Hello and happy Friday! I know I have repeatedly said I am not a robot but after the amount of press, podcasts and talking I’ve done about my new book this week, I’m starting to wonder if I might actually be one.
One question I keep getting in interviews is how I used AI while working on the book. So I’m sharing the main AI tool I used below. Then how to AirDrop—er, Quick Share—between Android phones and iPhones. And an Old Thing that has particularly sentimental value to me.
Bookbot illustration by Jason Snyder, design by Joanna Stern + ChatGPT.
AI did not write my book. AI helped me make my book. Big difference.
Writing is only one part of book making. There’s also research, documents, transcripts, notes, outlines, edits, timelines and the daily joy of asking, “Where is that quote I swear someone said?” That’s where my BookBots helped me most.
I created BookBots using the “Projects” features in Claude and ChatGPT, which you can find in the left rail of both platforms’ desktop and web apps. Projects are contained workspaces inside your chosen AI tool. You upload the relevant context—documents, notes, transcripts, deadlines—and the AI works from that material instead of starting fresh every time. It’s like giving the chatbot its own private filing cabinet.
My great book illustrator, Jason Snyder, even brought BookBot to life in a little drawing of a book/computer hybrid. It’s my Clippy. Jason loved BookBot so much he got it tattooed on his arm. The book is already changing lives. And forearms.
Jason Snyder, my brilliant book illustrator, and his equally brilliant arm.
After uploading my documents, transcripts and notes to Projects in both Claude and ChatGPT, I gave them each this prompt:
“You are a book research assistant to Joanna Stern. Your name is BookBot. Her book is about AI taking over her life for a year—all parts of her life, from transportation to medicine to education to relationships. You will help her organize research, create documents and edit parts of the book she gives you.”
Throughout the year, I uploaded new documents for the BookBots to work from. I frequently asked questions like:
“We are thinking of changing the structure of the book to be organized by season. What are events that happen in these seasons based on the current outline? I want to plot them out in the new table of contents.”
“What were the names of the radiology AI companies we pulled research on? Where are they located?”
“I’m going to interview Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman next week for the book. Based on the table of contents, where would he fit?”
You get the idea. The BookBots helped me wade through huge piles of material, structure chapters and find starting points for deeper reporting. Eventually, I even used them to do deep research—pulling background information and contact info from the web—before I did the real reporting myself. One important note: In both Claude and ChatGPT, I turned off the settings that allow my chats and uploaded data to be used for model training. You can find instructions for Claude here and ChatGPT here.
And you don’t need to be writing a book to take advantage of this feature. It’s great for planning trips, organizing conferences, managing big projects or really anything that comes with a flood of notes, links, documents and random thoughts.
To be clear, I worked with and hired a lot of amazing humans to help make this book. I had multiple human editors, a fact-checker, that aforementioned human illustrator, a human research assistant and more. But AI was my everyday collaborator.
I talk a lot in the book—especially in the education chapter—about how AI can do hard work for you, and how taking shortcuts can rob you of the difficult but important thinking process at the center of so many of personal and professional tasks. In some ways, you could argue BookBots were a shortcut. But I like to think I still did the hard part: structuring the chapters, piecing together the narrative, doing the reporting and actually writing the words.
That way, I AM NOT A ROBOT could not be retitled I AM NOT A BOOK BY A ROBOT, even if the robots did help.
For years, Apple users have dangled their superpower, AirDrop, in their Android friends’ faces. Need to send a link from your Mac to your phone? Easy. Send a photo to a fellow iPhone user? No problem. Now it’s getting easier to AirDrop with Android friends. So sorry, Quick Share with Android friends.
Google rolled out Quick Share with Apple-device support to Pixel and select Samsung devices last year. This week, it announced the feature is coming to more Android phones, including Samsung Galaxy S25 and S24 devices, the One Plus 15 and others. Here’s the full list. Here’s how to use it:
On a supported Android device, go to Settings → Connected devices→ QuickShare → Share with Apple devices.
On iPhone, make sure you’ve gone to Settings → General → AirDrop → Everyone for 10 Minutes.
Then, on the Android phone, share a file or photo as you normally would and select Quick Share from the share menu. You should see the iPhone as an option.
Same on the iPhone: Tap AirDrop when sharing a file and you should see the Android device.
Android+Apple world peace, achieved.📱📲🤝🕊️🌎
Isn’t today’s newsletter delightful? The reflection up top. The tip for sharing photos between Android phones and iPhones. The Old Thing down below.
Well, you can get all of this twice a week. New Things paid subscribers get the full Wednesday edition, which includes my longer weekly column, more tips and (soon!) big interviews. ➡️ You can subscribe here. ⬅️
Also, reminder: My book tour takes me to California next week. We still have tickets for the LA and SF events—details here. The Computer History Museum event in Mountain View is sold out! We’re still adding dates and cities, so check to see if I’m coming to one near you.
Name? Matt Fusfield
What’s your old thing? Skype set with CD and earbuds
Why do you love your old thing? When eBay owned Skype, they mailed these packages out to some of their “power sellers” but also sold them at Radio Shack. Inside is a CD and a cheap set of earbuds. Even at the time I thought the physical media version of Skype was interesting.
Joanna note: My first job out of college, in 2006, was at a PR agency working on the Skype account. A huge part of my job was boxing up these Skype kits and shipping them to reporters and other important people. There’s a very real chance I personally packed up that Skype set above and sent it to Mr. Fusfield. Life is weird.
This newsletter was curated and written by Joanna Stern and Adele Lowitz. Have a great weekend! I hope it’s better than the new Spotify logo.
|
