Two Voice Devs

Join Mark and Allen in this episode of Two Voice Devs as they explore the fascinating world of AI agents. They break down what agents are, how they work, and what sets them apart from earlier AI technologies. The discussion covers key concepts like "context engineering," and the essential components of an agentic system, including prompts, RAG, memory, tools, and structured outputs. Using a practi...

Join Mark and Allen for a very special 250th episode as they celebrate five years of Two Voice Devs! You won't want to miss the unique, AI-animated opening that takes them to new heights, or the special closing that brings it all home, both created with the help of Veo 3. In between, they take a look back at the evolution of voice and AI technology. From the early days of Alexa and Google Assi...

In this episode, guest host Andrew Connell, a Microsoft MVP of 21 years, joins Allen to unravel the complexities of Microsoft's AI strategy, particularly within the enterprise. They explore the world of Microsoft 365 Copilot, distinguishing it from the broader AI landscape and consumer tools like ChatGPT. Andrew provides an insider's look at how Copilot functions within a secure, private &...

Join Allen Firstenberg and guest host Isaac Johnson, a Google Developer Expert with a deep background in DevOps and SRE, as they dive into the world of command-line AI assistants. In this episode, they compare and contrast two powerful tools: Anthropic's Claude Code CLI and Google's Gemini CLI. Isaac shares his journey from coding with Fortran in the 90s to becoming a GDE, and explains why...

John Gillilan, our official Apple correspondent, returns to Two Voice Devs to unpack the major announcements from Apple's latest Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). After failing to ship the ambitious "Apple Intelligence" features promised last year, how did Apple address the elephant in the room? We dive deep into the new "Foundation Models Framework," which gives devel...

Join Allen Firstenberg and Mark Tucker as they dive into Google's latest Gemini 2.5 models and their much-touted "thinking" capabilities. In this episode, they explore whether these models are genuinely reasoning or just executing sophisticated pattern matching. Through live tests in Google's AI Studio, they pit the Pro, Flash, and Flash-Lite models against tricky riddles, analyz...

Ever find that the best way to understand a new framework is to build it yourself? In this episode of Two Voice Devs, Mark Tucker takes us on a deep dive into Crew AI, a powerful Python framework for orchestrating multi-agent AI systems. To truly get under the hood, Mark decided to port the core functionality into TypeScript, creating "JCrew AI." This process provides a unique and insigh...

What do Anthropic's latest announcements mean for developers? In this episode, Allen is joined by freelance conversation designer Valentina Adami to break down all the major news from the recent "Code with Claude" event. Valentina shares her hands-on experience and perspective on the new Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 models, discussing their distinct capabilities, the new "reasoning"...

Join Allen Firstenberg and Michal Stanislawek in this thought-provoking episode of Two Voice Devs as they unpack two recent LinkedIn posts by Michal that reveal critical insights into the security and ethical challenges of modern AI agents. The discussion kicks off with a deep dive into a concerning GitHub MCP server exploit, where researchers uncovered a method to access private repositories thro...

Join Allen Firstenberg and Linda Lawton of Two Voice Devs as they record live from Google I/O 2025! As the conference neared the end, they dive deep into the groundbreaking announcements in generative AI, discussing the latest advancements and what they mean for developers, especially those in Conversational AI. This episode explores the new and updated models that are set to redefine content crea...

Recorded live from the podcast space at I/O, Allen Firstenberg and Roya dive into the overwhelming, yet incredibly exciting, world of AI announcements permeating the conference this year. They discuss the pervasive theme of AI augmenting human intelligence rather than replacing it, exploring concrete examples across various domains. From breakthroughs in mathematics with AlphaProof to the efficien...

The buzz from Google IO 2025 is deafening, especially about the new smart glasses announcement! On this episode of Two Voice Devs, Allen Firstenberg and Noble Ackerson — former Google Glass Explorers themselves — dive deep into their first impressions of Google's Project Astra / Android XR / Gemini glasses prototype. Drawing on their unique experience from the early days of Glass, Allen and No...

Join us on Two Voice Devs as Allen Firstenberg talks with Rizel Scarlett, Tech Lead for Open Source Developer Relations at Block. Rizel shares her fascinating journey from psychology student to software engineer and now a leader in developer advocacy, highlighting her passion for teaching and creative problem-solving. The conversation dives deep into Block's innovative open source work, partic...

