#3 Three ways to use Claude 3, handy prompts, + free AI image generation
Plus, the most-attended women's sporting event that was erased from history.
Talking on the DMI podcast about humanness and AI
Happy spring equinox. We now have more light than dark. Yes!
The fresh spring energy has been very welcome over the last week. I’ve delivered an AI masterclass for founders and an intro to AI copywriting for the ProCopywriters network. Plus, a spring equinox women’s circle, with plenty of writing exercises.
The Digital Marketing Institute Podcast, “The Human Touch in AI Copywriting”, also went live. You can see I got pretty passionate – look at my red face above. Ha.
I’m now prepping for more workshops and seminars in April. There’s a nice mix of copywriting-specific sessions and those combining text and image/video generation. Exciting.
Can I also mention the new film, Copa 71? I saw it on Sunday and it’s sooo good (see below). Once you’ve read this newsletter, please consider booking the next possible showing. It’s a cracker.
What’s inside this edition:
🤖 AI News and Views
Three things you can do with new Claude 3
A helpful new feature in Gemini
How to generate AI images for free
A prompt to optimise your prompts
💛 The Human Element
Copa 71 film – it’s amazing
Setting spring intentions
Do you need a retreat?
🤖 AI News & Views
AI tools, techniques and discoveries to help you with your content creation
Hello Claude 3
Claude is one of my favourite AI writing tools. It has a good default tone for copywriting. And the models are trained to align with a constitutional AI document that outlines principles like freedom, opposition to inhumane treatment, and privacy.
Over the last few months, I’ve found myself choosing Claude over my normal default, ChatGPT. So, when Claude 3 arrived, I was pretty excited.
What’s new?
According to its creators, Claude is more knowledgeable, gives you better accuracy, fewer refusals – and an improved ability to follow multi-step instructions. It can also respond to images.
There are three new models:
Opus - the largest model, which beats GPT-4 and Gemini on several intelligence tests. This is available on Claude Pro (paid).
Sonnet - powers the free version. This is what I’m using at the moment, and I’m really happy with it. The only drawback is a limited number of messages per day.
Haiku - the cheaper way to run the model. This is for developers.
So, how can you benefit from Claude 3 in real life?
Here are some suggestions:
1) Turn your handwriting into digital text
Take a photo of some handwritten notes and ask Claude to convert them into digital text.
My test wasn’t 100% accurate, but it wasn’t bad. Claude thought my writing was sloppy rather than scrawly (maybe it’s right).
2) Summarise long documents
Need to read some long PDFs or research papers for a project? Upload them and ask for a summary.
As Claude has a big 200k token window (it can respond to around 150,000 words in the prompt box), you’ve got plenty of space. As a comparison, ChatGPT’s free version has a 4k (ish) token window.
3) Generate first drafts
When it comes to copywriting, Claude’s default tone is less stiff than ChatGPT. So, give it a try to generate rough first drafts. It can help you save time and beat writer’s block.
I’ve found Claude particularly useful for first-draft social posts and short-form copy. (I still write long-form first drafts myself.)
Google Gemini has a handy new feature
It’s a small feature but it’s helpful if you’re generating longer pieces of writing. And it’s not available in ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot.
Before now, if you wanted to tweak a small section of generated output it was a faff. You’d have to return to the prompt box, specify the section you’d like to change and regenerate the whole piece.
With Gemini’s new tool, you can simply highlight the small section you want to change and click on the magic wand icon.
You then have the choice to regenerate, shorten, lengthen, remove or modify, without having to regenerate the whole thing.
What do you think?
How to generate AI images for free
I make all of my AI workshops as practical as possible, so I want people to generate images using free, easy-to-access tools.
As much as I’d love to use Midjourney, this has no free options and can only be accessed through Discord.
So, if you want to generate images for free, where do you go? Head over to Microsoft Copilot.
Here you can get free access to Open AI’s DALL.E 3 image generation tool through the Copilot Design tab. Result.
How to get started:
Go to Copilot (you’ll need a free Microsoft account if you don’t have one already)
Click on the Designer tab on the right hand panel
Type in your prompt and enjoy
There are some suggested prompts on the platform – moon skiing and flamingo dancing, anyone?
