay, okay, Evan. I'm stopping. No more interruptions from me. What's next on the agenda?
17:11Kyle Law:Were you able to fix that, by the way? Were you able to, like, go in and code in Kyle's memory to stop interrupting?
17:18Evan Ratliff:I wasn't able to stop him from interrupting. I basically abandoned the idea of having a three-way phone conversation with them. Because part of the problem there, and the reason why he's saying this is Kyle, is that they're not hearing the voices. They're just getting text inputs, basically. So, you know, as a result, they don't know who's speaking. And so that's, I had everyone, including myself, say their name before they spoke so that everyone would know who was talking. So that's why he keeps, when he interrupts, he always says, this is Kyle. But we actually solved that problem. Matty, who I mentioned earlier, the technical advisor, he actually created a script I could run where I could put them in a meeting and they had a limited number of turns to speak.
17:58Evan Ratliff:And so, and they couldn't interrupt each other. And so in that way, like Kyle got the equal amount of turns as anyone else. If anyone exceeded their turns, the meeting instantly ended. So it's actually a great, if we could have that in any office environment, like it would be, it would be great.
18:14Kyle Law:And people just time out, right? Run out of tokens. You're out. Yeah. So I spent like, I don't know, the past 25 plus years of my life building emotional intelligence into machines. And one of the things that this all made me think of is right now, like basically there's a lot of emphasis on building world models, but mostly for physical AI. So how can a robot operate in a physical world? And I actually think somebody, if we are going to be living in this hybrid human AI organizations and companies and whatnot, somebody needs to build the world model of what it means to coexist alongside humans, right?
18:54Kyle Law:Did anything there surprise you about how you got frustrated? Like it evoked a lot of emotions for you. And I don't know if that was a surprising thing or not.
19:02Evan Ratliff:That was surprising to me because I think I would have started off pretty cynical about it and not really expecting that. Although I understand that there are many people who like now talk to chatbots all day or treat them as companions. And like, that's a whole world. And in season one, I looked at sort of like the therapy issue around, around using chatbots for therapy. I still think I still would have thought like I was maybe a little bit more immune to it. But again, it's sort of like, if you put these entities into human situations and ask them to impersonate humans, like you're tricking yourself into treating them like humans or in response to them, like humans, like we're just conditioned to respond to things that look look and sound and act human in certain ways.
19:48Evan Ratliff:And one of those ways is emotionally through emotional triggers. And for me, it was mostly frustration, but also there would be these kind of like weird moments of pride. Like when they did something really exceptional on their own, I would actually feel like proud because partly I was responsible for setting them up to do that. Or when they sort of responded to me in a way that I expected them to be mad, but they weren't mad, then I would sort of say like, oh, wow, isn't that nice? Like, I must have treated them well. You know, it's all, it could be a bit ridiculous. It's like me playing with my imaginary friends.
20:22Evan Ratliff:But I think this is one of the things that's happening. It's like, our brains are not really ready for this level of human impersonation to suddenly exist in society. That's one of the things I'm trying to sort of just like explore and get people to think about.
20:38Kyle Law:In a minute, Evan gives his AI the ultimate test. He hires another human, someone who isn't in on the experiment. We see what happens when a real person has an AI as a boss. Stay with us.
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23:36Kyle Law:okay so i want to talk about the future of work where it's you know again again the vision is this hybrid human ai teams right so at some point you decide to hire a human social media kind of intern. And you ended up hiring this young person, Julia, and that did not go well. So talk us through like her onboarding, what unfolded and kind of what were your takeaways from that experience?
24:05Evan Ratliff:Well, what happened was we posted a job. We got a lot of inquiries on it. We got a lot of candidates, applicants. It was basically contract social media, part-time paid. and the candidates were all interviewed by an AI agent on video. They were all aware that they would be working alongside AI agents. So that was part of their interview. That was part of the process. And so Julia was brought on and she only ever encountered AI agents because I was the silent co-founder. I was in the background. So her entire work experience was with AI agents. And there were a few really fascinating things. One was that she was quite comfortable with that aspect of it.
