Brad Axen, Block's Head of AI Capabilities and the original author of Goose, joins Liam to talk about what actually makes AI useful at work. They cover how Block went from building an early open-source AI agent to MoneyBot, ManagerBot, BuilderBot and Buzz, and why Brad thinks the hardest problems now are memory, access and interface, not just model intelligence.
Brad also explains why AI memory should belong to the business rather than a single bot, what ants can teach us about shared memory systems, why "meat proxy" is becoming a new office problem, and how Buzz is testing a multiplayer model where humans and AI agents work in the same space.
Key Topics Covered
Goose, Block's open-source AI agent, and the Agentic AI Foundation
Agents vs. harnesses vs. interfaces
MoneyBot, ManagerBot and BuilderBot
Why AI memory should belong to the business, not the bot
Stigmergy and ants as a model for shared memory
Buzz and Block's "multiplayer" approach to AI at work
"Meat proxy" and the new office busywork AI can create
Why the bottleneck is shifting from writing code to deciding what to build
How AI is changing hiring, interviews and day-to-day work
The human cost of spending all day working with AI
Episode Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:07 What Block actually is
02:40 From CERN to Block
05:19 Building Goose and taking it open source
06:29 Agents vs. harnesses vs. interfaces
10:28 MoneyBot, ManagerBot and BuilderBot
15:56 Memory, access and learning over time
22:53 What ants can teach us about AI memory
26:48 Two versions of where AI could go
28:26 Buzz and the idea of multiplayer AI
29:56 "Meat proxy": the new office problem
35:09 The Buzz case study and a 50% productivity jump
37:06 The new bottleneck now that AI can write the code
49:11 Rebuilding institutional knowledge after team restructuring
52:00 How AI is changing hiring and interviews
57:35 The loneliness of working with AI all day
59:13 Why Brad does what he does
Connect with Brad on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyaxen/
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