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Keep up with AI. Put it to work.

Choose an AI, understand what changed, and make one useful thing.

Checked 2026-10-28 · Original event dates below.

Illustration: a question passes through branching AI-assisted exploration to a result that a person checks.
Ask a question. Explore with your own tools. Check what comes back.Conceptual illustration, not a measured workflow.

Frontier radar · original announcement dates

A cheaper model is useful when the finished work holds up

About this selection

OpenAI released GPT-6.1 Terra on 26 October for Work, Codex and the API. Learn what a lower token rate means, then check a tiny fictional invoice before trusting an automated workflow. The earlier developments below keep their original dates; the practical learning library remains separate.

Original announcement dates appear on each item. The practical library remains available below.

TECHNOLOGY · · Recent development

A cheaper AI model has arrived. Is the finished job cheaper?

GPT-6.1 Terra brings a new option for visual and computer work. Start with a tiny invoice: extracting the numbers is one step; checking them is what makes the result usable.

Why it matters

Lower usage prices can make small repetitive tasks worth trying. A useful comparison includes the result you can accept, the repairs you make and the product you can actually access.

Understand it and try a small project →

EVIDENCE · · Recent development

What do people actually ask AI to do at work?

OpenAI released an aggregated view of work-related ChatGPT messages. Learn how to read the categories without confusing a popular request with a completed job.

Why it matters

A list of real requests can suggest a useful small project. It cannot, by itself, tell you that an assistant completed the work or saved its user time.

Understand it and try a small project →

USE · · Recent development

Your AI can read the notice aloud. Will it say the right closing time?

Ollama has added local speech generation with Phonon. Build a tiny spoken-notice check: approved words, a playable result and a listening pass that catches a plausible mistake.

Why it matters

A short audio notice could help a club, a small event or a personal reading tool. The useful deliverable includes a correct script and a way to inspect what the voice actually says.

Understand it and try a small project →

USE · · Recent development

Kimi K3.1 Pro is here. Give it a small job with a visible finish.

Moonshot's new launch brings another option for coding and creative work. Before choosing a plan, sketch a weekend planner, give it three awkward events and work out what a useful result would cost.

Why it matters

A new model becomes useful when it can finish your particular task. A tiny project with known answers helps you compare outputs without needing to understand a benchmark leaderboard.

Understand it and try a small project →

EVIDENCE · · Recent development

AI can write a proof. First ask exactly what it proves.

Anthropic and Theorem report machine-checked security properties across 123 software libraries. A tiny ticket-counter puzzle explains why this is exciting, and why a proven rule still needs to be the right rule.

Why it matters

A checkable guarantee could make AI-built tools more dependable. Understanding its exact scope helps you ask for useful evidence instead of accepting an assistant's confident claim that everything works.

Understand it and try a small project →

TECHNOLOGY · · Earlier development

Small decisions, repeated inputs: what changed in AI APIs this week?

OpenAI made Decisions generally available on 22 October, following its 20 October longer-cache update. Try a three-row sorting exercise, then work out when paying to reuse a fixed beginning makes sense.

Why it matters

A small AI tool often needs a clear category or a few checked fields. Knowing the unit of work helps you compare the interface, the bill and the human checking it still needs.

Understand it and try a small project →

BUSINESS · · Recent development

A tiny shop does not need more AI drafts. It needs a usable product page.

Google is rolling out a small-business hub in Gemini. Start with a three-product writing pack: supplied facts, consistent style and a check before anything reaches a customer.

Why it matters

A repeatable, checked deliverable gives a small creative project something concrete to test. More generated content alone does not show that a business saves money or wins customers.

Understand it and try a small project →
My reading

Practical learning library

From curious reader to useful result

About 74 minutes · 14,716 words of core reading

You do not need to know how to train a model or start a company to begin here. You need a question, a few public or invented inputs, and a way to recognise a useful answer. This guide takes you from choosing a model to delivering a small result that another person can actually use. Each chapter leaves you with something concrete: a comparison sheet, a permissions brief, a checked summary, a prototype specification, an interview plan or a cost calculation.

Choose one small project before committing to the complete path. The interactive story, FAQ helper, prompt organiser and booking mockup each leave a useful small artifact. This edition makes the recovery rehearsal ready to try: copy ten fictional bookings, predict three permitted changes and catch outputs that have the right row count but wrong contents. Historical studies and founder accounts keep their original dates; observed reports and invented practice budgets remain separate. Exercises use public or invented inputs and your own tools; reading does not start an agent or submit anything to WRS.

