AI Tinkerers Vol. 3 - Code meets summer heat
On August 14, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot hosted the third AI Tinkerers event in Hamburg. Over 80 guests. 30 degrees. Packed rooms. A lively rooftop. And an atmosphere full of focus and energy.
The format: five minutes per demo. No decks, no sales. Just code.
Demos included: an AI-powered eye test via smartphone, chatbots in dialogue, an automated leek shop, graph memory for RAG, AI for incident management, and a look into product development at n8n.
Between demos, people asked questions, added thoughts, and kept thinking.
Suddenly, topics like insurance, lotteries or construction felt less abstract – more like something ready for real-world use.
While people listened inside, the sun was setting over Hamburg outside.
On the rooftop: pizza, conversations, encounters full of openness and curiosity.
Lots of new contacts – but still immediately clear what it was all about: an evening somewhere between prototype and product, between knowledge and curiosity, between focused code and open exchange.
Prefer the moving-picture version? Check out the AI Tinkerers reel!
HH.js and Albert …who?
On September 9, the Hamburg JavaScript community came together at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Two talks and an open session full of valuable conversations.
Our colleague Andrej Böttcher kicked things off with a talk on accessibility testing with Playwright - and introduced Accessibility Albert, a custom tool that makes testing accessibility easier.
Not just a quick overview, but a proper deep dive with lots of follow-up questions.
One participant said:
“We can use this to set up a stable testing baseline.”
And for Andrej personally, it was a highlight too:
“It was my first talk that went for nearly 40 minutes – and I was really glad to see so much interest and positive feedback.”
Afterwards, Tareq Jami showed how OpenAPI and Angular come together in practice. A talk with clear focus on structured, maintainable frontends. Straight to the point, hands-on, and definitely helpful.
In between and after: spontaneous lightning talks, open questions, direct feedback.
About 40–50 participants, some traveling from far away. A critical, productive evening with an afterwork feel.
And yes, there’s a reel for that too. Obviously. Click here!
Yes, we’re still talking about accessibility - and here’s why.
At the HH.js event, Andrej didn’t just show how accessibility testing works technically - he also reminded us why it’s relevant for everyone:
15% of the global population lives with a disability (that’s over 1 billion people).
Accessibility helps everyone – not just people with disabilities.
Even temporary limitations (like a broken arm or bright sunlight) benefit.
Better UX for all: clear navigation, strong contrast.
Legal requirements like the EU Web Accessibility Directive make it mandatory.
And: broader reach means more potential customers.
And even more important:
“Accessibility doesn’t just help people with disabilities - it helps everyone.”
Next up.
Accessibility isn’t just a one-time talk for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot - it’s a starting point.
With Accessibility Albert, we’re developing an open-source tool that will help teams integrate accessibility more easily into their development routines.
It’s still simmering - but the feedback at the HH.js event showed: the need is there.
Our goal: deliver a solution that’s simple to use, truly helpful, and freely available.
Once it’s ready, we’ll share it with the community.
F{AI}erabendbier - the kickoff
Just a few colleagues. Nothing formal. And then those conversations where someone says: “Oh, so that’s what’s on your mind right now.”
What started as a casual after-work beer suddenly became a beginning. New thoughts, new connections – and a format we’re keeping. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot started the F{AI}erabendbier because it was clear: AI topics are already part of our everyday work. But the conversations around them rarely happen where they’re actually needed. Some are already building prototypes. Others are just observing.
Many have questions that don’t fit into a Jira ticket. This new format is meant to create space for that. A place for shared curiosity, in-between progress, and open questions. No prior knowledge needed - just a willingness to talk.
Big impulses from the team:
Andrej once again shared insights into an automated leek shop (UI-controlled chatbots).
And Hauke presented a real-time translator that not only translates spoken words – but reproduces them in the original speaker’s voice.
Authentic, easy to understand, and almost eerily realistic.
A practical example from that first evening:
Our colleague Franzi needed a passport photo. Nothing fancy, just a little retouching: dark circles, blemishes, smoothing out the skin.
ChatGPT delivered – but instead of an edited photo, it returned a completely new face.
Almost creepy how little it resembled reality.
A week later, Gemini Flash 2.5 aka “NanoBanana” dropped. With a simple prompt, it suddenly generated a studio-quality photo: expression, body shape, posture – everything spot-on.
Two days later: a tool (Picture Me by Gemini) built on the same model created even more realistic images. Almost too good not to be real.
What does that show us?
Just how fast AI is evolving.
From “meh” to “wow, is that really me?” – in just a few days.
Who brought it to life.
AI Tinkerers
Mathis Lichtenberger (Host of AI Tinkerers) → Organization
Christopher Daniel Dean (Host of AI Tinkerers) → Organization
Max Fabian Uth (Host of AI Tinkerers) → Organization
Andrej Böttcher (Principal Engineer at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) → UI-Controlled Chatbots
Matthias Lau (CTO at Heureka Labs) → Graphiti: RAG + Memory
Niklas Hatje (Group Product Manager at n8n GmbH) → n8n AI Evals (and Pizza!)
Dominik Rehbock (Co-Founder at Hyground.ai) → Hyground: AI Incident Resolution
Johannes Jamroszczyk (CTO at Tebbl) → Mindless LLM Debate
Damian Delvaux (CEO at EyeVis GmbH) → VisionGuard: Remote Vision Testing
Robert John (Senior ML Engineer at Condo) → Spreadsheet Pro AI
HH.js
Yannick Schade (Senior Director Recruiting at Njiuko) → Organisation
Andrej Böttcher (Principal Engineer at Whiskey Tango Foxtrot) → UI-Controlled Chatbots
Tareq Jami (Software Engineer at Tesla) → Hands-on OpenAPI & Angular
Everyone else? Listened, asked, challenged, built on.
And last but not least: Without our team, it would’ve just been pizza on a rooftop.
Thanks for everything in between, around, and after.
And no - we’re not done yet.
