đŸ˜ș 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.

That’s right—the latest Atlas robot is now performing full-on breakdancing routines complete with “coffee grinder” moves and cartwheels that look so fluid that some viewers thought it might be someone in a costume.

Nope—this 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 backflips—it's the “boring, practical” 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,” 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 today’s main story


Here’s 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."

  • Meta’s 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 think—no coding required. Here’s your crash course.

If you’re already an old pro with AI, share this guide with a friend who needs it. You know the friend we mean. We’ve 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!):

  1. Go to one of the sites above.

  2. Sign up (usually free & quick).

  3. Type what you want into the chat box (this is your "prompt").

  4. 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 well—make it something fun. Whether you know the ins and outs of yacht rock, crochet, or the D&D Monster Manual, it’s 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 “write an email.” Instead, try: “Draft a short, friendly email to my team updating them that Project X is delayed by one week. Keep the tone positive.” 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: “Give me 10 catchy headlines for a presentation on AI.”

  • Draft: “Write a thank-you note to a client after a meeting. [Details here]”

  • Explain: “Explain cloud computing like I'm 5.”

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. You’ve got nothing to lose and potentially a lot of productivity to gain. Once you’ve 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 “search” (here’s how for ChatGPT, Claude, and Google), then ask it:

“Using search [“search” for ChatGPT, “web search” for Claude, or “google_search” 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].”

Then, copy and paste the output prompt from this prompt to test it out!

Don't get left behind—the 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: “Would my mom (or dad) understand this?”

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: “Explain [whatever] so my mom would understand it.” The AI immediately drops the technical posturing and delivers surprisingly useful explanations.

Don’t forget: Get specific about your mom! “Explain this to my mom who's a gardener but has never used ChatGPT” works 10x better than generic “explain simply.”

Copy this prompt: 

“Explain [topic] using the 'Would my mom understand this?' test. Make it conversational, jargon-free, and include a real-world analogy she'd relate to.”

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.

  1. Dash lets you command your entire workflow through conversation, connecting to your apps to get work done without switching tabs or explaining twice—free to try (watch this video—its made by college students!)

  2. FutureHouse helps you accelerate scientific discovery with specialized agents that search and synthesize scientific literature more effectively than PhD researchers.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Reddit's AI search feature powered by Google's Gemini supports conversational search across 100,000+ communities serving 400 million weekly users.

  6. table.studio turns your spreadsheet cells into an AI image factory, creating hundreds of professional visuals simultaneously—free to try, then paid plans available.

  7. Superexpert.AI creates no-code enterprise AI agents that search your data and complete multiple tasks at once—free 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 offenses—he 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.

  • Google’s 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 PDFs—from scanned documents to complex tables and multilingual files—simply and reliably!

Monday Meme

A Cat's Commentary.

That’s all for today, for more AI treats, check out our website.

NEW: Our podcast is making a comeback! Check it out on Spotify.

The best way to support us is by checking out our sponsors—today’s are Mammouth and Unstructured.

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