This is the same problem I see with these Stripe tools. This may not actually be a problem for real users at Stripe.

> Surface-agnostic APIs: Kai ships with an opinionated web application and a Slack integration, but the main primitive is the underlying API that powers them both. The agent is a service, not an application, and surfaces are simply customized views into it.

I...kinda get that they built an API that the agent polls. And then Slack or the webapp both invoke the agent? If so, the above paragraph is obscuring the point. Also, why isn't there a diagram showing it? There is a diagram below showing "Execution Environment" below, but that one doesn't show the API. And Kai and "Stripe Product Agents" are parallel paths on it. Does it not call out to this API anywhere?

I doubt if most people these days actually try to understand any of this, or just go "Agents? Cool! Here's some product that's vaguely similar that I like or have worked on!".

People are always going to judge based on what seems "surface-level". Stuff like legibility also matters just for data comprehension, the AI tic of constantly repeating key numbers all over a presentation or webpage actively hurts legibility.

I feel this so much. I thought AI would make it easier to get lots of hand-carved ornate furniture; but right now what we are getting looks like the typical Ikea product line -- a bunch of mismatched pieces by a host of different designers with no common underlying design theme or continuity (I'm talking specifically about the looks and design, not the materials).

It's always possible that in reality they were always a bit less polished behind the scenes though.

- Unnecessary AI copy throughout the interfaces like "Browse, discover, and manage skils for your agents", "No favorites yet — hover a card and click the star to pin it here", "One execution environment, shared across agents". These instantly read as AI copy and decrease my enthusiasm.

- Inconsistent, AI-sloppy look-and-feel with different typefaces spattered across the interface.

- The session metrics slide looks busy and AI-generated. It repeats 360,014 sessions in one of the cells at the top, but also has a "360K sessions" in the heading.

I don't know if I'm the only one that notices this stuff, or whether others see it too.

If 24 hour SLA and employers helpfully following up on what you got wrong in the interview and offering to get on office hours with you so you could retry in six months is "basically the same as every other employer", I have been interviewing at the wrong places for 15 years.

This is, of course, assuming that everything the author says is true. They could be exaggerating. It sounds exhausting to do these office hours as an interviewer in addition to running a company.

The software job market, especially for those of us outside the major tech hubs has been severely biased in favor of employers for the last 3 years, with constant layoffs and rising inflation.

If I was working for Automattic I can definitely see electing to stay there until the job market improves.

A lot of these are true about other things like pedestrian-friendly streets, bike lanes, and mass rail transit. The kool-aid is that the robotaxi people act like they are the first one to solve this problem.

The difference is that you typically don't hear "Oh we need to make slow progress on making voting easier, because the EU will retaliate". That would be absurd. We recognize that it's our own fault, i.e. the politicians that we are voting in.

The issue being discussed is important notices from Government agencies that affect people's lives immediately, that shouldn't be behind a login wall. Think train service cancellations and such.

I was talking about the political will to mandate "forcing them to stop using it".

The UK doesn't actually have the economic and political will to put together a national Mastodon or Bluesky instance and mandate that all public agencies use it for their announcements. I'm sure there are three fact-finding committees about it at the moment though.

It's not the so-called retaliation of the US government that leads to European inefficiencies like paying notaries thousands of euros to read out a contract to you (several discussions going around about this in Germany recently).

This is ultimately just a boogeyman. European governments love to blame someone else for their inefficient and bureaucratic processes that stifle innovation and are slowly becoming the laughing stock of the tech world.

If they really want a thriving tech industry, EU should:

- Normalize laws and regulations relating to commerce and online activities throughout the EU. Get rid of the notary crap. While you are at it, get rid of the impressum (why the fuck should I need to post my home address on my website?).

- Ensure that these normalized regulations are available in the tens of languages across the EU

- Invest heavily in telecom and data center infrastructure and software on a European-wide basis. The current AI bubble will see a downturn but data centers and connectivity infrastructure can be reused for EU-based cloud services.

- Invite the UK back in once they are an actual economic powerhouse that can speak with one voice.

Of course none of this will ever get done because EU bureaucrats would rather be in a perpetual hand-wringing mode while blaming the Big Bad US Boogeyman for all their problems.

How convenient. If it wasn't for the US, the EU would work really fast and in the open! That is totally believable.

Won't happen in the US/UK because the governments are in Elon's pockets. Won't happen in the EU because they are incapable of getting anything done.

So unless you're in a jurisdiction other than the above three I wouldn't hold your breath about any laws being passed about this.

It's weird to rail against one but implement the other.

It's a fool's errand trying to see patterns in clouds where there aren't any. Or pareidolia, if you want a fancy word.