Published 30 June 2025

e519 with Michael, Andy and Michael – stories about AI conversations with pets and people, LLM data retention, AI slop, Clippy-esque prompts, AI workloads in space and a whole lot more.

Michael, Andy and Michael begin with an AI story about the possibility for translating what your pet has to say.  There have been similar stories, and certainly it is only a matter of time before there is a breakthrough to help humans talk to the animals. 

Next up, a video from John Oliver on AI slop for the masses, that interestingly enough starts off with cats.  The team then moves on to what LLMs know about those that use them.  A couple of articles from Schneier and Geeky Gadgets illustrate the challenges emerging with current data retention policies.  Andy asked ChatGPT to write his bio back in 2023, and the hallucinations from that experience is in the show notes below.

After a conversation on the future of Computer Science, the team considers AI workloads in space using the Syntilay example of designing shoes.  Then, a Mastodon post on the newest prompts from Microsoft Word reminds the cohosts of the fan favorite Clippy.  Next, there’s an AR example of advertising popup blockers where the cure may be worse than the disease of the number of ads and their content.

Wrapping things up for this episode, Andy, Michael and Michael take a look at the Microsoft Xbox branded Meta VR headset and The Confrontation LoTR tabletop game.  

What is your favorite AI slop example?  Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @[email protected] (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.

Boy Genius Report article: AI could finally help us talk to our cats

Games at Work e495: Personal Planetarium for translating animal communications

Mashable article: John Oliver finds a creative way to get revenge on AI spam

Schneier on Security post: What LLMs Know About Their Users

Geeky Gadgets article: OpenAI’s ChatGPT Data Retention Policy Explained : Is Your Data at Risk?

Games at Work e406: AI Lemmings (for multiple versions of Andy’s bio)

Andy’s fun with ChatGPT from 2023 – multiple versions of his bio

The Atlantic article: The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting

Coolest Gadgets article: Reebok Co-Founder’s Startup to Design AI-Generated Shoe in Space

Syntilay AI designed shoes

me: there’s nothing worse than opening a blank document

microsoft word: hold my beer

PC Gamer article: Software engineer creates a real-life ad block using Snapchat’s AR smart glasses, but ultimately ends up making something far more distracting than ads

The Verge article: A week in Xbox VR with Microsoft and Meta’s new $399 headset

Wargamer article: This special edition Lord of the Rings board game comes with its own damn table

Gamefound: The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Ultimate Edition

Web 11.0 mashup junkie, and co-founder / co-host of the GamesAtWork.biz podcast. My views are my own.

Michael Martine