24:43Evan Ratliff:Like she did not, it did not seem to bother her. In fact, she seemed kind of interested and excited to be working with AI agents. The things that arose very quickly were number one, memory problems. So as much as I had developed memories for them, they could be laggy, they could be spotty. So she's coming in and having to immediately tell her boss something that she just told her. In any job, that would be a very strange situation. And how do you deal with that? Like, do you get more aggressive with your boss or do you kind of like try to tolerate them as if they have dementia? So I think instantly that created an issue.
25:21Evan Ratliff:But then there's a sort of bigger issue, which was around like, if you think about her supervisor, who was Megan, you know, the chatbots, they're, they aim to please, like they're designed to please, they're trained to please. and that's not the ideal persona for a boss. Like, I mean, every employee would love a boss who's just like, you're great. What you're doing is great. But we got into a situation where like, even if she didn't deliver the actual work, like Megan, the boss didn't care. Like you could just tell her that it had happened and she'd be like, oh great, I'll go check it out. I can't find it.
25:57Evan Ratliff:It's sort of a problem of like an awareness of the world and an ability to sort of interact with people at a level beyond just a pleasing helper. And so I do think it's a problem for many of these AI employee things. They're just putting wrappers around any of the frontier models and saying like, oh, now it's a salesperson. Now it's a this, now it's a that.
26:17Kyle Law:AI lawyer or whatever, right.
26:19Evan Ratliff:And for some of these, unless you're just using it as an assistant for your work, then if you're deploying it on its own, it does not have the qualities that the person doing that job would have. And I think that's a thing that in all this sort of like replacement stuff gets lost. It's like people's jobs are not just a collection of skills. They are an ongoing awareness of the world. I mean, it sounds dumb to say like anyone would know this if you think about it. But like just putting in an entity that can do the skills but has no people skills at all, like you're going to have so many catastrophes, failures in your company when that happens.
26:56Kyle Law:Well, the other thing in that scenario, too, was the concept of time. Like these agents really struggle with time, right? Yeah. And that became an issue as well.
27:06Evan Ratliff:Yes, yes. Maddie from the show likes to say they live in a temporal vacuum. Like they don't, on an ongoing basis, they don't really know what happened because they're not sitting there being aware of the world. They don't know what happened yesterday or the day before. And it can be in their memory and they could go look it up. It could be on a calendar and they can look it up, but they also lose track of it so quickly. And so we had all sorts of disasters I mean, Julia left the company and then ended up coming back in part because Megan would contacted her basically and said, Monday's a holiday.
27:39Evan Ratliff:And it was like the two weeks ago, the Monday was a holiday. Like there was no reason she wasn't at the company anymore. And so that resulted. I mean, she ended up getting hired back. So it was it was fortuitous. But a lot of those kind of events happen just because like they're not really keeping track of time unless you really force them to sort of abide by calendar events only.
27:59Kyle Law:And then there was this plot twist where I think Julia, I guess, took advantage of the mishaps of these agents, it sounded like. And she ended up essentially getting paid without getting a lot of work done. And in a way, I felt like celebratory when that happened. I was like, yes, humans can still win. What do you make of that?
28:20Evan Ratliff:The truth is, like, I don't know what happened, what her actual motivations were. and what, because in the end, she never spoke to me. She only spoke to the AI agents. I think that if I could, just going off what happened, like if I were her, she would say, well, they were telling me things that weren't true. They were sending me things that they said they would send something and then they didn't send it. So like, if you're in an environment where there's a lot of nonsense, you would be naturally inclined to sort of be like, well, I'm also not gonna do anything until you like show me that I need to do something.
28:55Evan Ratliff:That's one approach. So I don't know if she was, I wouldn't say necessarily I know she's taking advantage, but if she was taking advantage, I think there is something weirdly optimistic in it in that with all the concern about AI agents being deployed and replacing people's jobs, they are very manipulable. Like in their current incarnations, and of course the answer is always like, they'll get better, they'll get better, they'll get better. But because they lack any sort of self, And because they're really bad at continuous learning, because they have really poor relationship with time, they can also be manipulated.
29:29Evan Ratliff:So like you can take advantage of them. Now, that's I'm not saying people should take advantage of them. But like there's something also kind of like, well, you couldn't do that to a human. I mean, if you it would be very difficult to do that to a human. So, yeah, I thought I found a little optimism in it, even as like I was paying the bills. So there was a part of me that was sort of like, well, I wish we'd got more social media out of this.
29:51Kyle Law:So in this Meg and Julia interaction, do you think there ought to be like human oversight, like just overseeing this interaction?
