Prot Asks: Ovi about Clojure development and business, Emacs, and AI
Raw link: YouTube OR Internet Archive
In this ~2-hour video, I talk with Ovidiu “Ovi” Stoica about programming in Clojure and using it for business, the use of Emacs, and various topics related to AI.
About Clojure, I ask Ovi what the language is good for and which sort of business/project benefits from it. He explained at length the strengths of the language, such as its immutability and asynchronous operations. Clojure is commonly used in tandem with Datomic, a transactional database that helps in a number of advanced use-cases that Ovi covers. In this context, I also learn about Ovi’s own business, ShipClojure (link below), which helps programmers get started with a full Clojure stack.
On the topic of Emacs, Ovi tells me about the false starts he had while trying to use this program. Eventually he got it to work and has been using it for most tasks, including programming in Clojure and working with AI tools.
Our exchange about AI covers some of the potential downsides of relying on the tools on offer. We discuss the nuances involved and how it still makes sense to become an expert in a given field, even if there is ongoing talk about AI taking over in the near future. We also talk about Simuflow (link below), Ovi’s own project to connect AI agents that deal with speech recognition, audio processing, and various services. It is open source and written in Clojure.
Links from Ovidiu “Ovi” Stoica
- ShipClojure: https://shipclojure.com/.
- Simulflow (Voice AI Orchestration): https://github.com/shipclojure/simulflow.
- Datomic (Immutable Bi-Temporal DB - Not mine but we discussed it so maybe others are interested): https://www.datomic.com/.
About “Prot Asks”
In this new video series, I talk to anybody who is interested to have a video call with me (so do contact me if you want!). The topics cover anything related to Emacs, technology, and life in general. More here: https://protesilaos.com/prot-asks/.