Blake Robbins recalls how early chatbot startups anticipated modern AI agents

Blake Robbins recalls how early chatbot startups anticipated modern AI agents · Digg

/TECH

The 2016-era startups demonstrated high consumer demand despite limited technology.

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The 2016-era startups demonstrated high consumer demand despite limited technology.

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Excel Rator@excel_rator

@blakeir its still not gonna happen

3:39 PM · Jul 15, 2026

Josh Elman@joshelman

@blakeir So I first read this as when you were 10 years old 😅. They showed us the potential of what humans wanted even if the tech couldn’t quite deliver it. @MattPRD was all over this topic and area too and kept plugging away, most recently @moltbook !

7:39 PM · Jul 15, 2026

Blake Robbins@blakeir

when i first started in venture ~10 years ago, chatbots were all the rage. operator. magic. facebook m. the vision was simple: message a bot, and it would get things done for you. turns out they were just a decade too early.

2:48 PM · Jul 15, 2026

Matt Schlicht@MattPRD

@joshelman @blakeir @moltbook I love chatbots / agents!