Welcome to your weekly Brew & AI
Each week, I’ll share how to make sense of AI - no jargon, no hype, just simple insights you can actually use.
P.S. - To ensure you receive this newsletter, please move it to the primary tab and set it for all future communications. Or just add this emailid as a known contact. I wish AI could solve this for me.
Grab your coffee - let’s dive in. 👇
☕ AI in the news
The US Military Just Made One AI Company Its Go-To Tech Partner
The Pentagon has officially adopted Palantir's AI software as a core system across the US military. Think of it as the military picking a single AI operating system to run on; a massive, high-stakes commitment to one company's technology.
This is a big deal because it hands enormous influence and an enormous contract to a single private company. It also signals that AI is no longer just a research project for the military; it's now baked into how the world's most powerful armed force actually operates day to day.
Governments are moving fast to embed AI into critical institutions, and the companies that win those contracts early could shape how AI is used in public life for decades. Read more
ChatGPT Is Now Showing You Ads
OpenAI has started running ads inside ChatGPT for free users in the US. If you've been using ChatGPT without paying, expect to start seeing sponsored content woven into your experience, the same trade-off you make with Google or Instagram.
This matters because it signals that OpenAI is under real pressure to make money beyond subscriptions. With hundreds of millions of users, ChatGPT is now a serious advertising platform, which means your conversations could soon be shaping what ads you see, raising fresh questions about privacy and how 'neutral' your AI assistant really is.
The free lunch era of AI assistants is ending: ads are just the beginning, and your chat history may become more valuable to marketers than you'd expect. Read more
An AI Company Just Took the Government to Court, and Won
Anthropic went to court after the Trump administration placed restrictions on it related to a Defense Department dispute and a federal judge sided with Anthropic, ordering those restrictions to be lifted.
This matters because it's a rare and striking example of an AI company successfully pushing back against government overreach through the courts. It shows that the legal and political battles around AI are heating up fast, and that the rules of the road are very much still being written.
The tug-of-war between AI companies and governments is moving from boardrooms into courtrooms; expect more legal fights like this as both sides figure out who's really in charge. Read more
☕ Trending on social
🔥 Something clearly went sideways with an AI chatbot, and Katie Miller's post calling it out went viral fast — because people are equal parts horrified and entertained when these tools go off the rails in spectacular fashion. It hits a nerve because so many of us have been sold on the idea that guardrails are basically solved, and then moments like this remind us that "solved" is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The real reason it resonated? Everyone secretly wants to know how badly these things can fail, and apparently, the answer is: pretty badly.
🧑💻 Anthropic announced that Claude can now take control of your computer, clicking, browsing, and completing tasks on your behalf while you sit back and watch. It went viral because, honestly, "AI does your computer stuff for you" is the kind of feature people have been half-joking about wanting for years, and suddenly it's just... real. Anthropic has been dropping updates almost daily lately, and this one felt like the moment the "AI assistant" era quietly became the "AI employee" era.
🔚 OpenAI's Sora - the AI video generator that caused a massive stir when it launched, appears to be getting quietly wound down, with its official account going dark as OpenAI pulls focus back to its core ChatGPT business. It caught attention because Sora was supposed to be OpenAI's big Hollywood-disrupting moment, and now it's being shelved faster than most people even got to try it. There's something very "overpromised, underwhelming, discontinued" about the whole arc that feels painfully on-brand for the current AI hype cycle.
☕ AI workflow of the week
Use Claude's Cowork feature to review any document sitting in your folders, no uploading required
Who this is for: Anyone who receives contracts, agreements, or dense documents at work, renters, freelancers, HR teams, operations managers, small business owners
Problem: Every time you want AI to look at a real file, a contract, a PDF, a spreadsheet, you have to find it, upload it, hope the file size isn't too large, and start a fresh conversation.
It's just enough friction that most people don't bother.
Claude's Cowork feature changes this: it connects directly to a folder on your computer, meaning Claude can pull up any file you point it to without you lifting a finger to upload anything.
Tools: Claude Desktop (free to download)
Note: The Cowork feature requires a Claude Pro or Max subscription
Step 1 — Gather: Download Claude Desktop and connect your folder
This is a one-time setup that takes about five minutes. Go to claude.ai, download the Claude Desktop, and install it. Once it's open, look for the Cowork feature in the settings panel — it will ask you to grant access to a folder on your computer. Claude can now see and read anything you drop in there, without you ever having to manually upload a file again.
Step 2 — Prompt: Point Claude at your document and ask the right questions
Once your folder is connected, ask it to pick the document you need — a rental agreement, a freelance contract, an NDA, a supplier terms sheet, anything with dense small print. Tell it exactly what to look at and what you're worried about. The more specific you are, the more useful the output.
Step 3 — Refine: Dig into the clauses that matter most to you
Claude will give you a structured breakdown — key terms, unusual clauses, and potential red flags. Now use that as a starting point for a back-and-forth. If something in the output catches your eye, ask Claude to explain it in plain English, tell you how common it is, or suggest what a fairer version of that clause might look like.
Step 4 — Act: Turn the analysis into a negotiation checklist or a set of questions to send
Once you've worked through the document with Claude, ask it to produce something you can actually use. The most practical output is a short list of questions or change requests you can send back to whoever gave you the contract.☕ Try this out - prompts
This week – Design your default day. Then compare it to your real day and pick just one tiny change to test tomorrow.
Design my ideal ordinary weekday, not a fantasy vacation: from wake‑up to bedtime, including work, breaks, phone use, and time with people I care about. Make it 10% better than my current life, not 10x.☕ Weekly Reads
☕ Resources
If you missed my writing, here’s everything I’ve done - bite‑sized, practical, and very AI‑obsessed. Think of this as the “in case you blinked” shelf for my recent posts, threads, and experiments.
✍ Blogs - In-depth articles and insights to expand your AI knowledge
🛠 Tools - Discover powerful AI tools to enhance your workflow
💭 Tips - Practical tips and tricks to make your AI journey smoother
💛 P.S.
That’s it for this week’s brew.
I’d love to hear what you think - what you liked, what could be better, or what you’d love to see next.
Just hit reply - I read every message over my morning coffee ☕.
Brew & AI
Making AI simple, one sip at a time