ArtificialRuby.ai June - After the Agent. Two Ways Out of the Chat Box.
"When you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow & exclude people. So create." - Why the Lucky Stiff
After the Agent. Two ways out of the chat box.
This month’s event is focused on what comes after the agent frame. Where do we go next?
We have two talks with two takes. One asking what these things actually are, maybe the "agent" word itself is holding us back. One asking what you actually do with them, once you stop trying to manage them like coworkers.
If you've been building with AI lately and felt that "agent" wasn't quite the right word for what you were doing or itching to see where these things go next, you won't want to miss these talks!
About Us
Artificial Ruby is a monthly gathering for people who build things: engineers, designers, founders, and anyone else who's picked up AI and started creating with it. Those creating for the first time or who are creating more than they ever thought possible.
We started as a Ruby and AI community and that's our foundation, but our events are for anyone who shares the same ethos: ship things, stay curious, be generous with what you know. You'll find senior engineers who've been in the Ruby community for 15 years alongside designers, PMs, and founders who are building with AI for the first time. What everyone has in common is they're actually making things and they're excited about it.
Each event: three talks, good conversation, and plenty of time to connect with people who are navigating this moment alongside you.
Important: Please bring a valid photo ID that matches your RSVP for admission.
Agenda
6:00-6:45: Arrive, mingle, drinks and refreshments
6:45-7:00: Intros
7:00-8:00: Demos
8:00-9:00: Food, drinks and connections
Demos / Talks
Scott Werner: Talking Shit About AI Agents
Ask seven people what an "AI agent" is and you'll get nine answers. One person will change their mind twice. When we can't name something, it usually means we're looking at something genuinely new. In this talk, I'll argue that what we're calling 'agents' might actually be a new programming paradigm hiding in plain sight. You'll also see a brief demo of what building in this paradigm might look like and what kind of applications you can build when you think this way.
Bryan Helmkamp: Fabro: Orchestrating deterministic AI workflows
AI coding agents are powerful, but they force an awkward choice: babysit or review a giant diff you do not trust. This talk is the story of building Fabro, an open source workflow engine that turns agent work into version-controlled graphs with human gates, model routing, sandboxed execution, and observable runs. We’ll look at the product and architecture decisions behind moving from “chat with an agent” to “orchestrate a process,” and what it takes to make agents useful for real engineering teams.
If you are interested in speaking at future events, please fill out the form below. The demos are usually about 10 minutes and feature a cool AI tool or feature built in Ruby/Rails.
https://forms.gle/k2NyKQJYiXCF5L2w6
Sponsors
Test Double is a software consulting agency whose senior developers and product managers embed with your team to solve hard problems and drive business results. 100% employee-owned and remote, they've been improving how the world builds software since 2011 with deep expertise in Ruby, Rails, and pragmatic AI. Hitting a blocker? Talk to someone else who gets it.
OmbuLabs offers custom development of classic machine learning models and AI-powered systems. We are the friendly folks behind FastRuby.io and your favorite open source projects for remediating tech debt.
Sublayer is helping teams learn and ship with AI through essays, tutorials, coaching, community meetups, and real products.
Def Method pours love into Ruby applications until the applications love you back. We are the authors of Phoenix, the AI-powered Rails testing system that helps you ship faster and with more confidence.
Gusto is a people platform that helps growing businesses onboard, pay, insure, and support their hardworking teams with payroll, benefits, and more.
Host
Betaworks: Betaworks is a product-focused, seed-stage venture capital fund. We are thematic by design, we immerse ourselves in irruption-phase technologies and work with founders and our community to understand new user behavior.
By registering for this event, you agree to receive email communication from the Artificial Ruby team about future events and other community activities.