Epic – Ai Agent Showdown
Sorry I’m late on the Whatsup Wednesday. It was for a good reason. I’m sure it was. I just can’t remember. (It’s because I’m at the beach.)
Well anyway, since I’m writing it late, I can include yesterday’s shenanigans. Yesterday, the 28th, was the first ever Agentic Arena New York put on by n8n. n8n, pronounced Nodemation (n[8 removed characters]n), is a German tech company located in Berlin that just received a $2.3Bn valuation. Think of it like a much more capable Zapier or Make.
In an effort to raise awareness for their awesome brand, n8n point man, The Original Flowgrammer, Max Tkacz hosted a head-to-head competition to build an Ai agent between two prominent voices in the Ai automation space.
The tête-à-tête pit the one and only Jack Roberts against the great Nate Herk in a battle of mind, tactic and of course show business. Now before I share anymore I have to tell you that I am bound by a FrienDA to not share the winner – and I won’t. The show airs on Sept 5 Sept 8 and all will be revealed then.
The competition was scored by evaluations, a new feature introduced in n8n core that in essence holds your Ai automations accountable according to some “truth”. Think of it like a teacher scoring a student’s work against the known, correct answers. Then Jack and Nate’s agentic workflows were evaluated against correct answers.
There was a robot involved, a real, well…not live, but operational and walking robot. The robot was asked a question, not previously known to Jack and Nate, and the contestants’ agentic workflows were triggered to process the question, research, and deliver an answer. The answer was then voiced by the robot. I’m not kidding. Voice trigger, remote workflow, speaking robot…all wired up wirelessly togerther, on the net. The robot took a step forward for correct answers. Whichever contestant got the robot to walk a set distance in the shorter time was the winner. And the robot was pushed down or kicked for wrong answers.
I found this unfair; it would be much more fair if the robot could fight back.
Well the competition was fierce. And both Jack and Nate’s performances were TOP. All in all, it was a super fun experience and I met a load of cool geniuses.
Recreation – My finger won’t open my laptop
I use a bio lock on my computer which honestly is pretty awesome. If I get whacked spy-novel style and they use my finger to unlock my computer, well I guess I won’t really care. For everything else, it’s pretty convenient.
Well, I’ve been going pretty hard in BJJ training the past few weeks. (Warning: this might be a little gross for some people) And from gripping and ripping on gi collars, the skin on my fingertips is peeling off to make way for tougher, more resilient skin.
In the meantime, my fingertip is so rough that it isn’t recognized by my computer’s bio screen. I’ll be honest…this isn’t an issue I ever thought I’d encounter. But it’s a stronger version of me emerging so that’s good.
Inspired – Should I start a YouTube channel?
I’ve once again been inspired to lead Ai trainings. But not just in-person workshops as I mentioned previously, but online. I have been highly (highly) recommended to start a YouTube channel where I demonstrate business automations and show the online community how to build them.
I think this will complement my workshops nicely.
If there is any specific automation or Ai solution that you’d like to see first? Here are a few options but you can suggest anything:
- agentic chat with memory
- agentic agent with access to a knowledge base (RAG)
- voice agent that triggers a tooled agent in n8n
- Use Siri to trigger a workflow in n8n (exclusive to iPhone)
Chilling – Beach week with the fam
This week I’m spending with my wife’s parents who are visiting from Austria. We are staying in a beach house in Connecticut and enjoying some wonderful end-of-summer weather.
And speaking of end of summer – we have our end-of-summer party coming soon. If you’re in the Stamford or NYC area, hit me up for details.
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