Welcome to Bits & Brains!

Issue 1

About

Beginning with this short issue, Bits & Brains! is a newsletter that will include a mixture of resources for you, but specifically focusing on how you can leverage AI platforms to help you save time, maximize efficiency, and open the floodgates to creativity!

Let’s Get Started!

Before diving into AI models, it’s important to know some basic fundamentals. Platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are all Large Language Models (LLMs). They were trained on incredibly large data sets to produce the output that you see when you interact with them.

The “GPT” in ChatGPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer.

Generative → this platform generates/creates.

Pre-trained → the LLM has been trained with large data sets.

Transformer → This is a neural network architecture that allows these systems to understand context and relationships.

Hallucinations!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms may seem “smart”, but you always need to double-check their output. All AI systems have the risk of making up completely false/bogus information, or “hallucinating”.

A Massachusetts lawyer was sanctioned $2,000 for using AI-generated court cases that ended up being fictitious. (Maryland State Bar Association, 2024)

“Three attorneys are facing discipline from the State Bar of California after allegations that they cited nonexistent legal decisions in submitted court documents that were written using artificial intelligence.” (Los Angeles Times, 2026).

I have personally asked ChatGPT to write an essay for me with citations. It wrote an amazing essay very quickly and provided citations; however, when checking those citations, every single one of them was bogus.

What’s AI good for, then?

The advancements in AI have grown so much since ChatGPT first became popular. It’s no longer a system to just make your lesson plans, or just make your worksheets.

We now live in an age where, essentially whatever resource you need for your class (to demonstrate a concept) - you can make it.

Try Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Anthropic’s Claude. They all have their strengths.

Future newsletter issues will start diving into the different possibilities you can dive into, but in the meantime, check out these 100+ ways you can use Google Gemini.