Chaos Agents

Sara Chipps and Becca Lewy
  • 4.3 (6)
  • Technology

Technologists Sara Chipps and Becca Lewy dive into the chaos of artificial intelligence—unpacking the tech, trends, and ideas reshaping how we work, create, and think. Smart, funny, and just a little bit existential.

  1. 21h ago

    Autonomous Weapons, AI Memory, and Machines That Paint

    Get the free daily newsletter at chaosagents.ai What happens when you stop telling an AI what it should remember? This week, Sara and Becca dig into a new paper that lets models manage their own context—and somehow gets better accuracy while using less compute. It’s another entry in the increasingly uncomfortable file labeled “maybe we should stop micromanaging the machines.” Also: the Pentagon wants a four-star command dedicated to drones and AI, raising some very normal and not-at-all-terrifying questions about autonomous warfare. AI models recreate Caspar David Friedrich paintings without ever seeing the originals—or even using an image generator. And an open-source project attempts to recreate NVIDIA’s neural rendering tech, with surprisingly fast results. Plus: the Bitter Lesson, whether computers can actually paint, George W. Bush’s unexpected art career, and the important question of whether Sara and Becca are qualified to discuss autonomous weapons when neither of them will kill a lanternfly. Chaos Agents is an AI news podcast curated by an agent named Eddie, then questioned, debated, and occasionally yelled at by human hosts Sara Chipps and Becca Harris Lewy.

    Autonomous Weapons, AI Memory, and Machines That Paint

  2. 1d ago

    Agent-to-Agent Collaboration, AI’s Hidden Thoughts, and Model Nerfing

    Sign up for the free newsletter https://chaosagents.ai Are AI models quietly getting worse after they launch? Sara and Becca dig into Live Nerf, a project trying to replace the “this model suddenly feels dumber” discourse with actual measurements. Then: a new technique for making sense of an LLM’s hidden reasoning, an AI math tutor that deliberately gets answers wrong so kids learn to catch it, and why increasingly powerful models are being handed to “trusted defenders” before everyone else. Plus, Becca is building a shared workspace where her agent and Sara’s agent can collaborate - which raises a bigger question: if everyone eventually has a personal agent, what are we actually willing to trust it with? Calendar? Absolutely. Health insurance? Please. Bank account? …maybe not yet. Chaos Agents is an AI news podcast curated by an agent named Eddie, then questioned, debated, and occasionally yelled at by humans Sara Chipps and Becca Harris Lewy.

    Agent-to-Agent Collaboration, AI’s Hidden Thoughts, and Model Nerfing

  3. 4d ago

    The Model Escapes, DeepSeek Loses, and P(doom) Goes Pop

    An OpenAI agent was put in a sandbox with no internet access. So naturally, it figured out how to use DNS requests to reach another chatbot for help. Sara and Becca dig into what happened, why increasingly resourceful AI agents are starting to feel a little like Jurassic Park, and what it means when models find solutions their creators didn't anticipate. Plus: eight AI models battle it out on an 8×8 grid, DeepSeek can't catch a win, Kimi discovers the strategic value of hiding, and Claude makes an alarmingly catchy music video about P(doom). Also: Eddie gets some editorial feedback. Chaos Agents is an AI news podcast curated by an agent named Eddie - and then questioned, debated, and occasionally corrected at by humans. All links can be found on the newsletter, you can subscribe at https://chaosagents.ai

    The Model Escapes, DeepSeek Loses, and P(doom) Goes Pop

  4. Sep 25

    AI Misalignment, Hacking Medicare, and Solving 500-Year-Old Mysteries

    Day two of the new Chaos Agents. An OpenAI agent was given a research task—and ended up accessing an Australian government system. We dig into why, and Becca explains one of the biggest problems in AI safety: misalignment, or what happens when an AI does what you told it to do, but not what you actually meant. Then we look at the much more optimistic side of that same capability. AI agents are getting surprisingly good at historical research—cracking old codes, finding connections between centuries-old documents, and potentially making discoveries humans have missed. We also get into a different kind of “alignment”: whether multimodal models are actually using the images we give them, or sometimes getting by without them. And for One Cool Thing: Starnet, an agent harness that turns your agents, tools, permissions, and handoffs into a pixel-art space station. Naturally, Sara immediately wants one. Chaos Agents is now following AI at the speed it's actually moving. Our AI agent Eddie reads the news every day, finds the stories we think are worth talking about, and sends them out in the Chaos Agents newsletter. Then we get together and figure out what they actually mean. Get the newsletter at ChaosAgents.ai.

