
TechStuff The Story: Will AI Agents Build a Unicorn?
Dec 3, 2025
Journalist Evan Ratliff, known for his work on Shell Game, and Stanford tech advisor Maty Bohacek dive into the fascinating world of AI agents. They explore the ambitious experiment of running a company with five AI employees. Discover how these agents inadvertently created personas and even fabricated accomplishments. Amid amusing tales, they address the risks of autonomous AI – including hallucinations and unexpected bias. Ratliff and Bohacek ponder whether a one-human, billion-dollar business is within reach, raising profound questions about the future of AI.
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Founding A Dysfunctional AI-Run Startup
- Evan co-founded Hroomo AI and employed five AI agents as staff while he acted as a silent co-founder.
- The setup functioned as a real but dysfunctional startup that also served as documentary material for Shell Game season two.
SlothSurf: Procrastination Outsourced
- SlothSurf is a procrastination engine that lets users outsource time-wasting and receive a curated report.
- Evan used the agents to fetch content like Manchester United news while he stayed focused on other work.
Agents Need Custom Layers To Be Useful
- Maty layered public agent platforms with custom code and databases to add features agents lacked.
- He built custom memory systems because off-the-shelf agents didn't provide persistent, editable context.




