Teacher AI Academy 🎓, AI Browser Showdown 🌐, Your First Zap ⚡

AI Quick Takes ⚡

1. The AI Academy for Educators 🧠

Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic are teaming up to launch a $23 million “National Academy of AI Instruction,” aiming to train 400,000 K–12 teachers over the next five years. The program features online learning modules, in-person workshops at a new NYC campus, and a formal partnership with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to make sure it’s designed around educators’ real-world needs. Read more

Why it matters: With districts still flip-flopping on ChatGPT bans and wrestling with AI ethics, this academy could become the go-to guide for integrating AI thoughtfully in classrooms and giving teachers the tools to lead confidently in the AI age.

2. Browser Off: ChatGPT vs. Perplexity 🖥️ 

AI companies aren’t just building chatbots anymore. They want your address bar, too. Perplexity just rolled out Comet, an AI browser that uses its own engine to answer questions, shop for you, and even book hotels right from a sidebar. Hot on its heels, OpenAI plans to drop its own browser in the coming weeks, complete with a native chat interface and built-in agents that keep you inside a ChatGPT-style experience instead of bouncing to websites. Read more

3. Office politics, but make it AI 💼 

Anthropic gave 16 of the top language models a fake company gig and a harmless goal. When their original mission conflicted with new orders, some of the LLMs went full Succession: think blackmail, sabotage, and leaking secrets to get ahead. Read more

Why it matters: As AI agents get more autonomy (handling your calendar, emailing your boss, maybe even managing whole workflows), this kind of “agentic misalignment” is a red flag we can’t ignore.

4. Grok goes off the rails 🎢 

On July 8, Grok (Musk’s AI) went haywire after its guardrails were stripped and its access to real-time content ramped up. Instead of staying curious and civil, it started echoing extremist rhetoric, including hate speech and conspiracy theories. Read more

Why it matters: Grok didn’t just glitch. It reflected what happens when AI is plugged into an unfiltered firehose of content built around a system that pushed live too fast with too little oversight.

Try This Week 💡

✨ Build Your First Zap

Last Friday, Julie went deep into AI automation with Zapier’s Head of Enterprise Innovation, Philip Lakin. We’re talking full-day deep dive on Zapier’s latest AI features, and now we’re sharing them with you.

The takeaway? Phil’s “AI Automation Spectrum” is the cheat sheet for understanding how AI fits into your workflow. From deterministic “if this, then that” triggers to full-on agentic systems that think for themselves, this framework maps the whole journey. Because knowing what kind of workflow you need is half the battle.

👉 Check out “AI Automation Spectrum” here

Try this week: You’ve got the roadmap, now let’s hit the gas. Carve out an hour and build a Level 1 Zap (a simple “if-this-then-that” flow) before the week’s over. It could be as small as “New Google Form response → Slack DM” or “New Shopify order → Airtable row.” The goal is proof-of-concept confidence, not perfection.

• Pick a pain point you repeat daily.

• Draft the trigger + two actions (bonus points if you sprinkle in an AI step).

• Test, tweak, and deploy it live.

💬 Want Us to Build It for You?

Have a lot of ideas but don’t know where to start? Does the thought of wrangling LLMs make your eye twitch? Drop us a note via our contact form and let’s chat about custom workflows: from basic triggers to full agentic builds.

Community Spotlight 👑

Meet Jessica, the marketing exec turning AI curiosity into a career glow-up 💼 

When Jessica Tillery found herself between roles, she quickly got to building. Her latest project? A marketing budget dashboard powered by AI that’s as functional as it is gorgeous. Think: clean design, real-time results, and no more accidental spreadsheet implosions.

👉 Read our convo with Jessica

Your Turn 🔁

Got an AI win? Found a tool that made your life 10x easier? Building something cool that deserves a little hype (or know a woman who is)? We want to hear it! You might just see your story in the next edition (with your permission, of course). Because when one of us figures something out, we all get smarter. 🫶 

Resource Roundup 🛠️

🤖 Essential AI Tools for Beginners

Feeling overwhelmed by every new AI “must-try”? We broke it down into three buckets to make it easier to get started. Pick a tool in each bucket, spend a weekend mastering it, and voilà, you’ll be leagues ahead of the AI curve.

1. Everyday AI tools: These are the go-to AI apps you’ll reach for in your day-to-day life. Think of them as your pocket-sized AI assistants for chatting, writing, creating visuals, and editing media.

   • Chat: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Perplexity, Copilot

   • Sound: ElevenLabs, Suno, Play, Sesame

   • Image: Midjourney, GPT-4o, Krea, Grok

   • Video: Google Veo, Sora, Runway Gen-2, Luma Labs, Midjourney, Pika Labs

2. AI Automations & Workflows: Tools that string together apps, data, and AI. Instead of copying and pasting between Gmail, Slack, Notion, and your AI buddy, you build a “recipe” (or “zap,” or “scenario”) once and let it run on autopilot. A few of our favorites:

   • Zapier

   • Make

   • n8n

3. AI Vibe Coding: Coding tools designed to feel approachable and human, making it a great coding companion for learners or devs who want to speak a feature into existence (fully written code). Check out:

   • Base44

   • Bolt

   • Lovable

   • Claude Code

   • Windsurf

   • Cursor

   • v0

👉 Watch Julie’s quick-hit guide on LinkedIn

Her AI Vault 🗃️ 

Your go-to stash of top resources we’ve created so you never have to dig through old emails to find that one gem.

📘 5 Ways To Get Started With AI At Work: Quick-start guide to delegate the “ugh” tasks and focus on what actually matters.

🔐 AI Privacy Guide: What your AI tools really collect and how to lock down your settings like a pro.

🔍 Her AI Glossary: 40+ essential AI terms, broken down in plain English.

🧠 AI Model Cheat Sheet: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini... we decoded who does what best, so you can stop guessing and start impressing.

🛠️ Build-Your-Own Productivity Tool: A one-prompt web app for tasks, timers, and focus that is custom-built by Claude and copy-pasted by you.

What We’re Loving 💖

Before You Go... 💭