Here are a couple of others for you:
Photorealistic
“Close-up photo of dew drops on a bright green leaf. Morning light highlighting detailed reflections and patterns.”
Illustration
“Flat illustration of a group of people working in front of a presentation board featuring graphs and charts. Corporate Memphis style, white background”
⭐ Useful AI writing prompts
Handy prompts from my tool box
This one is simple but useful.
Not sure if you’ve put enough information into your prompt? Just ask.
“Do you need any further information to complete this task?”
If you’ve forgotten to add the tone of voice, or there’s some key info missing, the model will let you know. Boom.
👁️ AI that caught my eye
My AI picks from across the web
Why we need to develop AI skills and human-centric skills at the same time.
It's nearly here. So what happens when the EU AI Act is passed? The Verge takes a look.
The ins and outs of Claude 3's new offerings, written by its creators.
Google researchers unveil “Vlogger”, a new model that can bring still photos to life.
I covered Sora’s announcement a few weeks back. According to reports, it could be released soon – and it comes with a watermark.
💛 The Human Element
A celebration of our wild minds and creative souls
Copa 71: The highest-attended women’s sporting event in history (but you’ve probably never heard of it)
On Sunday evening I went to watch Copa 71 at my local indie cinema. Oh my gosh, it’s brilliant.
The film documents the unofficial Women’s World Cup of 1971. Held at two huge Mexican stadiums that FIFA couldn’t control, it was the highest-attended female sporting event in history. Yet it was erased from history.
Why? FIFA and the FA’s refusal to acknowledge its success, coupled with a sexist, spiteful attitude to women’s football in general.
The film documents the stories of those who took part in the event. The joys they experienced, their love of the game – and the prejudice they faced.
It made me angry, made me laugh, and made me sob. If you get a chance to see it, please do. And tell everyone you know.
You can read The Guardian’s review here. Peter Bradshaw gave it a five-star rating. Nuff said.
“Copa 71 is a revolutionary political parable that goes beyond football. A different world is possible; not only that, a different world was not just possible but did in fact exist. But the narrative was erased.”
Peter Bradshaw
Setting spring intentions
Just before everyone arrived at my spring equinox women’s writing circle last night.
It was spring equinox at 03:06 yesterday (whoop). To celebrate, I hosted a women’s writing circle in the woods. 14 of us gathered around a fire to share our thoughts on the new season and put pen to paper. It was joyous.
During the session, we wrote our intentions for the year. This is something we’re invited to do in January, but spring feels like a better time for me. Especially because the birds are nesting, the trees are budding and life seems to be emerging everywhere.
If you’d like to set some intentions for the next few months, here are a few prompts I offered at the women’s circle last night.
Pen and paper recommended. :)
Looking back over the winter, what have you achieved and what are you most grateful for?
What would you like to spring clean out of your life?
What seeds/intentions do you want to plant this spring? (These might be goals, projects or beliefs you want to grow.)
What small step could you take this week to move towards that?
What step could you take this month?
What step could you take before the summer solstice?
Two rooms left on our women’s Glow Retreat
Fancy stepping away from the busyness of life and tapping into your amazing human creativity?
In June, I’m co-hosting a weekend retreat at Hazel Hill Woods near Salisbury. And we have just two rooms left.
Here’s what we’re offering:
Mindful movement in the mornings and evenings (optional and no experience needed).
Creative sessions - clay crafting, nature mandalas, sploshing paint on big paper canvases, guided journaling.
Gatherings around the fire.
Food lovingly crafted by a private chef.
Free time for you. Walk, rest, read, sleep… whatever you need
If you’re craving some peace, creativity and time for yourself, you can find out more here, or drop me a message.
☀️ Upcoming Adventures
My upcoming talks, workshops and events
How to Market your Business using AI - workshop at Cirencester Growth Hub
Summer Solstice Women’s Circle: Writing in the Woods, Wed 20 June 7-9pm
Glow Retreat: a summer weekend women’s retreat in the woods. Make time to move, rest and rediscover your creative self.
Digital Marketing Institute AI Copywriting Workshop – coming soon
💬 Thoughts?
I want to make this newsletter as valuable as possible for you. Please let me know what you’d like to see more of, or drop me any feedback. I’d love that.