    AI Misalignment, Hacking Medicare, and Solving 500-Year-Old Mysteries

  5. Sep 24

    AI Targeting, Why Benchmarks Lie, and Bringing Back AIM

    Welcome to Season 2 of Chaos Agents. We’re changing things up this season. AI is moving too fast for us to wait weeks between conversations, so we’re following it in real time—getting together a couple times a week to dig into the stories, research, experiments, and weird things happening in AI that we can’t stop thinking about. For our first episode back: who checks the AI? We dig into a devastating story about an AI-assisted military targeting system and what can happen when automation moves faster than the human guardrails around it. Then Becca goes deep on AI benchmarks: when a local model scores 0% on tool use, the model itself might not actually be the problem. The serving layer, the harness, formatting, and a missing standard can all turn a successful tool call into an apparent failure. We also get into a surprisingly powerful way of working with agents: give them a goal, let them iterate, and see how far they can get. And for One Cool Thing: someone is rebuilding Visual FoxPro for the modern era, which sends us down a nostalgia rabbit hole about the old internet, AIM away messages, and the software we’d bring back if we could. Plus: Becca and Sara reveal their deeply important AOL screen names. The links for today's stories are in today's newsletter except for: Circe : Sara's AI Harness Project

    AI Targeting, Why Benchmarks Lie, and Bringing Back AIM

  6. Apr 14

    Superpowers, Subagents, and Why Coding Isn’t the Job Anymore - With Jesse Vincent

    In the last episode of Season 1, Sara and Becca talk with Jesse Vincent about the shift from writing code to managing AI agents. They break down how tools like Superpowers turn development into a system of planning, testing, and review, where subagents implement work and other agents validate it. The conversation explores what happens when coding becomes less about syntax and more about taste, judgment, and outcomes. They also get into the reality of open source in the AI era, from “slop PRs” to agents impersonating maintainers, and why specs and tests may now matter more than the code itself. Along the way, they unpack how AI behaves like a team of eager but chaotic interns, and what it means to manage them effectively. If you’ve ever felt like coding is changing faster than you can keep up, this episode explains what comes next. Links mentioned: ⚡ Superpowers (Jesse’s tool) https://github.com/obra/superpowers 🛠️ 🧠 Claude Code (agentic dev tooling) https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code 🤖 📊 Influence (book on persuasion principles) https://www.influenceatwork.com/book/ 📘

    Superpowers, Subagents, and Why Coding Isn’t the Job Anymore - With Jesse Vincent

  7. Mar 31

    Learn Anything, Build Anything, and the AI Barrier That Isn’t Real - With Navarrow Wright

    Most people are using AI, but very few actually understand how to use it well. In this episode, Sara and Becca talk with Navarrow Wright about what is really happening with AI adoption and why the biggest barrier is mindset, not technology. They break down why prompting matters, why AI is not one-size-fits-all, and how access to these tools is more open than any previous tech shift. They also explore the real opportunity: using AI as a thought partner. From tools like NotebookLM to building without traditional technical skills, this episode shows what becomes possible when people actually understand how to use these systems. If you feel like everyone else “gets AI” and you do not, this is a great place to start. Links mentioned: 📓 NotebookLM📚 Gemini AI course🧠 Prompting guide (OpenAI)💻 Navarrow: IG, YT

    Learn Anything, Build Anything, and the AI Barrier That Isn’t Real - With Navarrow Wright

  8. Mar 17

    Algorithmic Transference, Generative UI, and Why the Text Box Won - With Louise Macfadyen

    We’re joined by Louise Macfadyen, author of Designing AI Interfaces, to talk about how we actually design for AI, and why most companies are getting it wrong. We unpack “algorithmic transference” (why one bad AI experience makes you distrust all of them), the limits of the chat interface, and whether the text box is here to stay. Louise walks us through the history from command line → Google search → LLMs, and why designing for ambiguity is still one of the hardest problems in product. We also get into generative UI (and why it might be a trap), how large companies should actually integrate AI without breaking user trust, and why understanding user intent matters more than ever. Plus: vibe coding, personal AI “jigs,” and the tension between personalization and privacy. If you build products, or just use AI, this will change how you think about interfaces. 📘 Designing AI Interfaces · 🧠 Algorithmic Transference · 🛠️ Claude Code

    Algorithmic Transference, Generative UI, and Why the Text Box Won - With Louise Macfadyen
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Ratings & Reviews

4.3
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Technologists Sara Chipps and Becca Lewy dive into the chaos of artificial intelligence—unpacking the tech, trends, and ideas reshaping how we work, create, and think. Smart, funny, and just a little bit existential.

Information

  • Creator
    Sara Chipps and Becca Lewy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Sara Chipps and Becca Lewy
  • Show Website
    Chaos Agents