Hi
Hope you had wonderful weekends one and all. Writing to you from Melbourne this week where I’m attending/speaking at ASCILITE – shaping up to be excellent #recommend.
Enough of that though, a few headlines from the world of AI to kickstart your Mondays:
Breaking Barriers: Anthropic’s MCP is the Digital Glue We’ve Been Waiting For!
Ever wished your AI assistant could follow you around like a digital shadow? Anthropic’s new Model Context Protocol (MCP) just made that dream a reality! Think of it as building bridges between all your digital islands – your Slack chats, GitHub repos, and Google Docs are about to become one seamless AI playground!
The real magic? It’s open source and already gaining serious traction. Think about how the internet exploded after we standardised HTTP – that’s exactly what MCP could do for AI. With major players (e.g., Block and Apollo) integrating it, we’re witnessing the foundation of a new era in AI. This isn’t just another tech update – it’s the missing piece that could finally transform our current AI tools from siloed engines into a truly interconnected ecosystem.
Oh and Anthropic just released Styles as well – no more chewing up your context window with lengthy samples of writing as a style guide – now you can create custom styles and leverage them while working with Claude. Happy to report that the style summary for this newsletter was “Deliver complex insights through a conversational, playful, and deeply insightful communication style” 🤩
Team AI Just Got Fun: Microsoft’s Copilot Pages Changes the Collaboration Game!
Picture this: You’re brainstorming with your team, and alongside your human colleagues, there’s an AI that’s not just taking notes – it’s actively connecting dots you hadn’t even seen yet! That’s the magic of Microsoft’s new Copilot Pages, and it’s about to transform how we think about team collaboration. Looks like it’s built on Microsoft’s underused Loop components (yes, their Notion clone is finally hitting its stride! 😉), this “multiplayer” environment transforms AI from a personal assistant into a shared team superpower.
Personally, I’ve got to say the real magic lies in how it’s completely reimagining those traditionally painful meeting workflows. Gone are the days of pre-meeting chaos, hours-long meetings (that probably could have been an email) and post-meeting document hunts – Pages creates this living, breathing canvas that evolves with your team’s collective intelligence. And here’s what really gets me: by making AI collaboration a team sport, we’re not just getting better outputs – we’re fundamentally changing how teams think, create, and solve problems together.
TEQSA’s AI Playbook: Australian Unis Show Us How It’s Done!
An early Xmas present from TEQSA just dropped, and it’s packed with practical gold! 🎄 Their new Gen AI strategies for Australian higher education: Emerging practice toolkit isn’t just another theoretical framework – it’s a living library of success stories from universities already riding the AI wave!
The standout innovations? University of Sydney “two-lane” assessment approach (separating supervised learning checks from AI-enhanced learning experiences), Deakin University‘s comprehensive culture-first framework, and Curtin College‘s shift to process-based assessments where the journey matters as much as the destination. And big props to University of Adelaide for getting students involved through their Academic Integrity Ambassadors? My favourite bit? The “AI x Assessment Menu” – it’s like a delicious selection of pedagogical possibilities, from using AI as your critical friend to leveraging it for instant feedback. Finally, practical solutions that don’t pretend AI doesn’t exist! 🍽️
Meet Daisy: The AI Grandma Making Scammers Pull Their Hair Out!
In the ongoing battle against scammers, O2 (Telefónica UK)‘s new AI bot Daisy is playing dumb… and it’s absolutely brilliant! While scammers are getting sophisticated with deepfakes and AI voice cloning, sometimes the best defence is a confused grandmother who just can’t figure out how to access her bank account on this computer thing – and what does the red light mean again darling?… 😉
The timing couldn’t be better. As AI tools make scams increasingly harder to spot, clever leveraging of these same tools to fight fire with fire are a wonderful idea. Sidebar: might sound extreme but maybe this is a good nudge to have an overdue chat with family about establishing some verification systems – because in a world where AI can sound just like us, a simple safe word might be our best defence! 🛡️
Runway Frames: Because One Perfect AI Image Wasn’t Enough!
You know that frustrating moment when you get one perfect AI-generated image but can’t quite replicate that magic again? Well, it looks like Runway might finally have cracked that code with a whole new way of thinking about creative consistency in AI: Frames!
What’s particularly exciting are the “worlds” that Frames showcase – like moodboards on steroids, these aren’t just random style presets, they’re entire aesthetic ecosystems! 🌟 The range is honestly mind-blowing: from “1980s SFX Makeup” (hello, practical effects nostalgia! 👻) to “Japanese Zine” with its dreamy retro anime vibes (see above hero image). Maybe the most dramatic ones come from World 0981 – Dynamic Range Landscapes – see pics below.
Awesome
Awesome +1
Ultimately, Frames is about maintaining consistent visual storytelling across multiple generations. For anyone working in design, film, or creative direction, this could be huge for establishing and maintaining visual consistency across projects. The future of creative AI isn’t just about generation – it’s about curation and control! 🎯
What a week in the AI world! 🚀 We’re seeing some seriously exciting shifts that could fundamentally change how our digital world connects and collaborates. Anthropic’s MCP might sound like just another tech protocol, but think about it – we’re potentially witnessing the birth of something as transformative as HTTP was for the early internet. Pair that with Microsoft’s clever reimagining of team collaboration through Copilot Pages, and suddenly the future of work is looking a lot more interesting (and a lot less about endless meetings! 😅).
But what really gets me excited is how these innovations are rippling across different sectors. From TEQSA’s practical playbook showing universities how to ride the AI wave, to O2’s brilliantly simple approach to scammer-baiting, to Runway’s game-changing take on creative consistency – we’re seeing AI tools mature from fancy party tricks into genuine problem-solvers. The common thread? It’s all about making AI work for us in ways that actually make sense. Whether you’re a lecturer redesigning assessments, a creative trying to maintain consistent style, or just someone tired of those endless scam calls – this week’s developments suggest we’re getting better at making AI truly useful. And isn’t that what innovation should be about? 🌟