Six years and one AI revolution later, Manual Work is a Bug is back. Mav founder + CEO Matthew Black and Head of Brand Hillary Black pick up where they left off in 2020, back when GPT-3 was developer-only, ChatGPT didn't exist, and we were still teaching out chatbots how to fail (and hoping they didn’t with every message). We trace how we went from scripted, single-goal chatbots to always-on LLMs, and what got lost on the way: curation, personality, and the art of failing gracefully.

Along the way they get into Mav's origin story (Facebook Messenger and an F8 keynote shout-out, to being called Chatbot Rockstar Agency in 2016 and one dog that texted a customer 10,000 times in a minute), why AI models increasingly mirror you back to yourself, and where we think AI will go from here. Plus a genuinely optimistic, and a little contrarian, take on what happens to insurance itself when self-driving cars and bundled coverage rewrite the whole product.

If you build with AI, brand for it, run your business with it, or sell insurance in a market that's changing under your feet, this one's for you.

Hosts

• Matthew Black — Founder + CEO, Mav
• Hillary Black — Head of Brand and Conversation Design, Mav

Links and Resources

• SmarterChild, the 2001 chatbot both hosts grew up with
• Hillary's talk, Failure Is an Option: How to Help Your Chatbot Fail Without Frustration
• We Are As Gods by Peter Diamandis
• The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil
• Neuralink, brain computer interfaces

Follow the show

Manual Work is a Bug is a podcast hosted by Hillary and Matthew Black, now on video. Watch on YouTube (youtube.com/@manualworkisabug) and follow wherever you listen, so you don't wait another six years for the next episode. Mav helps insurance agencies democratize growth with AI: hiremav.com.

In this episode Matthew interviews Ryan Denehy, the Founder & CEO of Electric.ai to talk about the future of remote work and office spaces, automating IT and a little bit of Formula 1 racing.

Ryan is a 3x entrepreneur, startup twitter truth teller and forward thinker when it comes to automation and digital transformation at work. Hear him share perspectives on remote offices vs in person, the benefits of automating manual work (and when you shouldn't do it) and much much more as he and Matthew recap their 2016 internet friendship, love for racing fast cars and disdain for step counters.

Want to learn more about Electric, future-proof your IT or maybe even work there? Check out their site.

Find Ryan: Website | Twitter | Instagram

Find Matthew: Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter

Have questions? Leave us a message on Anchor or reach out to us on social media.

In this episode Matthew interviews Morgan Richardson, Software Engineer at Digifox, Digital Creator and Influencer to talk about all things Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

Morgan is an expert at breaking down the complex concepts of DeFi in a way that everyone can understand and feel empowered to become involved in, and she does just that in the episode. Hear her perspectives on the benefits of trustless and transparent networks, find out what they both think is needed for mass adoption, the potential of decentralized technologies in other avenues, and how you can get started in your own exploration of DeFi. Matthew also shares an entertaining story about his first experience with Bitcoin in 2011.

Want to learn more and get your questions answered by Morgan? Attend her #DeFiFriday livestream tomorrow (and every Friday) on Instagram.

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Find Morgan: Website | Instagram | DeFi Friday Replays

Find Matthew: Instagram | Linkedin | Twitter

Show Notes: hiremav.com/podcast/defi-is-trustless-more-trustworthy-with-morgan-richardson

Have questions? Leave us a message on Anchor or reach out to us on social media.