In a world where technology is increasingly conspiring to steal our focus and attention, my goal is to teach you how to be more productive with Apple technology. I want to help you achieve what is most important to you and enjoy your life at the same time using technology instead of becoming another one of its victims. Pretty much everything I make points at that North Star. I believe in this message so much that I’ve staked my livelihood on it.
The Gen3 AI Revolution
|
Hi Friend, I've been spending a lot of time with Claude 3.7 Sonnet lately, and I wanted to share some thoughts on the new "Gen3" AI models. Claude 3.7 is trained with a massive leap in computing power compared to its predecessors. What's Different About These New Models?These new AI models aren't just incrementally better; they represent a significant jump in capabilities. There are two reasons for this:
My Experience with Claude 3.7 SonnetI've been using Claude 3.7 regularly. Most folks use programming tests to baseline the AI models. I don’t. Instead, I've found it to be an exceptional thought partner. One of my favorite workflows is to give Claude something I've written and ask it to pose thoughtful questions about the content. Those questions often spark new ideas or help me identify gaps in my thinking. For those of you who work alone without colleagues to bounce ideas off of, these more capable AI models can provide surprisingly useful feedback. It's like having a smart colleague who's always available to help you think through problems. As AI becomes capable of higher-order thinking tasks, there is a lot of room for us to be creative in how we put them to work. The Human in the RoomYou still need to be the human in the room. As smart as these models are getting, you're making a mistake if you believe they're actually thinking. They remain tools — increasingly powerful tools — but tools nonetheless. Your judgment, creativity, and ethical sensibilities remain irreplaceable. The most powerful approach is using these AI partners to amplify your thinking, not replace it. If you're curious about these Gen3 models, my recommendation is simple: experiment. Ask Claude to help you brainstorm solutions to a problem you're facing. Have it review something you've written and suggest improvements. Use it as a sounding board when you're trying to think through a complex issue. You might be surprised at how helpful these conversations can be, even if you're not using the flashy coding capabilities that get most of the attention. I'm cautiously optimistic about where this is heading. These tools are becoming genuine intellectual partners that can help us think better, create more, and solve harder problems. Used wisely, they have the potential to dramatically enhance what we can accomplish. Your pal, David |
David Sparks (MacSparky)
In a world where technology is increasingly conspiring to steal our focus and attention, my goal is to teach you how to be more productive with Apple technology. I want to help you achieve what is most important to you and enjoy your life at the same time using technology instead of becoming another one of its victims. Pretty much everything I make points at that North Star. I believe in this message so much that I’ve staked my livelihood on it.
THE MACSPARKY DISPATCH Hi Friend, I got beta access to the new Siri AI and the first thing I asked was, “Can you check the weather for where I’ll be this weekend?”. I’m going on vacation. I never told Siri that. It read my calendar, figured out I’d be in Hawaii, and gave me the forecast. Old Siri would have read me the weather at home, or handed me a list of web results and wished me luck. That one answer tells you most of what changed. For years, the truth is that Siri made a fine kitchen...
THE ROBOT ASSISTANT FIELD GUIDE Purchase the Robot Assistant Field Guide Get 10% Off with Code: STILL-TIME-ROBOT Hi Friend, Over the past few weeks I've been getting the same question from a lot of people: "Is it too late to get the Robot Assistant Field Guide?" No. Not even close. And actually, the timing is interesting. Apple's new Siri AI features are impressive. I've been using them, and I genuinely mean that. But they don't come close to what you can build with this system. Siri doesn't...
THE MACSPARKY DISPATCH Hi Friend, Back in 2017, the night before the WWDC keynote, I wrote a short post about table stakes. I’d spent a year living on the iPad, and a lot of it still felt like swimming upstream. My argument was that fixing the iPad’s file management and multitasking wasn’t the impressive part of the story. It was the price of admission. As I put it back then, that’s the starting point, not the ending one. In a few days, we’ll get another WWDC keynote, and I keep coming back...