Blog: The Curious Companion

This episode zooms in on the hype cycle surrounding AI and asks a blunt question: Are we in a bubble? Spoiler: Yes. To unpack that, I trace the history of the dot-com boom and bust, bring in some numbers on today’s AI players, and consider what this all might mean for companies, investors, and everyday people like you and me.

In this episode of ChatGPT Curious I share a handful of ChatGPT features that you might not know about, and that I think you might find genuinely useful. These aren’t “hidden gems” or shiny distractions, they’re tools and settings I personally use and that I believe can improve both your user experience and the model’s outputs. From release notes and memory controls to project settings and the surprisingly powerful Study Mode, this is a practical tour of features that can actually make a difference.

In this episode, we’re talking about what it really takes to get ChatGPT to do what you want. From clarifying your own thoughts to understanding the basics of prompting, this is a how-to guide without the hoopla. Really though, it’s not that serious. Whether you’re asking it to write an email or act as your assistant, specificity and clarity are the name of the game.

This episode is about giving you a clear, simple definition of a word that gets thrown around constantly: AI. You’re hearing it in every commercial, on every app, and in every new feature rollout. But what is it, really? I share a plain-language definition — “software that can guess” — contrast everyday examples of AI with simple automation, and give quick context on where the term came from, how regulating agencies define it, what is meant by “agents” and “AGI”, and how close we realistically are to what Terminator predicted. (Spoiler, not close at all.)

In this episode I give an introduction to using ChatGPT for content creation with a focus on practical strategies for repurposing your own work. You’ll hear about reverse prompting, using Projects to save instructions, and how to keep your taste and voice at the center of what you create.

This episode digs into whether ChatGPT is trustworthy, and why that question quickly expands into a bigger conversation about who and what we trust at all. We cover recent changes in the platform, what “hallucinations” really are, and why double-checking is non-negotiable. From the foundations of expertise to the three components of trust, this is a call for personal responsibility and critical thinking when using AI (and the internet in general).

This episode digs into whether ChatGPT is as transformative as headlines make it seem, or whether its impact, especially on jobs, is being overstated. Using the release of GPT-5 as a backdrop, I break down what’s new, what’s hype, and why the reality is more nuanced than the marketing. From AI “agents” to AGI, we explore what’s actually happening, what’s being promised, and what it means for the average worker.

This first Curious Companion email is a little different. I’m launching the podcast with three full episodes, and rather than cram everything into a single email, I’ve featured the full breakdown only for Episode 2 here, largely because ya’ll told me it’s the episode you’re the most curious about.