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đș AI for TOTAL Beginners
PLUS: Meta SUED for AI defamation?!

Welcome, humans.
Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot just busted out moves that would make B-Boy legends jealous and my high school attempts at breakdancing look even more pathetic by comparison.
Thatâs rightâthe latest Atlas robot is now performing full-on breakdancing routines complete with âcoffee grinderâ moves and cartwheels that look so fluid that some viewers thought it might be someone in a costume.
Nopeâthis is 100% robot, powered by reinforcement learning and motion capture technology from human dancers. Check it out:
While we're busy having nightmares about robot dance battles, the real AI threat is much more mundane. Forget Atlas doing backflipsâit's the âboring, practicalâ AI applications already changing workplaces that matter.
Case in point: Duolingo's billionaire CEO Luis von Ahn announced they're "going to be AI-first,â and according to insider reports, have already quietly replaced up to 100 writers and translators with AI systems.
According to Brian Merchant of Blood in the Machine, recent college grads are feeling the impact hardest, as entry-level roles get automated first.
The takeaway? If you're in those vulnerable positions, start building AI skills ASAP! You can start with todayâs main storyâŠ
Hereâs what you need to know about AI today:
We wrote a quick guide on how to start using AI.
Google's antitrust case now centers on AI market control.
Nvidia calls Anthropic's chip-smuggling claims "tall tales."
Metaâs AI got sued for defamation.

How to start using AI (even if you're a TOTAL beginner)
Feeling like everyone else is riding the AI wave while you're still on the shore? You're not alone. But jumping in is easier than you thinkâno coding required. Hereâs your crash course.
If youâre already an old pro with AI, share this guide with a friend who needs it. You know the friend we mean. Weâve put it together as a clean, simple way to explain the basics to anyone in less than 5 minutes.
What are these AI chatbots anyway?
Think of tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as super-smart assistants trained on vast amounts of internet text. They understand and generate human-like language to answer questions, write stuff, brainstorm ideas, summarize text, and more.

Meet the Top 3 Players:
ChatGPT: The famous all-rounder. Great for creative tasks, coding help, and general questions. Try it.
Claude: The thoughtful writer. Excels at nuanced tasks, analyzing long docs, and sounding human. Try it.
Gemini: Google's speedy researcher. Best for up-to-date info and integrating with Google apps. Try it.
All have free tiers, so you can experiment without paying a dime.
How to Use Them (It's Simple!):
Go to one of the sites above.
Sign up (usually free & quick).
Type what you want into the chat box (this is your "prompt").
Hit enter and get your answer!
Yep, that's basically it. And remember: it's a conversation.
Pro tip: Chat with it about something you know wellâmake it something fun. Whether you know the ins and outs of yacht rock, crochet, or the D&D Monster Manual, itâs very well-versed.
The #1 Tip for Better Results: Be Specific!
The key to getting good answers is asking good questions. Don't just say âwrite an email.â Instead, try: âDraft a short, friendly email to my team updating them that Project X is delayed by one week. Keep the tone positive.â See the difference? Giving context and details makes the AI much more helpful.
Quick Ideas to Try Today:
Summarize: Paste a long article and ask for bullet points.
Brainstorm: âGive me 10 catchy headlines for a presentation on AI.â
Draft: âWrite a thank-you note to a client after a meeting. [Details here]â
Explain: âExplain cloud computing like I'm 5.â
Why Bother? Because AI is quickly becoming a standard workplace tool. Learning the basics helps you automate tedious tasks, generate ideas faster, and simply work more efficiently.
Spend literally 5 minutes trying one simple task on ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini today. Youâve got nothing to lose and potentially a lot of productivity to gain. Once youâve played around a bit, check out this list of awesome resources to dive deeper in.
And when in doubt, ask the AI to help you. Toggle on âsearchâ (hereâs how for ChatGPT, Claude, and Google), then ask it:
âUsing search [âsearchâ for ChatGPT, âweb searchâ for Claude, or âgoogle_searchâ for Gemini], look up the most recent AI prompting best practices as of [date] and put them in a bullet point list. Then, apply those best practices to write a prompt to help me [do XYZ task].â
Don't get left behindâthe barrier to entry has never been lower, so start trying it out today! See our longer guide here.

FROM OUR PARTNERS
MAMMOUTH AI
Mammouth gives you access to the best AI models in one place. It includes Claude, GPT, Llama, Gemini, Mistral, Grok, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Flux, Midjourney, Recraft and Stable Diffusion. For only $10/month.

Prompt Tip of the Day
Try this out: When writing something complicated with AI, ask it: âWould my mom (or dad) understand this?â
We literally pulled this from our own style guide and now use it as an actual prompt with ChatGPT and Claude. The results are night-and-day clearer.
Instead of asking for a simple explanation, try: âExplain [whatever] so my mom would understand it.â The AI immediately drops the technical posturing and delivers surprisingly useful explanations.
Donât forget: Get specific about your mom! âExplain this to my mom who's a gardener but has never used ChatGPTâ works 10x better than generic âexplain simply.â
Copy this prompt:
âExplain [topic] using the 'Would my mom understand this?' test. Make it conversational, jargon-free, and include a real-world analogy she'd relate to.â
Need to catch up on our recent tips? Check out our Prompt Tips of the Day April digest to see them all in one place!

Treats To Try.
Dash lets you command your entire workflow through conversation, connecting to your apps to get work done without switching tabs or explaining twiceâfree to try (watch this videoâits made by college students!)
FutureHouse helps you accelerate scientific discovery with specialized agents that search and synthesize scientific literature more effectively than PhD researchers.
Raycast syncs your AI chats, notes, and snippets across all your Apple devices, letting you talk to GPT-4.1 and other AI models wherever you go.
LLMrefs tracks your brand's visibility across AI search engines, showing exactly where and why your content appears in ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI results.
Reddit's AI search feature powered by Google's Gemini supports conversational search across 100,000+ communities serving 400 million weekly users.
table.studio turns your spreadsheet cells into an AI image factory, creating hundreds of professional visuals simultaneouslyâfree to try, then paid plans available.
Superexpert.AI creates no-code enterprise AI agents that search your data and complete multiple tasks at onceâfree and open-source.

Around the Horn.
Meta was sued for defamation after its AI falsely claimed Robby Starbuck participated in the Capitol riot and committed other offensesâhe is seeking $5M in damages.
NVIDIA criticized Anthropic for supporting stricter U.S. AI chip export controls to China, dismissing smuggling claims as "tall tales" while warning the restrictions threaten American competitiveness.
Googleâs antitrust case about its search monopoly transformed into a battle over AI dominance, as remedy hearings focused on preventing Google from leveraging search control to dominate the AI market.
USSOCOM partnered with Seerist in a five-year deal to enhance military operations with AI-powered threat intelligence and predictive analytics.

FROM OUR PARTNERS
Complex layouts, embedded images, and inconsistent formatting make it tough to reliably extract structured data from PDFs.
Join our webinar on 5/13 for a deep dive on how Unstructured handles real-world PDFsâfrom scanned documents to complex tables and multilingual filesâsimply and reliably!

Monday Meme

A Cat's Commentary.


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