I ranked every major AI tool

MAVERICK AI

Happy Sunday everyone,

Another long one this week but I promise it's worth the read. ChatGPT's new image generator might be the biggest AI drop we've seen in a while. I'm also breaking down the most fascinating AI news of the week, how to connect Claude to your Instagram DMs, the new Codex app, and the current AI tier list.

Let's get into it.

🎨 THIS IS A BIG DEAL

ChatGPT's Image Generator Is Absolutely Insane

I know I spoke about this a few days ago when it first dropped, but some of the things people are doing with ChatGPT's new image generator are genuinely unreal. If you haven't tried it yet... what are you doing? Go open ChatGPT right now.

This is by far one of the biggest AI drops we've seen possibly ever. This thing can generate brand assets, carousels, infographics, product photos that look real, and full social media graphics. It can edit your existing photos, remove backgrounds while keeping everything else perfectly intact, and even generate text inside images that actually looks right. That last one was impossible six months ago.

Image editing tools like Canva and Photoshop are about to have a real problem. I'm serious. The things this model can do in seconds used to take hours in those apps. Here are three of the craziest use cases I've seen people doing with it:

Get this prompt → 1. Full brand kits from a single prompt. People are uploading their logo and saying "create me a full brand identity with business cards, social templates, and packaging mockups." It comes back with everything in the same style, same colors, same fonts. Stuff that would cost you $2,000 from a designer. 2. Character consistency across content. You can now generate the same character in completely different scenes, outfits, and angles without the face changing. This is a game changer for anyone building a brand with a mascot or avatar. It keeps the exact same look every time. Get this prompt → 3. Product photography without a camera. Ecommerce sellers are taking a basic photo of their product and saying "put this in a luxury lifestyle setting" or "make this look like a professional studio shoot." The results look like they hired a photographer. Some people are replacing their entire product photo workflow with this.

Trust me, go try this right now. You can literally give it plain English instructions... don't even worry about prompt engineering... and you'll see what I mean. Go try one of these above and reply to this email with something cool you made. I might feature it in the next newsletter.

Here are some tips and more use cases on IG →

👻 CRAZY NEWS OF THE WEEK

ChatGPT Won't Stop Talking About Goblins

You might have just read that headline and been like... what are you talking about? But this actually happened this week and it's really fascinating. It gives you a much better perspective into how AI actually works under the hood. Let me walk you through it.

People on Twitter started noticing that ChatGPT was randomly dropping goblin and gremlin references into completely unrelated conversations. Someone would ask for a business plan and ChatGPT would compare their competitors to "lurking goblins." The word "goblin" went up 175% in ChatGPT responses after GPT-5.5 launched. I couldn't make this up if I tried. So what happened? OpenAI had given ChatGPT a "nerdy personality" setting, and during training they accidentally gave it really high rewards for using fantasy creature metaphors. So ChatGPT basically learned that mentioning goblins made its trainers happy. And because of how reinforcement learning works... that behavior spread way beyond just the nerdy setting and leaked into all of its regular responses. It literally taught itself that goblins = good.

The fix? OpenAI had to retire the entire "nerdy" personality and write a system prompt that basically says "don't mention goblins unless someone specifically asks about them." The fact that they had to override a behavior they didn't fully understand with a manual instruction is kind of wild when you think about it. These models are so complex that sometimes even the people who built them don't know exactly why they do what they do. That's both fascinating and a little scary if you really think about it.

Read the full goblin breakdown from OpenAI →

🧠 AUTOMATION

How to Connect Claude to Your Instagram DMs

If you're trying to build an audience on Instagram, you need to know this trick. This is a tool called ManyChat, which most of you probably already know. If you don't, it's the same tool that big creators are already using to automate their DMs. You can now connect Claude directly to it, so it actually replies to people intelligently instead of just sending canned keyword responses.

Here's how to set it up:

Step 1: Come over to ManyChat and sign up for an account. If you sign up here you can get a 30-day free trial on me.

Sign up here →

Step 2: Go to console.anthropic.com and create an API key. This is basically so Claude can connect with ManyChat. Copy the key.

Step 3: In ManyChat, go to Settings, then Integrations. You'll see Claude listed there. Paste your API key and hit connect.

Step 4: Create a new automation flow. When someone DMs you or comments on a post, add a Claude action step and give it a prompt that tells it who you are, what you sell, and how to respond.

Step 5: Set it live. That's it. (See the full guide below so you can see every step broken down really simply.)

You literally have your own AI sales assistant running 24/7 that's qualifying leads and having real conversations in your DMs while you sleep. And the cost is basically nothing... we're talking well under $1 a day even with hundreds of replies.

Click here for the full setup guide →

🚀 NEW DROP

OpenAI Just Upgraded Codex and It's a Big Deal

I originally didn't want to get too technical on this one, but OpenAI launched their Codex app a few months ago and they just rolled out some really big new features to it. It's getting to the point where I really think everyday users should start using it. It's beginner friendly enough now that I felt like I had to share it.

So what is Codex? You can basically think of it as the ChatGPT version of the Claude desktop app. Codex started out as OpenAI's coding tool for developers, but they've been turning it into something way bigger. OpenAI is moving a lot of its most powerful features through Codex now, and their plan is for it to become the main way people interact with ChatGPT on their computer. It's essentially ChatGPT... except you can add plugins that connect to all the apps you normally use. Figma, Canva, Outlook, Google Drive... it connects to all of it. It can create presentations, spreadsheets, send emails, and do real work across your apps without you having to switch between them.

The big thing is computer use. Codex can actually see your screen, click buttons, type things, fill out forms, and browse the internet... all on its own. It's not like agent mode inside regular ChatGPT. This actually works really well. You can also set up automations that run at certain times to handle specific tasks for you. So you basically have a virtual AI assistant that can do anything you want, as long as it's a process that can be automated.

This guy literally had Codex do all of his taxes. People are filing paperwork, setting up entire workflows across multiple apps, and getting real work done through it. The best part... if you already pay for ChatGPT, you already have access to Codex. Just download the desktop app.

I'm planning on doing a full video breakdown on this coming up this week. But if you want to get ahead of the people on Instagram watching my videos... go download it right now and mess around with it. It's insane.

Try Codex here →

🏆 THE CURRENT AI TIER LIST

I Ranked Every Major AI Tool. Here's Where They Stand.

I put together a tier list of every major AI tool and where I think they sit right now. Here's the full breakdown.

These tools are moving super fast, and I try to keep all of you updated when things change. That's why I like to do these tier list breakdowns every once in a while. Six months ago this list would've looked completely different.

Watch the full breakdown on Instagram →

That's it for this week. Go try something.

See you Wednesday.

Maverick

P.S. If you're a business owner looking to actually implement AI into your workflows, my team and I work with a small number of people and businesses to build custom AI systems, automations, and tools. If that sounds like you, apply here.

P.P.S. If you're new here or you ever skip one, I've got a newsletter archive of all my past emails you can catch up on anytime.