Welcome, humans.
Picture this: You're using ChatGPT to crush your work, but you're treating it like a top-secret mission—complete with ninja-level stealth and an occasional paranoid glance over your shoulder.
Turns out, you're not alone. A wild new Ivanti report just dropped, revealing that 32% of workers are basically AI secret agents, keeping their productivity superpowers under wraps. Why? Some love their “secret advantage” (36%), while others are sweating bullets about potential job cuts (30%).
The workplace AI drama is real: 42% of employees are now using GenAI at work (up from 26% last year), but they're doing it with the tension of someone trying to smuggle a burrito into a fancy restaurant. Half are experiencing “resenteeism” (aka “I'm here, but I'm SO not happy"), and 39% are basically performing an elaborate “look how hard I'm working” theater.
Pro tip: If your boss thinks you're a productivity wizard without knowing about your AI sidekick, congrats—you've achieved workplace ninja status! 🥷🤖
Here’s what you need to know about AI today:
- What AI means for the future of graphics
- Perplexity adds PayPal shopping to AI chat.
- Meta battles EU privacy watchdog over AI training.
- OpenAI eyes UAE data center expansion.
How AI Is Powering Tomorrow’s Jaw-Dropping Graphics
When it comes to graphics processing and computation, gaming is often the bellwether for innovation.
Think of it like this: if your game stutters or looks outdated, people notice. So game studios constantly push for better graphics, faster performance, etc., which leads to the creation of tech that spreads to other industries.
NVIDIA has long blazed a trail in gaming, popularizing the term ‘GPU’ (graphics processing unit) from about 1999. They ended up doing pretty well outside of gaming; maybe you heard.
Now NVIDIA’s highly sought-after GeForce RTX GPUs are being used “to accelerate neural networks from within a game’s graphics pipeline,” as part of a partnership with Microsoft.
Neural networks. Huh.
Don’t worry, it ain’t as complex as it sounds. Let us explain a teeny bit of the tech:
- CPU: central processing unit. Any computer’s brain, basically — even the earliest ones.
- GPU: came later, originally developed for processing graphics. NVIDIA the main player. Main use case: gaming.
- NPU: neural processing unit, aka AI accelerator. Architected specifically for machine-learning tasks. Leverages neural networks.
Back to NVIDIA. Its special GPUs use Tensor Cores (AI boosters), which do the same job an NPU would: run neural networks fast.
Why this matters: Through their partnership, NVIDIA and Microsoft will use this hardware for neural shading (smarter lighting), a technology which “represents a revolution in graphics programming.”
Honestly, it’s hard to argue with that.
Neural shading uses AI to help decide how a scene should look, based on what it’s learned from visual data. Instead of using fixed rules for lighting and textures like traditional shaders, it learns patterns, like how light bounces or how materials behave, and fills in the details in a smarter, more realistic way.
The result is better-looking graphics with less manual work, and often, better performance.
In a nutshell: Modern GPUs and chips are packing dedicated AI hardware — whether called Tensor Cores, NPUs, or some other fancy word — making things like neural shaders, DLSS, or AI image generation possible.
Wanna try some of this tech for yourself? Some recs, provided you have the hardware for it:
- RunwayML: now includes Gen-2 features that use AI to create hyper-realistic video from prompts. Think neural shaders applied to live video rendering.
- Nvidia Canvas: paint a quick doodle, and it turns into a photorealistic landscape using neural rendering. Great for concept designers.
- Kaedim: turn 2D art into textured 3D models with neural shading + mesh generation.
Enjoy!
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Prompt Tip of the Day
The Master Prompt Method: Unlock AI’s Full Potential
The “Master Prompt Method” is a game-changer for getting WAY better AI responses with way less typing. Serial entrepreneur Hayden Miyamoto uses this approach to potentially double or triple his companies' growth yearly.
Instead of having disjointed conversations with AI, the method involves creating a comprehensive 20-30 page document containing all your business context (personal info, company details, team structure, products, culture) that gets loaded into every prompt automatically.
Using Claude's personal preferences feature, this master prompt becomes accessible in every conversation without typing it each time. Here’s a demo.
Want to create your own? Here’s how: Start with a Google doc containing: 1) Personal info (role, strengths/weaknesses), 2) Company info, 3) Market information, 4) Team details, 5) Products/services, and 6) Culture (values, mission). Then add custom protocols for different tasks (like “AI SOP” or “AI Hiring”).
We use a version of this, via project knowledge, to create custom Claude projects for each type of task we need to do in a given day; preferences basically lets you create a single project knowledge file for everything you do!
Need to catch up on our recent tips? Check out our Prompt Tips of the Day May Digest to see them all in one place!
Treats To Try.
- TikTok released “AI Alive,” a feature that turns photos into animated videos for TikTok Stories.
- BrowserAgent lets you create and run AI workflows directly in your browser with unlimited executions at a fixed cost.
- Illustrations.app generates custom vector illustrations in seconds.
- OpenJobs helps you chat your way to find jobs that match your skillset with direct links for where to apply.
- Skarbe automates your sales workflow without the hassle of a traditional CRM.
- Naoma analyzes your sales conversations to identify what makes top performers successful and helps you replicate those patterns across your team.
- Interlify helps you connect ChatGPT or Claude with your company’s own data and services without needing to write complicated code.
- Samaya gives you AI agents that answer complex financial questions and create reports by analyzing market data and documents—free to try (raised $43M).
See our top 51 AI Tools for Business here!
Around the Horn.
This video is WILD; we highly recommend you read this comment explaining how robots are now able to do such dynamic motion.
- OpenAI released GPT-4.1 in ChatGPT, a specialized model for coding that's faster than OpenAI o3 and o4-mini—GPT-4.1 mini will replace GPT-4o mini.
- Perplexity partnered with PayPal for in-chat shopping, enabling direct purchases through AI chat interface.
- Google's AlphaEvolve AI agent discovered and optimized algorithms across computing, math, and hardware domains.
- Meta facesdprivacy challenge from Noyb over requiring EU users to re-opt out of AI training data collection.
- OpenAI vowed to publish safety tests more often, publishing them through the newly launched Safety evaluations hub.
- CoreWeave reported its first earnings after IPO, with 420% revenue growth and a new $4B deal with OpenAI, but announced it’ll spend $20-23B on more AI infrastructure this year and shares dropped 7% in after hours trading.
FROM OUR PARTNERS
Voice AI Agents in Healthcare: Yes, they can work reliably!
Deploying AI in healthcare? You’re working with sensitive data and security requirements that can be tricky to navigate. Rely Health figured it out, and their CTO wants to show you how they build reliable voice AI agents on the go (plus a live demo!).
Thursday Trivia
One is real, and one is AI. Which is which? (vote below!)
A.
B.
Which is AI?
The answer is below, but place your vote to see how your guess compares to everyone else (no cheating now!)
Here are the results from last week’s poll:
Here’s what you said:
- A.M. chose A: “The calf muscle in B seems real.”
- J.G. chose A: “The reflections in B are way too good. And there is a train on the platform in A. -.-”
- D.J. chose B: “Roof is curved in B.”
A Cat's Commentary.
Trivia Answer: A is AI, and B is real. Oh, and FYI, last week’s AI answer was A!