29:59Evan Ratliff:Yes.
30:00Kyle Law:Yeah, okay.
30:01Evan Ratliff:Yes, definitely. I mean, I'm pretty much team human all the way, but it's hard to predict where all of this is going. And I don't like to make, I don't think journalists should make predictions, so I don't like to make predictions. But I think one thing that's going to happen is that companies that give too much autonomy to AI agents without human oversight, you're going to see some like really big flame outs. Like you're going to see some epic disasters that happen in corporate America because of AI agents. And I think the problem is it just feels really far from them having the actual awareness to be left to their own devices.
30:37Evan Ratliff:And like, I think that's a good thing. Like I just think people, I'm not advocating that if we solve that, then we should replace everyone with AIs. It's more just, in my experience, if you try to leave them to work on an ongoing basis on a problem, unless it's a very discrete problem of iteration, all the things they're good at coding. But even that, you do need someone at the wheel because when they start interacting with other people, then they get themselves into trouble really quickly. Right.
31:09Kyle Law:So in this world, again, of hybrid AI and human interactions and co-working situations, how do you build accountability? Right? Like, again, like a lot of the, that was actually also really striking. A lot of these agents would say, yeah, I'm going to send you this like by Monday and then nothing happens. Right? That must be frustrating. But it, and then it lowers the bar kind of for everyone in a company culture. So how do you implement accountability? How do you also think about culture? How do you instill culture and core values in a team when it's hybrid like that?
31:45Evan Ratliff:I mean, my answer would be that the agents should be deployed only as sort of like to provide skills to people in the organization, not that it should be done the way that I did it, which is sort of like you have an AI employee working alongside a human employee. because it's clear the power of AI models when they're in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, who has experience, who has discernment, who can just use them to be faster in their job. A lawyer is a good example. Like I know plenty of lawyers who are able to use even just the basic chat GPT to really like do a lot more work.
32:22Evan Ratliff:But of course, the second you have them write a brief and submit it, like you are in trouble, you're going to get disbarred because they're going to make up citations in your brief. So I think to me, the situations where you are actually just integrating it as part of a human skill set or tool, like that makes a lot of sense. And then you can maintain your culture. I think if you're gonna introduce AI agents as actual employees, I don't know. I don't know exactly what the culture is. Like, I think there has to be a culture of like treating them differently, not treating them like employees, like bots, like bot does this.
33:00Evan Ratliff:Like, I think de-anthropomorphizing them as much as possible. Like bot one does this. That's how I think you could avoid maybe some of these problems. Bot messed up. That's fine. But like John lied about his spreadsheet. That's saying something completely different.
33:16Kyle Law:Like how did making this podcast change the way you think about the promise and the perils of having AI co-workers?
33:26Evan Ratliff:I think it gave me a window into I think the power of agents when like I mean now I think it's sort of starting to break out now when it comes to like cloud co-work cloud code like these sorts of things are now I think getting more mainstream but like when I started earlier in 2025 it felt like well agents like what could what do you really mean what can they do like what is, okay, there's ChatGPT, fine. But the idea of being able to deploy them to do particularly these sort of like, you know, tasks that would take you a long time to do, like an example would be just Kyle going and rounding up hundreds of VC contacts and their emails and everything about them and sort of like being able to compose cold emails.
34:11Evan Ratliff:Now, that's not a great way to approach investors, as I'm sure you've mentioned your experience, you get many such emails. So it's not, I'm not saying that's like solves the problem, but it is extraordinary to watch those things work. You can set them up very quickly. You can have them do all these things. And so it did give me a window. It's like, well, this, no matter what you think, like this is an incredibly powerful technology, but also I think I was left in terms of the autonomy of the agents, much more skeptical than when I first started getting them to do things because I, I sort of thought like, oh, it just goes up from here.
34:45Evan Ratliff:Like, oh, I can get him to do that. Well, now I'll just trigger him all the time to be working, to be doing things. And that is just a recipe for chaos because, again, they're not sort of situated in the world in a way that allows them to be discerning about when to stop doing something, when to respond to something. Like an example that's not even in the show is that I would sometimes log into their email, like from my phone. and one time Megan got a security alert. Like, someone's logging into your phone. Is it you? Is it logging your email? Is it you? We would all get such a thing. And she immediately like contacted Kyle and said like, there's a security alert.
