Welcome Back Everyone! It’s Friday, July 18th. (& I’m exciteddd)

Friday's Special Tweet!

I like it. I have a running list of these:

• CEO of Airbnb lived in airbnbs only for a year, and rents out his own house on Airbnb (Brian Chesky)

• CEO of Occulus would wear the VR headset for hours everyday, even on early prototypes that made him nauseous (Palmer Luckey)

• CEO of Zappos worked customer service call center every year to stay close to customer issues (rip Tony Hsieh)

• and I read every edition of VasuGPTs Newsletter twice to make sure every AI news is a BANGER!

On that note, Here is today’s menu:

1. AI Spotlight: Grok's Controversial AI Companion Launch 🤯

2. Tool Talk: ChatGPT Agent 🪄

3. Prompting Curiosity: Troubleshoot Tech Problems Like a Pro 📝

Grok's Controversial AI Companion Launch 🤯

Link: Musk's Grok 'companions' include a flirty anime character and an anti-religion panda | NBC News​

Why it matters:
​If your idea of a great conversation involves scheming about glitter bombs with a red panda or spicy flirtation with an anime girl, xAI just launched the perfect AI companions for you.

This week, xAI launched Grok Companions, which are interactive AI characters with fully animated 3D avatars powered by xAI's Grok model.

The first two companions include the flirtatious anime character Ani and a mischievous red panda named Bad Rudi, who engage users in real-time, voice-enabled conversations.

Users can unlock extra perks including NSFW content by advancing their "relationship levels." As of now, Grok Companions are available only to SuperGrok subscribers.

Grok’s spicy Companions launch isn't a massive surprise to anyone paying attention to AI usage over the past few years.

xAI is mirroring the wildly successful formula of Character.AI with customisable, personality-driven AI chatbots that lean heavily into the "relationship" aspect of AI interaction.

Until now, industry giants like OpenAI, Meta, and Google have hesitated to follow Character.AI’s path. xAI is the first major player to make the jump, but it certainly won't be the last.

The other top dogs of tech will be carefully studying the Grok Companions debut to see what works and what doesn't. Once they've figured out their game plans, they'll be launching their own versions of the AI companion.

Many were calling 2025 the Year of the AI Agent, but depending on how things unfold, it may end up going down in history as The Year of the AI Companions.

Tool Talk: ChatGPT Agent 🪄

Use Case: OpenAI's All-in-One AI Agent

Link: ChatGPT Agent (Paid, Not Sponsored!)​

Why you should care:
​OpenAI just launched ChatGPT Agent, a new AI assistant that brings together the best parts of OpenAI's other AI tools like the visual browser from Operator and the text-based capabilities of Deep Research.

ChatGPT Agent can autonomously handle multi-step tasks by accessing the web, interacting with APIs, running its own virtual terminal, and even generating images through OpenAI’s Image API.

In demos, ChatGPT Agent pulled its own benchmark data directly from Google Drive and automatically created a polished slideshow without ever leaving the chat interface!

And speaking of benchmarks, ChatGPT Agent put up impressive marks:

• It easily outperformed all previous OpenAI models on Humanity’s Last Exam and the BrowseComp benchmark.

• On complex tests like FrontierMath, SpreadsheetBench, and an internal Banking Analyst benchmark, ChatGPT Agent performs closer to human experts than an AI model.

Access is rolling out now with Pro users getting 400 queries per month, while Plus and Teams users get 40 queries per month.

Here’s how to get started with ChatGPT Agent:

1. Log in to ChatGPT with your Plus, Pro, or Teams account.

2. Click on the Tools menu.

3. Select Agent.

4. Send ChatGPT Agent a detailed prompt describing your task.

5. Review ChatGPT Agent's plan and answer any follow-up questions.

6. ChatGPT Agent will begin working on the task. Watch as it sets up a virtual workspace, browses resources, crunches data, and compiles results into documents, presentations, or even spreadsheets.

We'll be testing ChatGPT Agent in depth and sharing more over the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Prompt of the Week 📝

Topic: Troubleshoot Tech Problems Like a Pro

Prompt Formula:
​I’ve been having issues with [PROBLEM] lately and I can’t quite figure out what’s wrong. [ADD CONTEXT]. Give me a thorough step-by-step troubleshooting guide that helps me identify the root cause, including tests or observations I can use to narrow it down, the most likely factors that might be involved, and what settings or tools I should use to isolate and fix the problem.

Quick Description:
​Send this prompt to ChatGPT's o3 model to get a customized troubleshooting roadmap tailored to your specific situation. It guides you through a structured process to pinpoint exactly what's causing your headache and suggests solutions.

Thanks to o3's integrated web search, this prompt yields specific, up-to-date advice that wasn't possible with earlier models. (Technically it was possible, but it required you to use the dreaded Bing search.)

How to Use:

1. Copy the above prompt.

2. Paste it into ChatGPT (ideally the o3 model).

3. Replace [PROBLEM] with a clear description of your issue.

4. Replace [ADD CONTEXT] with any additional relevant information. This can be a stream of consciousness; explain the issue more in depth, adding any and all details you think could help in the troubleshooting process.

5. Send the prompt!

Let ChatGPT walk you through the troubleshooting steps. Follow ChatGPT’s recommendations, test suggestions, and observations to pinpoint and fix the issue.

Note: If you're a complete beginner and not sure where to start, I have a special Notion template called "How to Craft a Prompt"[ Step-By-Step ] just for you. Click the button below to get this FREE template! 🔖

That's all for this week folks…

Stay Curious, Hustlers!

See you next Friday.Much Love, Vasu