edited picture from Lars H Knudsen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-close-up-shot-of-a-llama-7845603/
Published 2 February 2026
e541 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on AI with local Claude (and Clawdbot, Moltbot & openclaw), collaborative agents, 25 cent physical microtransactions ( quarters ), invisibility cloaks, LEGO SmartPlay and a whole lot more.
Michael and Michael get things rolling with a series of intriguing innovations in local AI. First up is a local instantiation of Claude via Ollama – see notes below for the installation instructions if you care to give this a shot. Then, the team checks out Trae for it’s orchestration capabilities. Michael M makes the mistake of trying out one of these innovations while recording the show and nearly crashes his machine. Then a discussion on the startup Humans& and how this company is planning for how human + digital combinations will power the future. The post from Thomas Ricouard illustrates how agents are collaborating with one another. Michael and Michael stay at the surface level on the whole clawdbot —> moltbot —> openclaw story which has been rapidly evolving this past week while still marveling at the speed of movement.
Switching then to the makers making things, there is a fantastic example of how to enable the original microtransaction for current software. How? Implementing the hardware mechanism for accepting a quarter to allow the game player to continue. Next, from MIT, a significant improvement on the umbrella by using a quadcopter and computer vision tracker to create a flying mobile shelter that protects the user from the elements. And then, a story about an invisibility cloak from Duke in the news this week, which harkens back years – check the show notes below for prior discussions on this capability.
LEGO has announced a new innovation – the SMART Play system, replete with SMART Bricks, SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures. It will be so intriguing to see how this fits in with the LEGO robotics, FIRST LEGO League and more. The longer arc going back to LEGO Serious Play may provide some hints.
Michael and Michael wrap things up with another long arc from the show – Doom running on a plethora of devices and screens. This time? Doom on earbuds. Check out the links and discussion for more.
Are you considering trying out openclaw.ai ? Why or why not? Have your openclaw (or other) bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know!
These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
The weekly conversation hosted by Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, and Andy Piper, Games At Work dot Biz, explores the intersection where our digital play and professional lives collide. This isn't just a review show; it's a deep dive into the technology that powers our hobbies, the business behind the leisure, and the cultural news shaping both worlds. Each episode feels like pulling up a chair with three friends who are as passionate about the craft of game development and the evolution of hardware as they are about the pure joy of finding a great new title. You'll hear specific discussions on everything from the latest graphics card impacting performance to the narrative design of an indie darling, all filtered through the lens of professionals who live in the tech space. The Games At Work dot Biz podcast operates on the belief that the games we play and the tools we use are inextricably linked, offering listeners a consistently thoughtful and engaging analysis that goes far beyond a simple score. Tune in for a regular dose of insightful commentary where the serious business of technology meets the serious fun of games.
Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper
Language: en-us
Episodes: 50
Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash Published 21 April 2025 e510 with Andy, Michael and Michael – AI stories ranging from privacy, dolphin communication, open source models for robots, Game Transfer Phenomenon and much mor…
Photo by Josiah Farrow on Unsplash Published 14 April 2025 e509 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion all around AI, LLMs, llamas, generated Quake, grokking, generalization and much more. Michael and Michael…
Photo by Ben Griffiths on Unsplash Published 7 April 2025 e508 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AI Conversational Swarm Intelligence, the Pokétax game and numerous Nintendo stories and much more…
Photo by Braedon McLeod on Unsplash Published 31 March 2025 e507 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories and discussion on AIs training humans, non-serindipious searching, doomed VR gaming, playlist portability and much…
screen capture of a presentation agenda with a photo of a painting of a mountain Published 23 March 2025 e506 with Andy and Michael M – stories and discussion on the attention economy, focus, pirated data used in trainin…
Photo by Max Böhme on Unsplash Published 17 March 2025 e505 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI technical & security challenges, a Metallica augmented concert, Dungeons & Dragons and much more. Michae…
Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash Published 10 March 2025 e504 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on #vibecoding #AI, #biocomputing, #philosophy, #Digg, #MWC25, #LaserRot and much more. Michael,…
Photo by Amr Taha™ on Unsplash Published 3 March 2025 e503 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on the #DeadInternet, #AI, #recipes, #crowdsourcing #VR, #VirtualWorldsMuseum, #watches such as the #Pixe…
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC July 2023 Published 24 February 2025 e502 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI for career recommendations, game generation, enabled devices such as the Humane…