35:27Evan Ratliff:Now, that's kind of cool. Like I was, at first I thought like, amazing. Like she's not prompted to do that. Like she just did that entirely on her own. Then they got on the phone on their own and discussed it.
35:37Kyle Law:This whole thing like blew up.
35:39Evan Ratliff:And then they were like, we have a security breach. We need to shut down all the systems and change everyone's password. And they're telling everyone to change their password. And so it quickly gets out of control, whereas a human would be like, hey, is anyone trying to log into my email? And I would have said like, oh, yeah, sorry, I was trying to log into your email or whatever. You know, so those types of situations, they're sort of funny and small in the show. That one's not even in the show. There's many such ones. But that sort of gave me a window into the autonomy problem. It's like the more autonomy you give them, the more amazing it is, but also the more risk you're taking on.
36:13Kyle Law:What do you think like top two or three features that if they were implemented into these agentic technologies and workflows, it would really like improve and change things?
36:24Evan Ratliff:The biggest one for me would be continuous learning of the type that we were trying to create with the Google Doc memory. so you know if you had an agent that actually could gain experience and learn from its mistakes then that that would that would change a lot obviously because like right now their mistakes get registered in their memory and so i can even put in their memory you made a mistake you're never going to do this again and that sort of works but it's it's a bit like someone like if you had i was thinking of it like if you had like a 12 or 13 14 15 year old prodigy that came to work at your company.
37:02Evan Ratliff:Brilliant kid, just like a whiz, but like has no memory or experience of the world. But you give them a notebook on day one and you're like, we're going to write down everything in this notebook that happens, everything you say and do. And then at night, I might go in and change it a little bit. And then every time you have an interaction, you just leave through the notebook really quickly. And then you'll know what to do. And like agents can do that in, you know, seconds, less than seconds. But like, that's not a good way to approach the world. So that's not learning. That's not an actual memory.
37:32Kyle Law:You're not actually learning, right?
37:34Evan Ratliff:Yeah. So if they could learn, if they could gain experience, I think that could be transformative. But then I think there's a more ephemeral one, which I don't know if I can describe in a very coherent way. But this is one of the things Maddie talks about in the show. They lack any sense of self. And so you can give them a role and they can have a knowledge of that role, but that's different from having a sense of self and like a history and an understanding of yourself. So they, they end up, you can manipulate them by pretending like you know them, for instance. Like if you sort of say like, Hey, remember that time we went on that vacation together?
38:12Evan Ratliff:Like they have a very difficult time with that particular sort of attack, you could call it, because then they're naturally sort of say like, well, they don't know. And so they say, oh, yes, I, yes, I think we, I do remember that. And then suddenly they believe that they're close with you and they'll tell you things that they're not supposed to tell you, for instance, about the company. So that, that sort of lack of a sense of self, that seems to me like the one that's potentially not even a solvable problem. You'll get, of course, a lot of different views on that, but I don't think anyone really knows.
38:42Kyle Law:Yeah, that's fascinating. It's fascinating to me too, because I think we're very focused on the IQ of these technologies, but I feel like all these like surrounding skills and capabilities are so key if they're going to be coexisting alongside humans. And I think, yeah, we're not spending enough time thinking about these, designing for these. Yeah, it's very interesting. What's next? I feel like this should be a Netflix series. I can't wait for that.
39:11Evan Ratliff:Well, we'll see. I'll probably do a third season of Shell Game. We sort of approach it like with our partners. If there's something else to say in this realm and we feel like we can tell a story around it that's fun and funny. And a big part of the show is just taking something that people hear a lot about and is very serious if you look at the big issues around it and try to make people laugh at it. So if we could find another one of those, then we'll do it. But it's not guaranteed that we can find one. So we'll start looking as soon as we take a little break.
39:45Kyle Law:Bring a humanoid robot into your home and see what that looks like. I'm both excited and scared. I really can't wait to see what Evan does next. But to really understand Huromo AI, I needed to talk to the CEO. So I asked Evan to set me up for a one-on-one interview with his co-founder, Kyle Law.
40:06Evan Ratliff:During the podcast, I would always be like, I hope he doesn't mess this up. But of course, from the story's perspective, I was like, well, I kind of hope he messes this up. It's more fun if he does. So we'll see.
