June 17, 2026

Artificially Intelligent, Actually Useful.

A Weekly AI Update So You Don't Have To Wing It

Skip the Course, Just Start

I keep talking with people who are waiting for the right time, the right task, the right tutorial before they start learning about AI. They bookmark articles, save videos, and figure they'll dig in once the week slows down. The week never slows down.

Here's what the research shows (and what I've found): you build real skill by running real work through AI and vetting the results yourself.

So, this issue is built around helping you start. It covers tasks that are worth your time, projects you can run from start to finish, and small daily habits that will turn an AI chatbot into a powerful tool and you into a confident AI user.

What to Hand Off, Hour by Hour

Incorporating AI into your daily life could start with a morning brain dump that surfaces blind spots in your thinking, board prep that turns into a set of targeted competitor SWOTs, or a quick scan of five trending topics for someone in your position. Pay attention to what works and what doesn't.

The three most common mistakes: treating AI like a search engine, trusting it all-or-nothing, and asking it to make the decision instead of framing the options. Each is the same error in a different coat. Don't hand off the thinking when the point is to hand off the task.

Key Insight: The win isn't asking AI better questions. It's deciding which parts of your day you can stop doing by hand. Start with the task you repeat most and judge what comes back, then iterate.

Read the Fast Company Piece →

Climb the AI Skill Ladder

A new framework sorts AI skill into three tiers. Tier 1 is literacy: writing a prompt that works and catching when the answer is wrong. Tier 2 is application: running one AI-assisted process start to finish with a quality check on it. Tier 3 is construction: packaging reusable skill files and automating workflows.

Make sure you've spent at least a few weeks in Tier 1 so a working prompt comes without effort. Then move to Tier 2 by running various workstreams through AI for a few months. Once those feel intuitive, Tier 3 is building skills and creating agentic processes (with guardrails, of course).

Strategic Takeaway: Pick one task you already do and add an AI step with a before-and-after measure. That single loop builds more skill than a stack of courses, and it tells you which tier you're working at, and where to go next.

See the Full Framework →

AI for Every Business Function

The AI chatbot is the easiest place to start. Open a window, type in plain language, and point it at whatever process is in front of you. The same tool drafts an email, reshapes a rough CRM note into a clean follow-up, or helps you work through an accounting question. The task changes. The tool doesn't.

That's the whole thread of this issue. You don't need a project or a platform to begin, just a process you already run and a willingness to check the output. Start at the simplest entry point, and every small win makes the next step easier to take.

Actionable Steps: Open any chatbot you already have and give it one real task from your week. Read the result with a critical eye, adjust your wording, and run it again. That loop is where the skill forms.

Review the Full Guide →

Quick Hits

.Foundations

Twenty Useful Things AI Can Do

A solid starting point when you want concrete things to try: write spreadsheet formulas, decode a product manual, turn a photo into a structured list. It leans toward well-defined, task-shaped jobs where the output is easy to check.

.Video

The 20% of AI Worth Learning

An excellent AI roadmap: pick one model and go deep, feed it the right context and outcome (stop hunting for the perfect prompt), then save that context in a Project so you can stop repeating yourself. It lines up with the skill tiers above, with a worked example at each step.

Read the written guide →

.Deep Dive

What LLMs are, and how to communicate with them

The first piece covers what large language models are, and how to choose between the major platforms. The second covers how to communicate with them: lead with your outcome, define your constraints upfront, and use examples to get output worth using.

Industry Developments

Apple's New Siri Unveiled, With Usage Caps

Apple launched Siri AI, a more conversational assistant backed by Apple Intelligence and a Google Gemini partnership. It pulls context from your messages, photos, and email, drafts and edits, and runs in a standalone app that syncs across devices. The catch: heavier features carry daily usage caps.

An Open Letter Against a Ban on Anthropic's Newest AI Models

More than 100 security executives and researchers signed an open letter urging the U.S. government to lift its export-control directives on Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models. Their case: the restricted models help defenders find and fix flaws in their own code, and pulling them from defenders while adversaries advance does more harm than good. The signers call for AI rules built on transparent, scientific evaluation.

Alright, that's a wrap for the week!

I wrote this issue because I've connected with so many smart people who are treating AI like a subject to study instead of a tool to use. They want to feel ready before they start; they don't want to look foolish or make a mistake.

I felt the same way before I started. But I realized that getting good at using AI is about picking one real task, running it through, learning from what comes back, and doing that again and again.

A few weeks of working on real tasks gets you AI literacy. A few months gets you to where you own a process end to end. So here's the one thing for this week: stop saving the tutorial. Take the task you've done a hundred times, hand it over with real context and the outcome you want, and check the result like you'd check a new hire's. That's the whole process. Everything else is reps.

Thoughts?

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Artificially Intelligent, Actually Useful.

What to Hand Off, Hour by Hour

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Artificially Intelligent, Actually Useful.

What to Hand Off, Hour by Hour

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AI for Every Business Function

Quick Hits

Industry Developments

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Tell us about it.