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What it's like inside a company staffed almost entirely by AI • Evan Ratliff • GOTO Copenhagen 2026
The Brief
- Journalist Evan Ratliff talks about his Shell Game podcast experiments with AI agents.
- In season 1 he created an agent clone of himself and let it operate in the world.
- In season 2 he built a one-person startup run by AI executives and employees, which hired a single human and attempted to raise money.
- The talk covers what it is like to work alongside an entirely AI team, what happens when things get out of control, and what it might mean for the future of work.
Why watch · It offers a first-hand account of how an AI-staffed company behaves in practice and what problems come up when agents handle real work.
- AI agents
- Shell Game
- GOTO Copenhagen 2026
- future of work
Summarised by Claude from the video’s title and description – no transcript was available, so check the video for the details.
Chapters
- 0:00Intro
- 1:08About Me
- 3:07The First Experiment - Making a clone
- 5:41Doing Something A Little DIfferent - The billion dollar startup
- 7:23How I Build The Company - The AI Team
- 9:50How I Buildt The Team
- 12:02Meeting Agent Kyle
- 13:01Initiative Restraint - How to make them do their job
- 19:44Memory - Emergent behaviours
- 24:00Authority - Hire the second human working with AI
- 33:13Connection - Time to make money
- 40:16The Subject Of An Experiement
- 41:37Outro
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This presentation was recorded at GOTO Copenhagen 2026. #GOTOcon #GOTOcph Join us at GOTO Copenhagen 2027, October 4–8. https://gotocph.com/2027?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=cph26-talks Evan Ratliff - Veteran journalist, author, and podcast host. [@SpeakerYouTubeHandle] RESOURCES https://x.com/ev_rat https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-ratliff-2453031 https://www.shellgame.co/ https://gotopia.tech/experts/2149/evan-ratliff ABSTRACT Over the past two years, for his podcast Shell Game, journalist Evan Ratliff has been exploring the frontiers of how AI agents are filtering into our lives and work. After creating an agent clone of himself in season 1 and turning it loose on the world, in season 2 he set about building a one-person, agent-led startup with a team of AI executives and employees of his own creation. Together they formed an idea, launched a web site, hired a single human employee, launched a product, and attempted to raise money. Here he will take you inside the how it feels to work alongside an entirely AI team, what happens when things get out of control, and what it might mean for the future of the workplace. TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 01:08 About Me 03:07 The First Experiment - Making a clone 05:41 Doing Something A Little DIfferent - The billion dollar startup 07:23 How I Build The Company - The AI Team 09:50 How I Buildt The Team 12:02 Meeting Agent Kyle 13:01 Initiative Restraint - How to make them do their job 19:44 Memory - Emergent behaviours 24:00 Authority - Hire the second human working with AI 33:13 Connection - Time to make money 40:16 The Subject Of An Experiement 41:37 Outro Download slides and read the full abstract here: https://gotocph.com/2026/sessions/4164 https://bsky.app/profile/gotocon.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.instagram.com/goto_con #GOTOcph #GOTO #[topic] #[topic] #[SpeakerName] HEAR TALKS LIKE THIS LIVE GOTO Copenhagen 2027, October 4–8. Five days of talks, masterclasses and the people behind the tools you use. Tickets: https://gotocph.com/2027?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=cph26-talks More GOTO events worldwide: https://gotopia.tech Sign up for updates: https://gotopia.tech/newsletter CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel for early access to Book Club episodes, GOTO Copenhagen special offers and other benefits: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.