I’ve been working on something behind the scenes—and this time, it isn’t an AI experiment. Welcome to my new home studio. This will be the place where I research, write, record, test new tools, and create more practical content for the AI Bits & Pieces and AI Lone Wolf League communities. The room is still coming together, but the audio setup is ready: 🎧 beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro X Headphones (48 Ohm) 🎛️ Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th Gen USB-C Audio Interface 🎙️ Shure SM7dB Dynamic Vocal Microphone I wanted the studio to feel less like a traditional office and more like a place where ideas can develop—comfortable, personal, creative, and surrounded by a few things that matter to me. There is still more equipment to add, logos to showcase, and a cable or two to hide—but it is beginning to feel like home. More videos, lessons, conversations, and AI experiments are coming soon.

Microsoft Copilot can be one of the easiest ways to start using AI in your everyday work because it connects to tools many people already use. Email. Calendar. Documents. Presentations. Spreadsheets. Meetings. Chats. You do not have to learn everything at once. The best way to learn Copilot is one small workflow at a time. That is what this series is designed to do. We will start with the basics, then move into practical examples inside Microsoft 365: 💡 Part 1: Start With the Basics Get oriented and understand where Copilot shows up. 💬 Part 2: Copilot Chat Use Copilot Chat as a starting point for simple work questions and task organization. ✉️ Part 3: Improve Email Writing Use Copilot to make emails clearer, shorter, more professional, and easier to act on. 📬 Part 4: Outlook Email Triage Review recent email and organize what needs attention. 📅 Part 5: Calendar and Meeting Prep Review the day ahead and identify the top items that need attention. 📝 Part 6: Word — Draft and Improve a Document Turn rough notes into a clearer document. 📊 Part 7: PowerPoint — Create a First Draft Turn notes or a memo into a simple slide outline. 📈 Part 8: Excel — Ask Questions About Data Ask Copilot to identify patterns, issues, and questions in a table. 🔐 Bonus / Practitioner Lesson: Work Context and Permissions Understand what Copilot can access, what it cannot, and why your experience may differ from someone else’s. Your screen may not look exactly like someone else’s. That is normal. Copilot access can vary based on your Microsoft plan, license, workplace settings, and permissions. But the learning path is the same: - Start simple. - Practice one workflow. - Review the output. - Build from there. This is not about becoming a Copilot expert overnight. It is about learning how to use Copilot for real work, one practical step at a time.

When AI Looks Almost Human, “Almost” Becomes the Problem. Have you ever watched an AI-generated person who looked realistic, but something still felt wrong? The face looked human. The voice sounded human. The movements were close to human. But your brain still whispered: That is not a real person. That uncomfortable reaction is known as the uncanny valley. 🌀 What Is the Uncanny Valley? As robots, avatars, and digital humans become more realistic, people generally respond to them more positively. But there is a point where something looks almost human without being convincing enough. At that point, our comfort level can suddenly drop. Small imperfections become strangely noticeable: - Eyes that do not move naturally - Facial expressions that arrive a fraction too late - Lips that do not perfectly match the words - Skin that looks too smooth - A voice that lacks natural emotion - Body movements that feel slightly mechanical A cartoon character does not bother us because we know it is not human. We are not expecting perfect realism. An AI avatar that looks 98 percent human creates a different expectation. Our brains become extremely sensitive to the missing 2 percent. ⚠️ Why This Matters for AI: AI-generated video, voices, virtual assistants, and digital employees are improving quickly. The goal, however, should not always be to make AI indistinguishable from a human. Sometimes a clearly artificial character feels more trustworthy than a digital person pretending to be real. This creates an important design question: - Should an AI experience try to look completely human, or should it be honest about being AI? There is no universal answer. It depends on the audience, purpose, and level of trust required. The uncanny valley reminds us that technical realism and human comfort are not the same thing. As AI becomes more humanlike, the smallest details may determine whether people feel connected, curious, uncomfortable, or deceived. Share in the comments:

I really enjoyed your conversation with Herman. It takes courage, especially with how quickly AI is changing. I think a lot of us feel out of sync at times. But then there are moments when I hear someone else speak or read something, and it reminds me how much I actually do know, even if I don’t always realize it. This format has been great because I can jump in whenever I feel like it—whether to learn something new or revisit what I already know. I hope that makes sense..

I decided to have some fun and put down Claude Cowork and Code for the weekend and deep dive into ChatGPT image generation. I needed a catalyst, so I entered a Product Image Challenge, here. The challenge gives you a different real-world product each day. Your job is to turn it into an eye-catching product image or advertisement. For my entries, I’m using ChatGPT with Sol Light to develop the concepts and create the images. One thing I’ve found interesting: the lower models with heavy thinking, or higher models with lower thinking can work really well for creative projects where you’re looking for a general representation of an idea. You don’t necessarily need the biggest model to start creating. The harder part comes when you want consistency of characters, like the series I am creating, called “Milo.” DAY 1: Coca-Cola 🥤 This was more about creating an interesting scene and finding a visual idea that worked with the product source image. This was where I thought of Milo. DAY 2: Heinz Ketchup 🍅 For Heinz, I created a standard entry, and then went up and beyond and started experimenting with recurring characters and visual storytelling. And that introduced a completely different challenge. DAY 3: For GoPro, I created a continuation of the Milo series working with perspective to create an emotional and memorable futuristic scene. 👉 How do you keep the same characters looking like the same characters from one scene to the next? Same little girl. Same humanoid character. Different location. Different pose. Different action. That sounds simple. It isn’t. 😂 You quickly discover that prompting an AI to create a great-looking character once is very different from trying to direct that same character through a series of scenes. That’s where reference images, detailed descriptions, iterative prompting, and a little patience start becoming important. I’ve attached some of my creations from the first two days, and the source images.