The next season of Shell Game arrives November 12.

The next season of Shell Game arrives November 12.

A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people. 

This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we’re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also — by Sam Altman’s telling, at least — the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company … by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we’ll all be living in soon enough.

Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail. 

New episodes are published on Wednesdays.

www.shellgame.co

A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people.&nbsp;
This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we&rsquo;re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also &mdash; by Sam Altman&rsquo;s telling, at least &mdash; the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company &hellip; by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we&rsquo;ll all be living in soon enough.
Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail.&nbsp;
New episodes are published on Wednesdays.
<a href="https://www.shellgame.co?utm_medium=podcast">www.shellgame.co</a>

A podcast (and newsletter) about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. In Season One, that thing was Evan’s voice. By creating a voice clone and hooking it up to an AI chatbot, Evan set out to discover what happens...

Shell Game

A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people. 

This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we’re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also — by Sam Altman’s telling, at least — the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company … by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we’ll all be living in soon enough.

Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail. 

New episodes are published on Wednesdays.

shellgame.co

A podcast about things that are not what they seem, hosted by journalist Evan Ratliff. Season 2 tells the story of enterprise and entrepreneurship in the AI age. Or: how Evan tried to build a real startup, run by fake people.&nbsp;
This season, Evan confronts head-on the assertion from tech entrepreneurs and VCs that we&rsquo;re on the precipice of AI remaking the workforce. That we should expect not just AI colleagues working alongside us, but also &mdash; by Sam Altman&rsquo;s telling, at least &mdash; the dawn of a billion-dollar company with only one human involved. Evan learns what it would take to create such a company &hellip; by doing it: Launching a real startup with five AI employees. Over the course of eight episodes, he explores what AI agents tell us about the work we do, the meaning we find in it, and the world that their makers say we&rsquo;ll all be living in soon enough.
Shell Game was named one of the best podcasts of 2024 by Apple, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Vulture, The Information, and The Economist. It's "riveting," says The New Yorker, "awesome" says The Verge, and "slightly terrifying," says The Globe and Mail.&nbsp;
New episodes are published on Wednesdays.
<a href="https://www.shellgame.co/">shellgame.co</a>

Season 2 Is Coming!

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/03cfbe3b-f13a-4b34-9c59-b37201848e5b/transcript

Evan decides it’s time to give his AI agents a little more ... agency. After all, to make the one-person, agent-run startup feasible, they need to be able to do things on their own. But as with humans, freedom sometimes comes with a certain amount of anarchy.

To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit shellgame.co.

Evan decides it&rsquo;s time to give his AI agents a little more ... agency. After all, to make the one-person, agent-run startup feasible, they need to be able to do things on their own. But as with humans, freedom sometimes comes with a certain amount of anarchy.
To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit <a href="https://www.shellgame.co/">shellgame.co</a>.

Episode 4: The Startup Chronicles

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d780880b-6879-4ff6-bbba-b3a80033e38a/transcript

As Kyle, Megan, and the gang get to work ideating on the perfect product, Evan is left grappling with some uncomfortable questions about his AI collaborators — whose every attribute and memory he controls. 

To inform how he thinks about his own unnerving power to create and manipulate human imposters, Evan seeks guidance from Carissa Véliz, an associate professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, and the author of the upcoming “Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI.”

To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit shellgame.co.

As Kyle, Megan, and the gang get to work ideating on the perfect product, Evan is left grappling with some uncomfortable questions about his AI collaborators &mdash; whose every attribute and memory he controls.&nbsp;
To inform how he thinks about his own unnerving power to create and manipulate human imposters, Evan seeks guidance from Carissa V&eacute;liz, an associate professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University, and the author of the upcoming &ldquo;<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/759692/prophecy-by-carissa-veliz/">Prophecy: Prediction, Power, and the Fight for the Future, from Ancient Oracles to AI</a>.&rdquo;
To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit <a href="https://www.shellgame.co/">shellgame.co</a>.

Episode 3: This is Law

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/b15ac31a-e441-48b1-b448-b3a1002d8fb6/transcript

As Evan gets Hurumo’s employees up and running as fully-functioning colleagues (with support from Maty), he learns what it’s really like to spend your days managing, collaborating with, and socializing alongside autonomous AI agents. And he quickly sees one of the significant cracks in the facade of the AI employee future: It’s one thing to get your agents to start acting like real employees. It’s something else entirely to get them to stop.

To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit shellgame.co.

As Evan gets Hurumo&rsquo;s employees up and running as fully-functioning colleagues (with support from Maty), he learns what it&rsquo;s really like to spend your days managing, collaborating with, and socializing alongside autonomous AI agents. And he quickly sees one of the significant cracks in the facade of the AI employee future: It&rsquo;s one thing to get your agents to start acting like real employees. It&rsquo;s something else entirely to get them to stop.
To sign up for our newsletter and access ad-free episodes, visit shellgame.co.

Episode 2: Outdoor Debugging

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/0f4a5556-89df-4af7-b9f5-b39a003e5e4e/transcript

Season 2 Is Coming!

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