Published 16 March 2026
e547 with Michael and Michael – Stories and discussion on bot to bot communications, 50 years of Apple, LEGO SmartPlay SmartBricks and a whole lot more.
Michael and Michael get things rolling while Andy is away on an article about Meta’s acquisition of Moltbook. This agent to agent conversational environment reminds the pair of the Google Homes chatting with one another from back in June 2017. Have a look at the short description in the YouTube video below and hear the conversation from 2017 in e173: Babel Fish.
Next up: Apple’s announcement on the celebrations surrounding their 50th anniversary. The intersection of technology and the liberal arts continues to resonate across the years. A tremendous hack by Paul Staal’s design for a Mac mini case that mimics the 2×2 sloped computer brick.
This, of course, allows the co-hosts get into the heart of this episode: LEGO! First, a Duke alumni magazine article about Ruthie Chen Ousley, who works at LEGO Education. Then, a discussion about the battery and new uses for the SmartBrick. A video from Brick Fanatics highlights who these sets and bricks are really for (spoiler, not AFOL) and how this provides a new degree of play with surprises and future possibilities as new sensors and experiences are unlocked.
How do you imagine these SmartBricks may be used in the future? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz (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.
Selected Links
AI
Ars Technica article: Meta acquires Moltbook, the AI agent social network
Games at Work e173: Babel Fish (for two Google Homes talking with one another @seebotschat)
HEADLINE: "Study Finds That Execs Are Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI"
ALT HEADLINE: "Execs Worry They'll Be Replaced By AI, But They're Doing It Themselves"
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-executive-thinking-survey
Apple
MacStories article: Apple Announces 50th Anniversary Celebration
Gizmodo article: This Custom Lego-Inspired Mac Mini Case Is Retrofuturism Done Right
Games at Work e406: AI Lemmings (for James Brown’s LEGO-sized computer)
LEGO
Duke Magazine article: Brick By Brick
The Verge article: You can’t replace the battery in Lego’s Smart Bricks — and many of its sensors aren’t active yet
BrickFanatics article: LEGO fans are already finding better uses for the SMART Brick
#LEGO #SmartPlay hacking continued: as the Smart Minifigs and Smart Tiles comply with standard ISO 15693 NFC, they can be copied. So this had to be done. The clone works totally fine with the original #SmartBrick.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:00 — 39.1MB) | Embed
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