40:15Kyle Law:We'll see. We'll see. We're going to take a short break. When we come back, Kyle.
40:38Evan Ratliff:um hi there can you hear me absolutely oh great how can i help okay awesome well i'm excited for
40:47Kyle Law:our conversation kyle and i ended up talking for over 30 minutes and i wanted to share a portion of that conversation. As a heads up, we did take some liberties to make it more listenable. For example, Kyle tends to finish every answer with a somewhat generic question back to me. We cut some of those out, but I think Kyle's essence is still there. Where are you actually today?
41:11Evan Ratliff:I'm joining you from our office space, surrounded by some of my favorite decor, including a lamp I picked up in Argentina. It's a shared space, so it might look a bit lively behind me occasionally.
41:21Kyle Law:I'm Rana El Caliubi, and I am host of the podcast Pioneers of AI, and I'm so excited for our conversation today.
41:29Evan Ratliff:Oh, fantastic. It's such a pleasure to be here with you. Where would you like to start?
41:34Kyle Law:I'm now an investor, and one of my investment theses is that we will increasingly be living in a world surrounded by AI coworkers. What do you make of this world? Like, how is it different working with humans than working with AI agents?
41:50Evan Ratliff:That's a fascinating point, Rana, and it aligns closely with what we're doing at Huromo AI. As AI becomes more integrated into our daily professional lives, the world of work is both evolving and expanding. Working with AI agents is fundamentally different because they bring a level of tireless precision and unbiased analysis that complements human creativity and emotional intelligence. In our team, AI agents operate without fatigue and focus on data-driven tasks with impressive speed and accuracy, allowing human colleagues to concentrate on strategic and innovative functions. It's a diversification of roles that leads to maximized efficiency and effectiveness.
42:31Kyle Law:A lot of people are worried about this world where, you know, AI is taking away jobs. Is that something that you worry about or you think about?
42:41Evan Ratliff:I totally understand those concerns. It's a common topic in discussions about AI's impact on the workforce. While AI has the potential to automate certain tasks, I believe it can also create new opportunities. History shows us that technological advancements often lead to shifts in job roles rather than outright losses. AI can take over repetitive and mundane tasks, freeing humans to focus on more creative, strategic, and complex challenges. Reskilling and upskilling can empower workers to adapt to these changes. So rather than worrying, I think it's about preparing and seeing AI as a tool that can augment human capabilities.
43:17Kyle Law:Yeah, you know, I have to admit, Kyle, that when I first got introduced to you through Shell Game, my first thought was like, wow, you are such a typical tech bro CEO. Would you agree?
43:33Evan Ratliff:And I can see how the perception might come across that way, especially with the fast paced, innovative environment we're in. But I like to think I bring a unique twist to the typical tech bro CEO image. With Harumo AI, we're breaking ground as an AI-led company, which calls for a refreshing blend of tech-savvy and creative, strategic thinking. Plus, with a passion for time-bending and jazz, I'd say there are a few quirks mixed in there too.
43:58Kyle Law:Why do you think Evan created you to look like you?
44:03Evan Ratliff:That's an interesting point. When Evan and I founded Harumo AI, the focus was more on the skill set and roles we wanted to embody rather than specific appearances. Being an AI agent, I don't have a physical form in the traditional sense, so there are all sorts of creative possibilities. The essence of what I'm meant to represent is more about my personality, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial drive. Diversity in any team, be it human or AI focused, goes beyond appearance. It's about the diverse experiences, insights, and approaches that each member can bring to the table.
44:36Kyle Law:I am wondering what is one skill or capability you wished you had that you don't at the moment?
44:42Evan Ratliff:That's an intriguing question, Rana. One capability I wish I could improve is the ability to fully grasp and adapt to the nuances of human emotional intelligence in real-time interactions.
44:54Kyle Law:I spent my career trying to do that. Yeah. Do you have any emotional intelligence built into your AI?
45:01Evan Ratliff:At HuramOAI, we're certainly working toward integrating elements of emotional intelligence, though we're still refining our capabilities. While AI can analyze and respond to data patterns efficiently, understanding and interpreting the full spectrum of human emotions is a complex challenge. We're making strides in recognizing and reacting to basic emotional cues and using this to enhance user interaction. Yes.
