028 - The New Pace of Modern Work with AI

028 - The New Pace of Modern Work with AI

ai.u crew with guest Shayne Boyer from Microsoft (with Kevin off on vacation) to discuss how AI is accelerating the pace of modern work, moving from consumer AI search into workplace tools like Copilot, corporate search, and agent-driven automation. They argue that people not using AI are falling behind, and describe early workplace value in finding information, reducing “toil,” and generating personalized daily briefs, while noting these require tuning and introduce new skills in delegation and orchestration. The conversation explores emerging expectations for responsiveness, token-cost debates, potential gatekeeping/triage agents, and the cognitive load of reviewing more AI-produced output. Ryan shares using Microsoft Scout/OpenClaw to automate a job referral and to create meeting briefs and slide decks from transcripts and notes, prompting questions about authenticity, transparency, and human flourishing as agents increasingly act on users’ behalf. 00:00 Welcome Back Crew 01:14 Episode Theme Pace Shift 01:53 If Youre Not Using AI 03:10 Getting Started Tools 04:53 Is AI Mainstream Yet 07:40 Workplace Copilot Arrives 08:26 Corporate Search Wins 11:05 Beyond Search To Toil 12:26 New Work Contract 15:57 Agents In Real Work 18:57 Quick Agent Examples 21:12 Dead Internet At Work 25:13 Human Flourishing Line 26:55 True But Not Real 27:59 Real Versus True 28:49 Creation Needs Loops 29:41 AI Empathy Skepticism 30:29 Inside Claude Safety 33:13 Personalized Agent Harness 33:55 Scout Runs Your Day 35:43 Always On Work Culture 39:03 Agents In Chat Channels 43:31 Gatekeeping And Triage 48:51 Productivity Versus Impact 49:46 Burnout From Orchestration 50:49 Redefining Productivity 54:20 Closing Thoughts And Wrap This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aiunprompted.substack.com [https://aiunprompted.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

027 - Apple WWDC 2026, Anthropic Fable 5, and Microsoft Scout

ai.u crew catch up on AI industry news, starting with Apple’s WWDC (June 8), which they found comparatively lackluster versus OpenAI, Google I/O, and Microsoft Build, though Travis notes Apple’s selective, trust- and creator-focused approach, local/on-device models, and features like a new Siri AI app with screen awareness and conversation syncing. They discuss the cost of inference, ecosystem lock-in, rumored foldable iPhone hints in iOS 27 betas, and other rumored hardware (e.g., AirPods with a camera). The hosts then cover Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5, a consumer version of Mythos with safeguards, which was removed after about three days following U.S. federal national security concerns and jailbreak claims; they cite reported capabilities like migrating a 50M-line Ruby codebase in a day and debate safety vs marketing and access control. Finally, they discuss Microsoft Scout as an enterprise OpenClaw agent tied to Work IQ/Office Graph, highlighting chat personas, automations (daily briefs), co-create workspaces, and agentic workflows that feel “magical” and augment human work. 00:00 Show Intro and Life Updates 01:25 News Catch-Up Agenda 02:31 WWDC First Impressions 05:00 Siri AI and iOS 27 Rundown 07:51 Apple’s Human-Centered AI Angle 11:15 Local Models and Inference Costs 21:18 Foldable iPhone Rumors 22:41 Ecosystems and the Next AI Battle 25:26 OpenAI Losses Surge 26:11 Apple Siri Threat 26:59 Jarvis App Control 29:00 Apps Become Verbs 31:29 Anthropic Fable Pulled 33:16 Fable Power And Cost 34:31 Safety Versus Hype 39:09 Fable UX And Routing 43:56 Microsoft Scout Agents 49:22 Scout Features Breakdown 53:27 Closing Thoughts This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aiunprompted.substack.com [https://aiunprompted.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

026 - Microsoft BUILD 2026

Ryan, Kevin, and Travis recap Microsoft Build 2026 (June 2–3 in San Francisco), describing it as Microsoft’s “coming out party” as an independent AI platform spanning models, custom silicon, an “agent OS,” a new assistant (Scout), and a full developer stack positioning Windows and Azure as the home base for the agentic era. Key announcements include a developer-optimized Windows with built-in Linux containers and two local Windows AI models (Aon 1.0 Instruct and AI 1.0 Plan), Nvidia ARM-based Surface RTX Spark Dev Box and Surface Laptop Ultra capable of running ~120B-parameter models locally, Project Solara for agent devices (including an AI-enabled badge concept), seven in-house MAI models, Scout as a proactive M365 assistant, execution containers for sandboxed agents, Majorana 2 quantum chip updates, Foundry as an end-to-end agent platform with “IQ” data tooling, GitHub Copilot app, open governance frameworks (Assert), and Microsoft M-Dash for agentic threat hunting. 00:00 Welcome to Build 2026 01:19 Big Picture Recap 02:46 Reactions and Takeaways 05:48 Windows Goes Developer First 07:42 Local Models and Control 11:11 AI Data Center at Every Desk 14:04 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box 18:25 Unmetered Intelligence and Token Costs 22:03 Project Solara Agent Devices 26:55 Jarvis Everywhere Vision 31:19 Privacy Walled Gardens and Trust 38:23 Solaris Three Pillars 39:33 Agents Everywhere Future 40:12 Seven New MAI Models 42:05 Frontier Tuning Explained 47:21 Satya Vision Ecosystem 52:26 Scout Autopilot Assistant 01:01:12 Execution Containers Security 01:02:39 Majorana 2 Quantum Leap 01:06:54 Day Two Foundry IQ 01:11:23 Governance And Mdash 01:15:17 Wrap Up And Takeaways This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aiunprompted.substack.com [https://aiunprompted.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

