Thought #32 - From Blocked Drains to Blockbuster Tools

Hi lovely humans,

Our slightly quiet summer in terms of AI releases is most definitely over. It has been a steady stream of new tools, quietly significant feature updates, and some unusual but surprisingly practical use cases. From recovering fraud losses to predicting blocked sewers, AI is showing up in places that don’t make the headlines, but do make a difference. At the same time, concerns around quality, ethics, and real-world impact are rising too.

And in continued Reddit discussions - ChatGPT users are now taking to arms about the apparent "hiding" of GPT-4o. I’ve noticed I have to keep switching back to 4o when using ChatGPT – and the Redditors were right about Claude. But people are discussing how much "Sam" is trying to hide or dilute 4o from them...

Our Week in AI

Reminding Myself How to Use Google Sheets

It has been a minute since I built a fancy Google Sheet, but with all this "running a business" I occasionally have to do finance-y things. And I'm a spreadsheet girl deep in my soul. I actually found myself going to ChatGPT rather than Google for a refresher in Google Sheets formulas:

L: Is there a google sheets function similar to select in SQL

=QUERY(data, query, [headers])

How to get the dollar to pounds in google sheets

=GOOGLEFINANCE("CURRENCY:USDGBP")

It was great, as when I didn't get the QUERY quite right, ChatGPT was able to correct it for me.

Claude for Documentation

A small thing which is saving me a load of time - when I ask Claude for help (eg setting up our database locally on our devices, or adding a new feature to the platform) I have been asking it to write Notion documentation of our chat.

Being Impressed with Lovable

If you haven’t heard of Lovable, they are a vibe coding platform and one of the highest valued companies in Europe.

Well they can now link to one of my fav platforms, Supabase, and you can actually build a fully functioning website, app or tool by prompting. I am impressed with how easy they have made it.

Cheeky plug - If you’re Bristol based and keen to learn more, come along to our Lovable workshop next week.

AI New Releases

Anthropic

• Claude now available in Microsoft 365 Copilot
  Anthropic’s Claude joins the workplace, integrating into Microsoft’s productivity suite alongside Word, Excel and Outlook.

• Claude Sonnet 4.5 released
  Faster reasoning, stronger coding, better maths - and now the new default Claude in the web app (colour me inspired so far).

• Claude Imagines launches
  A new feature that generates speculative answers, vibes, or creative code samples based on imaginative prompts. Possibly playful, possibly unhinged - looks amazing though.

OpenAI

• Sora 2 released
  OpenAI’s text-to-video model gets an upgrade, with improved realism and fewer glitches - though it’s still not available to most users.

• ChatGPT adds Pulse
  A new mode where it can start the conversation rather than waiting for a prompt (we’ve not tried this - we’re not sure).

• ChatGPT introduces Instant Checkout 
  Users can now purchase products directly in-chat via Stripe.

• ChatGPT Projects can now be shared
  Team collaboration features added to support shared workflows (finally).

• ChatGPT adds Parental Controls
  New tools to manage usage and content for younger users.

Google

• Gemini added to Google TV
  Ask your television for film suggestions, get answers about actors or genres, or plan your night in with AI on your remote.

• Chrome gets AI-powered features
  New tab organiser, writing help, and custom themes land in the world’s most-used browser.

Perplexity

• Perplexity releases its Search API
  A powerful new developer tool giving access to Perplexity’s search results for research or custom apps.

• New Claude models available in Perplexity
  They are fast. Already there for Pro and Max users.

AI News

• AI helped recover £500m lost to fraud, says UK Government
  A blend of machine learning models across tax, welfare and procurement helped flag fraudulent activity - and may have saved hundreds of millions.

• Trial helps South West Water cut pollution using AI
  Predictive modelling is helping spot blockages before they happen, reducing both costs and environmental impact.

• AI identifies 3,000 at-risk slopes for landslides
  A collaboration between the University of Florence and the British Geological Survey shows how AI can support early warning systems.

• BCS releases AI ethics recommendations
  Based on UK-wide survey data, the Chartered Institute for IT urges stronger ethical guidance and clearer standards for professionals in AI roles.

Not Quite News, But Worth a Read (or Listen or Watch)

• AI-generated “workslop” is damaging productivity – HBR
  The backlash is here. Harvard Business Review argues that low-quality AI output is cluttering workplaces and harming output rather than helping it.

• The invisible AI workforce – Multiverse
  70% of people using AI at work are in roles not traditionally seen as “tech” - a quiet reshaping of who gets counted as AI talent.

• How creative agencies are actually using AI – Spark AI report
  New research suggests creative teams are adopting AI faster than expected - but still value the human touch, especially for client work.

• OpenAI shares GDPVal benchmark – measuring AI model performance on practical, real-world tasks.

LinkedIn AI Poll

Apparently I am one of the annoyed Reddits, as last week we asked if you are still missing GPT-4o (because I was):

Apparently not!

This Week We’re Trying Something New

Can you share how you’re using AI for productivity?

Final Thoughts

As always we hope this was helpful!

Feel free to share this with anyone who might find it useful.

Next week, we are very busy with Bristol Technology Festival, so if the new releases could calm down, pretty please.

Laura
Always learning