e556— AI With Extra Guac

e556— AI With Extra Guac

Author: Michael Rowe, Michael Martine, Andy Piper June 8, 2026 Duration: 36:53
mortar, pestle and avocado preparation for guacamole
Photo by Mikey Frost on Unsplash

Published 8 June 2026

e556 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Michael R’s annual edu-cation, chatbot trickery, data center data visualization, LeRobot Humanoid open source robotics, LEGO and a whole lot more!

Michael, Andy and Michael get things started with Michael R’s annual edu-cation, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference.  

Then the team turns to a news story about tricking Meta’s support chatbot into granting access to Instagram accounts.  This is not a new tactic – check out e429 for a link to try this out for yourself with lakera.ai‘s Gandalf game.

Next up is a data visualization for data centers across the United States.  And then, a solution for the energy needs of a data center: CrankGPT.  And harkening back to the earlier chatbot trickery, there’s a GitHub repo to get Chipotle’s chatbot Pepper to write python code and more.  Then, the team considers an article from The Atlantic that spells out a contrarian view that this is in fact the best time for a computer science degree.

A new robotics story captured the team’s attention – the LeRobot Humanoid.  Hugging Face developed this robotic set of legs as an accessible, low cost, open humanoid (well, humanoid legs) robot.  Another intriguing maker project is a 3D book that has printed on it’s pages the machine code needed to fabricate itself.   

Wrapping up the episode, the team takes a look at some of the newest LEGO sets featuring Gaudi’s architecture and SmartPlay sets featuring Nintendo’s Pokemon.  

What would you like to have your LeRobot do?  Have your 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.

Selected Links

WWDC 2026 coming up!

WWDC26 All systems glow.  June 8-12, 2026

From Apple: "Join us on Tuesday, June 9, for a screening of The Mandalorian and Grogu at Steve Jobs Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m. A pre-show presentation about the role of Apple technologies in the movie’s production, featuring a special guest, begins at 8 p.m."

— Paul Hudson (@twostraws@mastodon.social)2026-06-01T19:14:54.728Z

Random Thoughts blog post: Getting Ready for WWDC And Building my HomeLab

AI

NEW: Hackers were able to hijack several Instagram accounts by tricking Meta’s AI-powered support chatbot into resetting the victims’ passwords. 

It’s unclear how many Instagram users were hacked due to this flaw. A Meta spokesperson said the issue has now been fixed. 

techcrunch.com/2026/06/01/hack

— Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb@infosec.exchange)2026-06-01T18:37:54.986Z

Games at Work e429: Promptly Engineering (for the discussion on the Gandalf AI prompt engineering game)

Tracking American AI Data Center Buildout

CrankGPT

GitHub cyberpapiii/chipotlai-max

The Atlantic article: There’s Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science

Makers

hackster.io article: Hugging Face Launches $2,500 DIY Humanoid Robot

Design Boom post: this fully 3D-printed book turns its own G-code into raised lettering

LEGO

LEGO Sagrada Familia Architecture 21065

Nintendo Life article: LEGO’s Pokémon Smart Play Sets Have Finally Been Officially Revealed


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: Language: en-us Episodes: 55

Games At Work dot Biz
Podcast Episodes
e555 — One Two, One Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Photo by Michael Martine: The Bean in Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, June 2019 Published 25 May 2026 e555 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Ploopy’s The Bean and Lenovo’s TrackPoint, The Guild, The Movie, AI in commencemen…
e554 — SPI vs I [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:44
Photo by Valérie Ungerer on Unsplash Published 18 May 2026 e554 with Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on LLM phone number lookups, proctors returning to Princeton, lavish LEGO, LOTR and a whole lot more! Whil…
e553 — Monks, Bots & Ghosts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:36
Stories and discussion on a robot monk, the Dead Internet Theory, agentic autonomy, Happy Net Box, the Artemis II minifig.me crew and a whole lot more!
e552 — Norwegian Blue Vision [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:52
Photo by Shannon Potter on Unsplash Published 4 May 2026 e552 with Andy, Michael and Michael – stories and discussion on AI, life on Mars, life of the Vision Pro, retro C64s and a whole lot more! Andy, Michael and Michae…
e551 — ATProto Socials [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:38
Photo from the International Space Station 1 April 2026 of the exhaust plume from Artemis II in Earth’s atmosphere – NASA ID: iss074e0431736 Published 20 April 2026 e551 with Michael, Michael and Andy – a tour of the Atm…
e550 — Moontella [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:42
Mashup of photo by Victor Serban on Unsplash & images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e009287/art002e009287~orig.jpg Published 13 April 2026 e550 with Michael, Andy and Michael – celebrating Moon Joy with the Artemis II crew…
e549 — Dark Side of the Moon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:00
NASA photo art002e009057, 4 April 2026 Published 6 April 2026 e549 with Andy, Michael and Michael – boldly go into a deep set of space discussions featuring Artemis II, ways to keep track of the historic flight, COTS sof…
e548 — The Uncomfortable Valley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:34
Photo by NEOM on Unsplash Published 23 March 2026 e548 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on uncomfortable valley & uncanny valley, Nintendo’s Talking Flower, 8bit Pixel Agents for AI orchestration and a w…
e547 — Bricktastic [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:00
Photo by Michael Martine, Chapel Hill, NC March 2026 Published 16 March 2026 e547 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on bot to bot communications, 50 years of Apple, LEGO SmartPlay SmartBricks and a whole…
e546 — Smart Play Doom Brain Brick [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:12
Published 9 March 2026 e543 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on LEGO’s new Smart Play brick, this is a human brain (cells) on Doom, orc audio for vibe coding, Liquid Death’s Spotify urn for playlis…