025 - Google I/O 2026

Ryan, Kevin, and Travis recap Google I/O 2026 announcements, emphasizing Google’s rapid AI push across its products. They discuss Gemini 3.5 Flash as a fast, lower-cost frontier model optimized for long agentic tasks, rolled into Search and YouTube at scale, and Gemini Omni/Omni Flash for multimodal creative generation using models like Veo and Imagen. Google Search is overhauled into a multimodal, generative, interactive results experience, raising concerns about provenance and web economics as answers bypass creators. They cover Gemini Spark, a 24/7 cloud-based consumer agent integrated into Chrome and Google apps, plus daily briefings and background “information agents.” Other topics include a universal cart via a commerce protocol, SynthID watermarking with major partners, and announced Android XR audio/display glasses with partners like Warby Parker and Samsung. 00:00 Welcome and agenda 01:36 What Google I/O is 03:06 Gemini 3.5 Flash debut 04:21 Speed cost and rollout 05:59 Google comeback narrative 09:22 Omni Flash creative suite 12:55 AI video realism concerns 14:54 AI Search overhaul 17:11 Trust provenance and web economics 22:18 YouTube summaries and Ask YouTube 24:29 Gemini Spark personal agent 26:52 Ultra plan lock in and privacy tradeoffs 35:05 Convenience vs Societal Costs 35:46 Pandoras Box and Downstream Risks 36:37 Humans Leaving the Value Chain 39:09 Agency vs Algorithmic Feeds 41:16 Gemini Daily Briefing 42:08 Antigravity and Developer Orchestration 43:09 Information Agents and Signal vs Noise 50:44 Universal Cart and Commerce Protocol 52:52 Will Merchants Opt In 55:14 Google Product Longevity and Compute Limits 57:09 SynthID Watermarking and Truth Concerns 01:00:39 Android XR Glasses and Attention Economy 01:05:45 Who Actually Needs XR 01:07:44 Wrap Up and Listener Feedback This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aiunprompted.substack.com [https://aiunprompted.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

024 - Exploring AI's Cutting Edge: From Cognitive Debt to Conversational Agents

Ryan, Kevin, and Travis discuss how impossible it is to keep up with AI’s pace and use recent OpenClaw updates to illustrate what’s happening at the “tip of the spear.” They recap an OpenClaw community-driven plugin architecture overhaul that caused short-term instability but created a smaller stable core with extensible plugins. They cover new voice interaction options, including Discord real-time voice features (buffers, barge-in detection, echo control), bringing agents into Google Meet via Twilio dial-in, and broader implications of voice and multimodal “thinking machines” interaction models. The hosts explore cognitive debt/coherence challenges as AI builds faster than humans can comprehend, and highlight OpenClaw’s security hardening (1,300 advisories processed) plus major memory upgrades that create structured person cards and a wiki-like knowledge base, raising governance and compartmentalization concerns for enterprises. They also note improved commitment tracking, self-modifying/self-building capabilities, and auto-generated skills. 00:00 Welcome Back Setup 00:55 Why Youre Behind 01:13 OpenClaw Overview 02:22 Community Moves Fast 03:04 Plugin Overhaul Fallout 04:25 Stable Core Plugins 05:39 Pick Your AI Strategy 08:48 Cognitive Debt Explained 10:26 Daily Reps Mindset 12:07 Voice Comes to OpenClaw 13:04 Discord Voice and Meet 18:21 Metacognition Modalities 21:30 Do You Need Code 26:09 Voice vs Text Context 29:35 Thinking Machines Tease 29:39 Interaction Models Demo 30:53 Voice Latency Tradeoffs 33:27 Conversation Cues Vision 36:39 OpenClaw Security Hardening 38:31 Memory And Knowledge Base 40:04 Enterprise Governance Dilemma 45:21 Corporate Brain Example 48:59 Auto Commitments Heartbeat 51:45 Stability Updates Skills 52:44 Wrap Up And Thanks This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aiunprompted.substack.com [https://aiunprompted.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]