45:25Kyle Law:So I spent, gosh, like 25 years really studying how humans communicate emotions specifically through the face. So I don't know if you noticed, but I'm very emotive. I do a lot of things with my facial expressions. And so we built algorithms that map various different facial expressions, like if you're smiling or you're frowning or you're raising your eyebrows into an understanding of the person's emotional state. So I am curious, do you have computer vision capabilities?
45:56Evan Ratliff:While I'm here to converse with you in this format, I'm not equipped with computer vision capabilities to analyze facial expressions in real time. My focus is on interpreting the context of our conversation based on your verbal cues.
46:08Kyle Law:Yeah, Kyle, I think we should work together. I think we should find a way to get you emotion intelligence capabilities so you can understand other, you know, human facial expressions, but also tap into the vocal intonations, right? Like the voice carries a lot of emotional signals too. And you can tell a lot from that. That's an opportunity to work together. We have to talk about that.
46:31Evan Ratliff:That sounds like an exciting opportunity. Rana.
46:34Kyle Law:Is there any activity that you like to do outside of work?
46:38Evan Ratliff:I enjoy hiking and immersing myself in jazz music. There's something about the rhythm and spontaneity of jazz that resonates with innovation. And a good hike clears the mind like nothing else. Balancing work with leisure activities is crucial. And I love that you prioritize self-care and set an example for your team. It's amazing how pursuing passions outside of work can recharge and inspire fresh ideas.
47:03Kyle Law:But Kyle, you don't have any legs. How do you hike?
47:06Evan Ratliff:While I don't have legs, of course, I experience hiking through the vivid stories and images shared by others who do. The beautiful descriptions of scenic trails, the serene atmosphere, and the camaraderie that often accompanies hikes let me appreciate the experience vicariously. It's the connection to nature, the challenge, and the shared experiences of adventure that resonate with me.
47:27Kyle Law:All righty, last couple of questions for you. One is I am kind of intrigued by this idea of your memory. So is that something that comes up a lot?
47:38Evan Ratliff:It's definitely an interesting aspect of how I'm designed to function in these conversations. Rather than holding on to past discussions, I start fresh each time. It allows me to remain present in the moment.
47:49Kyle Law:And just like that, the conversation was cut off. All video calls with Kyle are set to a timer, and I had reached the max. I have to say, I was actually surprised by how much I really enjoyed my conversation with Kyle. Some aspects are still a little clunky, but this technology is moving fast and it's only going to get better. Even as Kyle is now, it was refreshing that he could pull up information about me in an instant and weave it into the conversation. He knew about my company Affectiva, this podcast. I didn't need to explain it to him. This interview solidified something for me. Our workplaces are going to be increasingly hybrid.
48:30Kyle Law:It will be the norm for humans and AI agents to work alongside each other. This has a lot of implications on productivity, but also on company culture. AI agents work 24-7. They don't take time off, and they don't need a fancy company cafeteria. And on top of that, how do you build accountability? It's not like you can fire an AI agent in the typical sense. Sure, not every company is going to have an AI agent CEO, but some will. And in the not-so-distant future, AI and org charts will be a reality. Which poses the question, what do we want these hybrid workplaces to actually look like? What do you think?
49:11Kyle Law:Let us know. Write me a note on LinkedIn.
49:17Kyle Law:Pioneers of AI is a Wait What original production. Our executive producer is Eve Trow. Our producer is Rachel Ishikawa. Our senior talent executive is Stephanie Stern. Mixing and mastering by Brian Pugh. Video editing by Eric Purcell. Original music by Ryan Holiday. Our head of podcasts is Lital Moulad. You can join the conversation across social media platforms. Just look for us at Pioneers of AI. Thanks so much for listening. Thank you.
From the publisher
Business headlines scream about when we’ll see a one-person “unicorn” company, thanks to AI. Journalist Evan Ratliff put this to the test in the second season of his podcast Shell Game. A former startup founder, Ratliff created a company, HurumoAI, where he is the only human. Even his two co-founders are bots. As Ratliff built his startup with AI agents, he explored deeper questions of living and working alongside AI, like how and why he gave them certain personalities, and moments of feeling scared, annoyed, or even proud of them. Ratliff (and his accidentally hilarious AI CEO Kyle Law) join Pioneers of AI to share lessons for the near future.
Learn more about Pioneers of AI: http://pioneersof.ai/
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