Michael Calore: Unexplored billboards.
Lauren Goode: I thought to myself, “What? No, keep me in the land of Burrata and Caravaggio.”
Michael Calore: Well, Lauren, I hate to say it, but you’re back on the show just in time to talk about AI agents. I know.
Lauren Goode: Great.
Michael Calore: It’s something we’ve talked about a lot this year, our listeners have heard a lot about it, and we can’t get enough of talking about it. We actually had a very witty conversation today about AI agents.
Lauren Goode: Well, if you can promise me a good time, I’m in.
Michael Calore: I can. I can.
Lauren Goode: All right, let’s do it. I’m excited.
Michael Calore: We’re moving beyond the noise and letting AI agents work for us in real time. More specifically, we’re hiring journalist and podcast host Evan Ratliff because he built a company of AI employees and executives and he’s here to tell us all about it. Welcome to the show, Evan.
Evan Ratliff: It’s fantastic to be here.
Lauren Goode: Evan, you’re also a WIRED original. You’ve been at WIRED for a long time, right?
Evan Ratliff: I’m an ancient school WIRED person. I worked at WIRED for a very miniature time, a few years, a long time ago, but I have been with WIRED for many decades.
Lauren Goode: And of those two years, how long have you been gone? Because it’s part of your knowledge.
Evan Ratliff: Oh, it happened, yes, it was in 2009. I actually only disappeared for one month, which is crazy considering how much I’ve talked about it over the years. I tried to disappear for a month, sort of faking my death so people could find me, but almost everything was going to be on my tombstone.