How do you know if a Large Language Model is good for your specific task? You benchmark it! In this episode, Allen speaks with Amy Russ about her fascinating career path from international affairs to data, and how that unique perspective now informs her work in LLM benchmarking. Amy explains what benchmarking is, why it's crucial for both model builders and app developers, and how it goes far...

Join Allen Firstenberg from Google Cloud Next 2025 as he sits down with Ankur Kotwal, Google's Global Head of Cloud Advocacy. In this episode of Two Voice Devs, Allen and Ankur dive deep into the world of Developer Relations (DevRel) at Google, discussing its crucial role as a bridge connecting Google's product teams and engineers with the global developer community. Ankur shares his fasci...

Join Allen Firstenberg and Alice Keeler, the Two Voice Devs, live from Day 1 of Google Cloud Next 2025 in Las Vegas! In this episode, recorded amidst the energy of the show floor, Allen and Alice dive into the major announcements and highlights impacting developers, especially those interested in AI and conversational interfaces. Alice, known as the "Queen of Spreadsheets" and a Google D...

Following up on our recent conversation about the Model Context Protocol (MCP), Mark and Allen take a step deeper from a developer's perspective. While still in the shallow end, they explore the TypeScript SDK, the MCP Inspector tool, and the Smithery.ai registry to understand how developers define and host MCP servers and tools. They look at code examples for both local (Standard IO) and pote...

Join Allen Firstenberg and Michal Stanislawek on Two Voice Devs as they dive deep into the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a proposition by Anthropic that's gaining traction in the AI landscape. What exactly is MCP, and is it the key to seamless integration of external services with large language models? In this insightful discussion, Allen and Michal unravel the complexities of MCP, exploring its...

Following up on last week's captivating discussion, Allen Firstenberg and Noble Ackerson dive deeper into the world of Generative UI. Explore real-world examples of its potential pitfalls and discover how Noble is tackling these challenges through innovative approaches. This episode unveils the power of dynamically adapting user interfaces based on preferences and intent, ultimately aiming for out...

Allen and Noble dive deep into the fascinating world of Generative UI, a concept that goes beyond simply using AI to design interfaces and explores the possibility of UIs dynamically generated in real-time by AI LLMs, tailored to individual user needs and context. Noble, a returning Google Developers Expert in AI, clarifies the crucial distinction between generative UI and AI-aided UI generation....

DeepSeek AI is turning heads, achieving incredible results with older hardware and clever techniques! Join Allen and Roya as they unravel the secrets behind DeepSeek's success, from their unique attention mechanisms to their cost-effective AI training strategies. But is all as it seems? They also tackle the controversies surrounding DeepSeek, including accusations of data plagiarism and concer...

Amazon has announced Alexa Plus, powered by large language models (LLMs), and developers are buzzing with anticipation (and a healthy dose of skepticism!). Join Mark Tucker and Allen Firstenberg, your Two Voice Devs, as they dissect the news, explore the potential of the AI-native SDKs, and debate whether this overhaul will reignite the spark for Alexa development. In this deep dive, we cover: * T...

Allen Firstenberg and Linda Lawton dive deep into the power of Google's Imagen 3 Editing API. Discover how to effortlessly edit and enhance images, opening up a world of creative possibilities for developers! * Learn how the In-Painting/In-filling feature can quickly remove wires from an image, add highlights, and correct shading on images that the AI generated, and more. * Explore how to crea...

Are you building AI models and systems? Then you need to understand AI ethics! In this episode of Two Voice Devs, Allen Firstenberg welcomes Parul, a Senior Production Engineer at Meta, to dive deep into the world of AI ethics. Learn why fairness and bias are critical considerations for developers, and discover practical techniques to mitigate bias in your AI systems. Parul shares her experiences...

Are you overwhelmed by the sheer number of Large Language Models (LLMs) available? Choosing the right LLM for your project isn't about picking the most popular one – it's about understanding your specific needs and rigorously evaluating your options. In this episode of Two Voice Devs, Allen Firstenberg and guest host Brad Nemer, a seasoned product manager, dive deep into the world of LLM evaluatio...