The Cogito Brief

Good morning,

AI is becoming a lot more visual, practical, and believable.

It’s no longer just a tool that answers questions in a chat box. You can use it to create images from a simple prompt, build full presentations, and turn rough ideas into something you can actually send, post, print, or use at work.

That’s exciting, but it also means we need to pay closer attention to what we see online. The same tools that can help you design an invitation or build a polished slide deck can also make fake images, screenshots, and videos look much more realistic.

Let’s take a deeper look:

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You no longer need design experience to turn your ideas into visuals.

With ChatGPT’s image tool, you can describe what you want, and it can help create it for you. Instead of opening a design app like Canva, searching for templates, or trying to figure out every little detail yourself, you can start with a simple prompt and build from there.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you are planning a birthday party and want a custom invitation. You could ask:

From there, you can ask ChatGPT to change the style, adjust the wording, make it more elegant, or resize it for Instagram, text messages, or printing.

I’m not a super artistic person, so ChatGPT’s image tools have made creating visuals a lot easier for me. They help turn a rough idea into something I can actually send, post, print, or build on.

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Have you ever read or watched something online and believed it was real? Depending on the source, there’s a chance it was created by AI.

I’m not talking about debates, politics, or controversial subjects here. I’m talking about AI-generated videos, screenshots, recordings, photos, and other everyday content that can look surprisingly believable.

For years, I’ve been interested in National Geographic-style shows that capture animals in the wild, especially in places like the Amazon and the plains of Africa. Not too long ago, it was pretty easy to tell the difference between real and fake videos. Now, it’s getting harder.

It’s still easy to spot something ridiculous. If you see a tiger napping on top of an alligator, that’s probably fake. But over the past month or so, I’ve had trouble determining between real vs fake videos.

My above example is relatively harmless, but this same technology can be used to create fake screenshots, fake iMessages, fake photos, or fake videos of something that never actually happened. And the scary part is that some of it can look real at first glance.

This does not mean you should distrust everything online…you should slow down before believing or sharing something, especially if it triggers a strong reaction.

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Creating PowerPoint slides can be a pain in the butt, trust me. I create them all the time for work. But did you know that you can create an entire customized PowerPoint presentation with tools like ChatGPT and Claude?

This is useful because one of the hardest parts of building a presentation is simply getting started. You need an outline, a structure, slide titles, talking points, visuals, and a clean flow from beginning to end. AI can help with all of that.

And I’m not talking about boring, low-quality slides with a few generic bullet points. With the right prompt, you can create a detailed presentation with strong structure, clear explanations, and useful information for your audience.

The real value is that AI can help you get past the blank slide stage. Instead of staring at an empty deck wondering where to begin, you can start with a structured first draft and improve it from there.

On Friday, I’m going much deeper into this topic because I think it is one of the most practical ways people can use AI at work. Presentations are something almost everyone has to make at some point, and AI can make that process a lot less painful.

Zack Wright