Craft Adds Artificial Intelligence

I was surprised to see the latest update from Craft added an AI writing assistant. The idea behind its inclusion (they are using the GPT-3 engine) is not so much to write for you (although it can do that rather poorly), but instead to help you with more practical AI tasks given the state of the technology, like outlining, summarizing your words, and translation. In short, it’s not AI to do your work for you but instead improve on what you make.

Because it’s integrated into Craft, you select some blocks, press Command-enter, and you’re off. There are usage limits:

Starter plan: 25 requests per month

Personal pro: 100 requests per month

Business plan: 250 requests per month

Hopefully, those numbers will go up soon.

Just for giggles, here is Craft AI’s summarization of the above text:

“Craft’s latest update includes an AI writing assistant powered by the GPT-3 engine that can help improve your writing instead of replacing it. It offers features such as spell and grammar checking, summarization, and translation and is accessible when editing blocks by pressing Command-enter. Usage is limited to 25, 100, or 250 requests per month depending on the plan.”

Please don’t write me and tell me you like the robot’s writing voice better. I’m hanging on by a thread here.

Friends of Dave with Kaitlin Salzke (MacSparky Labs)

It’s time for the latest Friends of Dave interview in the MacSparky Labs. In this one, I talk with Kaitlin Salzke about OmniFocus automation. Kaitlin is wicked smart and neck deep in the OmniFocus automation tools…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Where are the Passkeys?

With Apple’s latest round of updates, we’ve got a new password feature that lets your computer manage passwords for you in the background. There are a lot of advantages to this new “Passkey” system. (Here’s Apple’s explainer.) It isn’t dependent on user-generated passwords. It’ll guarantee people use different passwords for different sites. It will also help you avoid phishing attacks because it won’t work on spoofed websites. This comes at the cost of some loss of control, but third parties are already working on that (like 1Password in this video). 

I’m curious, however, as to when Passkey websites will start showing up. So far, I’ve seen none. For this to work, websites must adopt some new backend technologies, and everyone is now waiting for that to happen. Are website developers untrusting of the new technology? Do they want to see others figure it out first? Do they need the budget for these changes? I expect it is all of the above. I’ve been asking about it for MacSparky.com with some of my platform providers, and I’m told to cool my jets. I sure hope this all gets sorted out. It will help web security for a lot of people once it gets rolling.

Mac Power Users 668: Workflows with Tim Stringer

OmniFocus expert Tim Stringer drops by Mac Power Users to catch Stephen and me up on his businesses, his use of multiple Macs, and how OmniFocus 4 is shaping up while in beta.

This episode of Mac Power Users is sponsored by:

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Introducing MacSparky Labs Focus Sessions (MacSparky Labs)

I’m adding a new feature to The MacSparky Labs for Early Access and Backstage Members that I’m calling Focus Sessions. The idea is to set aside time when we can all meet on Zoom to get something important done…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

Let’s Build a Shortcut – Craft to Notes Importer (MacSparky Labs)

Here’s a simple Shortcut build to move notes between apps. In this case, Craft to Apple Notes. I added an “If” statement for a degree of difficulty and to further simplify the script as it runs. If you’ve ever had trouble with “If” statements in Shortcuts, this is a nice, easy example…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?