  1. 1

    Understand AI

    A stronger model is not always the better choice

    Choose for the job you need finished, including the mistakes you will have to repair.

    About 5 min
  2. 2

    Understand AI

    Your AI can click. What should it be allowed to do?

    Understand tools and agents by planning one task with a clear boundary between reading and acting.

    About 5 min
  3. 3

    Use AI

    Turn three messy documents into a brief you can trust

    Make sources visible, catch a contradiction, and produce an answer someone can check.

    About 5 min
  4. 4

    Use AI

    Build one small useful tool before you build a company

    Turn an unclear idea into a prototype with inputs, outputs and tests that a real person can understand.

    About 5 min
  5. 5

    Use AI

    Turn a short story into something people can explore

    A Chinese creator’s interactive literature project becomes a three-scene beginner exercise, with a clear brief, a small budget and checks that go beyond appearance.

    About 4 min
  6. 6

    Use AI

    Build a ten-question helper before you automate customer support

    Copy a ten-row fictional event sheet, test fifteen questions, and compare the time spent answering and reviewing. A real customer case explains the idea; the practice numbers are clearly separate.

    About 7 min
  7. 7

    Use AI

    Did AI save time, or just make work feel faster?

    Use a real experiment and a later survey to build your own four-job scorecard: finished work, checking time, failed attempts and cost.

    About 8 min
  8. 8

    Build with AI

    Find a problem someone already spends time solving

    Start an AI business investigation with the last time a problem happened, not a promise of future customers.

    About 5 min
  9. 9

    Build with AI

    Cheap tokens do not automatically make a profitable product

    Work through one fictional delivery budget, including retries, checking and finding customers.

    About 5 min
  10. 10

    Build with AI

    Lovable’s early launches: why a clever demo was not enough

    Why applause did not finish the job: turn Lovable’s early setbacks into a three-state first-use test, a small budget and a clear decision about what to build next.

    About 8 min
  11. 11

    Build with AI

    TypingMind: sell a useful workflow, and know who pays for the AI

    Turn a founder’s real sales story into a five-card local prototype: copy a prompt, test missing facts and approved changes, then check whether support consumes the margin.

    About 8 min
  12. 12

    Build with AI

    The AI changed the data. Can you get the original back?

    Copy ten fictional bookings, check three permitted corrections and catch wrong results that still contain ten rows. The historical Replit incident explains why reopening the original matters.

    About 7 min
  13. 13

    Put it together

    Your first useful AI project: one need, one checked result

    Bring the technical, practical and business lessons together in a project another person can continue.

    About 5 min

Estimated at 200 words per minute. Navigation, summaries, source notes, glossaries and optional answers are excluded from the core count. Exercises take extra time.

From the practical library

Catch the mistake that ten rows can hide

The recovery case now includes a complete fictional table, a copyable cleanup brief and three expected cell changes. Test a duplicated ID, an invented date and an instruction-like note, then compare the preserved original. The historical incident’s eventual recovery stays in the account.

Put the idea to work →

Why a great AI demo can still lose its first visitor

Lovable’s early setbacks become a camera-booking exercise with three clear states, four checks and a 90-minute cap. A Chinese design essay adds the first-visitor question. Learn what a local mockup and a simulated user can actually tell you before spending on more automation.

Put the idea to work →

Build five useful prompt cards, then count the support

The TypingMind case now includes a complete announcement template, fictional test inputs, missing-fact and version-change checks, and a worked support budget. Start with manual copying before adding a model connection.

Put the idea to work →

Does your AI save work after you check it?

A four-job event-checking scorecard makes the METR case practical. Keep failed attempts, calculate cost per accepted result and identify the next workflow change. A newer historical survey adds the difference between perceived speed and useful output.

Put the idea to work →

Try a complete fifteen-question helper test

A ready-to-copy fictional event sheet now turns the Hospitable case into a small practical exercise. Check unsupported requests, an approved update and whether reviewing AI drafts actually saves time.

Put the idea to work →

AI interfaces are moving beyond the chat box

Qwen Code’s 9 October update describes voice interaction, work in already logged-in browser sessions and email-triggered tasks. Those capabilities make permission boundaries more important. The browser feature is described for Mac and Linux; the update says Windows is not yet supported. Other capabilities depend on setup.

Put the idea to work →

Keep going

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Original teaching examples are fictional. Provider reports, founder advice and WRS explanations are identified separately. Business exercises do not promise income or activate paid services.