About this episode
edited picture from Lars H Knudsen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-close-up-shot-of-a-llama-7845603/
Published 2 February 2026
e541 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on AI with local Claude (and Clawdbot, Moltbot & openclaw), collaborative agents, 25 cent physical microtransactions ( quarters ), invisibility cloaks, LEGO SmartPlay and a whole lot more.
Michael and Michael get things rolling with a series of intriguing innovations in local AI. First up is a local instantiation of Claude via Ollama – see notes below for the installation instructions if you care to give this a shot. Then, the team checks out Trae for it’s orchestration capabilities. Michael M makes the mistake of trying out one of these innovations while recording the show and nearly crashes his machine. Then a discussion on the startup Humans& and how this company is planning for how human + digital combinations will power the future. The post from Thomas Ricouard illustrates how agents are collaborating with one another. Michael and Michael stay at the surface level on the whole clawdbot —> moltbot —> openclaw story which has been rapidly evolving this past week while still marveling at the speed of movement.
Switching then to the makers making things, there is a fantastic example of how to enable the original microtransaction for current software. How? Implementing the hardware mechanism for accepting a quarter to allow the game player to continue. Next, from MIT, a significant improvement on the umbrella by using a quadcopter and computer vision tracker to create a flying mobile shelter that protects the user from the elements. And then, a story about an invisibility cloak from Duke in the news this week, which harkens back years – check the show notes below for prior discussions on this capability.
LEGO has announced a new innovation – the SMART Play system, replete with SMART Bricks, SMART Tags and SMART Minifigures. It will be so intriguing to see how this fits in with the LEGO robotics, FIRST LEGO League and more. The longer arc going back to LEGO Serious Play may provide some hints.
Michael and Michael wrap things up with another long arc from the show – Doom running on a plethora of devices and screens. This time? Doom on earbuds. Check out the links and discussion for more.
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