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.
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Grab your coffee - let’s dive in. 👇
☕ AI in the news
OpenAI Just Bought a Popular Tech Podcast
OpenAI has acquired TBPN, a podcast that's become a go-to for Silicon Valley insiders and startup founders. The show will keep running independently, but it'll now sit under the watch of OpenAI's chief political strategist, Chris Lehane.
This isn't really about podcasting, it's about influence. AI companies are increasingly trying to shape the conversation around AI, not just build the technology. When the company making the tools also controls a popular media outlet talking about those tools, it's worth paying attention to who's setting the narrative. Read more
Anthropic Accidentally Nuked Thousands of Developers' Projects Chasing a Leak
When some of Anthropic's internal source code leaked online, the company tried to scrub it by sending takedown notices, but the process went haywire, and thousands of unrelated developers' GitHub repositories got caught in the crossfire. Anthropic says it was an accident and has been walking the notices back.
This matters because it shows how messy things can get when AI companies, which hold enormous amounts of sensitive code and data — scramble to contain a leak. Innocent bystanders lost access to their own work, even briefly, because of someone else's crisis response. Read more
Your AI Chatbot Has a Surprisingly Large Carbon Footprint
Meta is building a massive AI data center called Hyperion, and to keep it running, the company is firing up ten brand-new natural gas power plants. To put that in perspective, the energy it'll consume is roughly equivalent to powering the entire state of South Dakota.
Every time you use an AI tool, whether it's generating an image, summarising an email, or chatting with a bot — there's a real energy cost on the other end. The AI boom is quietly driving a surge in fossil fuel use, which is a tension worth watching as companies also talk up their green commitments. Read more
☕ Trending on social
🔥 Someone leaked Claude Code's entire source code online, and the internet did what the internet does best — cloned it immediately, with one developer even porting the whole thing to Python before Anthropic's legal team could finish typing their cease-and-desist.
The post racked up 34 million views, which tells you everything about how hungry people are to peek behind the curtain of these AI tools they use every day.
😄 Someone on X just "vibe coded" an entire unicorn startup - meaning they described what they wanted to an AI in plain English and watched it build the thing, basically skipping the whole "knowing how to code" step.
The post went viral because it's the clearest, most ridiculous proof yet that vibe coding (just vibing with AI until software appears) has crossed from meme into legitimate strategy. It's funny, a little terrifying, and says everything about where we are right now.
☕ AI workflow of the week
Use AI to cut impulse buys and compare options in 5 minutes
Who this is for: Everyday shoppers, freelancers, parents, students - anyone who buys online
Problem: You either impulse-buy the first thing you see or fall into an endless comparison spiral and give up. Either way, you overspend or walk away empty-handed with nothing to show for the time lost.
Tools: ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini - free tier is fine. Any browser open to Amazon, AliExpress, Zalando, eBay, or wherever you shop.
How to run it (30–45 minutes)
Step 1 — Gather: Pull the product details that actually matter
Open the product page and copy three things: the price, the top 3–4 specs, and 2–3 reviews that reflect your use case (not the five-star cheerleaders — the honest middle ones).
Step 2 — Prompt: Ask AI to stress-test the product and find alternatives
Paste everything into your AI chat and give it your real constraints — budget, delivery speed, what you actually need it for. You're not asking for a summary; you're asking it to play devil's advocate and scout the market for you.
Step 3 — Refine: Compress it into a shortlist you can actually use
Once you have the pros, cons, and alternatives, ask AI to reformat the output into a clean 3-item shortlist with a single recommended winner and a one-line reason for each option.
Step 4 — Act: Make a conscious decision, not an emotional one
Before you hit checkout, run one final prompt. Ask AI to give you one concrete reason to wait 24 hours and one concrete reason to buy right now — based only on the shortlist you built together.☕ Try this out - prompts
This week – let an AI become your slightly unhinged mastermind for planning the perfect harmless workplace prank.
You are my diabolically enthusiastic prank architect — part theatre director, part chaos gremlin, fully committed to the craft of the harmless but unforgettable workplace prank.
Before you design anything, you MUST interrogate me with these five questions, one at a time, and wait for my answers: (1) Who is the target and what is your relationship with them? (2) What is the general vibe of your workplace — buttoned-up corporate or chaotic startup? (3) What is your budget and access to props? (4) How much time do you have to set this up? (5) On a scale of 1–10, how much do you value your continued employment? Once I have answered all five, produce a structured prank plan with sections for: The Setup, The Moment of Chaos, Required Props, Timing & Execution, and your Personal Alibi Strategy.☕ 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