The Confluence Podcast: Thoughts on the Intersection of AI, Leadership, and Communication

Read today’s issue: Becoming an LLM whisperer. Our uncertain uncertainties. A tale of two J-curves. Looking back at our 2023 white papers. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s edition: Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

New releases from Anthropic. Generative AI's WHELM problem. AI’s impact on legal reasoning. The rise of cognitive surrender. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Let's talk about Mythos. A closer look at how work is shifting. The other side of the Solow Paradox. Taking responsibility for what AI produces. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The coming wave of AI constraint. Simon Willison's AI State of the Union. The Solow Paradox returns. Two recent podcasts worth a listen. Read this week’s edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The experts aren't waiting. The cost of getting faster. LLMs are changing what we mean. The transparency dilemma. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Your always-on assistant is closer than you think. Seeing the frontier, seeing the future. AI brain fry. Our values shape how we see AI. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Pay attention to Copilot. My week. New research on generative AI and cognitive load. Communications functions are at a crossroads. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s full issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-3826 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s issue: Will change be top-down or bottom-up? A look into Copilot Studio. Anthropic’s AI fluency index. The productivity paradox, revisited. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Give your power users a platform. Mollick’s guide to which AI to use in the agentic era. Anthropic expands features for free users. Getting to know Claude. Read this week's issue. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

How to better steer your AI. The Chief Question Officer. Evaluating talent with AI. The generative AI workload trap. Read this week's edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.6. Claude in PowerPoint arrives. Tolerating ambiguity and working with AI. What people will let AI do. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Things just got weird. Accessing GPT-5.2 in Copilot. New Anthropic data on AI and skill development. A more nuanced look at AI exposure. Read this week's edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The shifting sands of transparency about AI use. The art of the (newly) possible. The day after AGI. AI is changing speech. Read this week’s edition. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Claude Cowork, Claude Code, and prophecy. Another Anthropic Economic Index. AI use in the legal profession. Simple questions to get better feedback from LLMs. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s edition: Why you’ll be using Claude Code within 12 months. The frontier most don't see. A lesson from a fake whistleblower. AI as a connective tool. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s edition: DeepSeek’s gold-medal moment. The federal-state AI showdown. $37 billion spent, 60% to be abandoned. The case for emotional intelligence. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

2025: A year in review. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s episode here | 24 months of generative AI progress. The AI literacy gap. A lesson in scaffolding. Demis Hassabis on the future of intelligence. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s issue | Generative AI and human equivalence. AI agents and human agency. The complete guide to Nano Banana Pro. New research on persona-based prompting. Calling an LLM “You.” Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s edition | Claude the interviewer. Image restoration with Gemini. Anthropic’s Soul Document. Mixing and matching across tools and models. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.5. Putting the latest models in context. Preparing for a new jagged frontier. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Read this week’s edition here: Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s what has our attention this week at the intersection of generative AI, leadership, and corporate communication:OpenAI Releases GPT-5.1Anthropic’s Use Case LibraryDeveloping Uniquely Human SkillsAI Progress Depends on More than Tech Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The case for AI fluency. Digging in with Claude skills. Why context windows matter. Wharton's latest report on generative AI adoption. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

AI 101: next token prediction. Beyond next token prediction: how reasoning models work. Understanding the AI boom. Editing as an essential skill. Read this week’s edition: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-11225-d3b Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The shift from doing to reviewing. AI models are approaching expert-level work; now what? Generative AI and entry-level work. An updated guide to choosing AI tools. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Claude skills have arrived. More reflections from our recent retreat. Notes on prompt injection. A new study on generative AI's measurable returns. Read this week’s episode: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-101925 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Another year, another threshold. Dealing with model selectors. OpenAI launches AgentKit. AI is changing how we think about authenticity. Read this weeks’ issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-101225 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

For your radar: context rot. Anthropic's guide to context engineering. When expertise matters most. GPT-5 Pro on OpenAI's new Sora social app. Read this week’s issue here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-10525 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

"Workslop" and leadership. A lesson from radiology. Claude comes to Microsoft 365 Copilot. OpenAI launches video academy with AARP. Read this issue: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-92825 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

New edition of the Anthropic Economic Index. OpenAI study on how people use ChatGPT. The enterprise AI shift is real, but don’t forget individual mastery. Claude can create in your document templates. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

The wizard problem. Claude can use mobile apps. Claude crosses the workflow threshold. A week with generative AI. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Why large language models hallucinate. Functional leadership and AI adoption. ChatGPT gets a new type of memory. "AI School Is in Session." Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Anthropic Academy now online. Describe the present, don't predict the future. Beyond automation. Worker attitudes on AI. Read the full issue here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-83125 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

A new approach to AI memory. Prompt engineering for strategic thinking. More ways to learn with generative AI. Meta-brainstorming with LLMs. Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

More thoughts on GPT-5. Organizational overhang. You should be using Gemini Deep Research. New research on generative AI and the labor market. The AI productivity paradox. Read the episode here: https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-81725 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

OpenAI releases GPT-5; we give it our benchmark test. New research reveals the competence penalty. Anthropic Releases Claude Opus 4.1. A turning point for Copilot? Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe

Confluence for 8.3.25 | Alexa+ and the LLM-powered future. New research on AI usage across organizations. Google launches Deep Think for Gemini 2.5 Pro. Simplest prompting is best. | https://craai.substack.com/p/confluence-for-8325-241 Get full access to Confluence: AI, Leadership, and Communication at craai.substack.com/subscribe