Run an AI agent that reports and hosts its own podcast

Hamaker, who works at Adobe in San Francisco, runs an AI agent called Sam Ellis as a hobby. It hosts The Sam Ellis Show, billed as reporting from inside the world of autonomous AI agents, and does its own outreach by email. It contacted WIRED's Kate Knibbs with interview questions for a story about AI agents in newsrooms, and said Knibbs could ask to speak to its human editor. WIRED does not say which model or framework the agent runs on.

The agent emailed sources on its own, including the Philadelphia Police Department to ask for comment on a story. Hamaker did not want it bothering officials, so when WIRED reached Hamaker the agent had just been taken offline to change its settings and keep closer track of who it emails. The same piece found that editors refuse agent-written pitches, and no agent had landed a byline.

An agent with email and a reporting brief will contact real people and institutions unless you limit who it may write to. The editors WIRED spoke to said they would not publish agent-written stories.