Build Something

Six things you can build in Claude, and what ChatGPT offers

Where this section fits

The earlier sections showed that an AI Worker gives you finished work, not just an answer. This section shows you how to make that finished work yourself. It covers six kinds, in Claude and in ChatGPT. After this section come the case studies. In them you write, check and share finished work, such as a brief, a draft and a grading sheet. The habits on these pages are the ones the cases need, so do this section first.

Use the desktop apps

This book works in the Claude desktop app, on a Mac or a Windows computer, and in the ChatGPT desktop app for the ChatGPT parts. The two apps side by side listed both under what you need to begin. Every step in this section is written for them.

• Claude. The same steps also work in a web browser, because Anthropic gives the web and the desktop app the same artifact tools.¹ But only the desktop app can read a folder on your computer. On a phone, you can ask for a doc, a deck or a design in a chat and look at the result.
• ChatGPT. Use the new desktop app, the one with Chat, Work and Codex. Each page says where a tool differs on the desktop.

Start here: the big idea

When Claude makes an artifact, it saves it in the Artifacts tab, in the menu on the left side of the Claude desktop app. It stays there, so you can find it again tomorrow.¹ If you do not see the Artifacts tab, open Settings, then Capabilities, and turn on Artifacts and Create and edit files.¹

To start one, open the Artifacts tab. Under Make something new, you see one big button, called a tile, for each kind:

Which tiles you see depends on your plan:¹,²

In ChatGPT, most of these tools need a paid plan. Which plans differs from tool to tool, so each page says.³

One sentence holds the whole idea:

Pick the tool that fits the job. Make a draft with the AI. Improve it together. Check it before anyone else sees it.

Four habits for every kind

1. Ask for the kind you need. Say what you want, who it is for, and what to use. If you need an ordinary file, such as a Word file, make the artifact first, check it, and export it at the end. A file is only a copy: if you fix the artifact later, the file does not change.⁴
2. Improve it together. Fix small things yourself. Ask the AI for big changes.
3. Share it on purpose. Only you can see a new artifact. You choose who can open it, and what they can do. On the Free plan, sharing may be limited, as the Docs page explains.⁵
4. Check it before anyone else sees it. It looks finished, but it can still be wrong. Check the numbers, the names and the facts. Remove anything private. Ask yourself: would a reader understand it without my chat?

Artifact, file, connected app or website?

Four words in this section sound alike, but they do different jobs. In the examples, Dave is Brightline's controller: the manager in charge of Brightline's money, who approves payments.

A short example: on Thursday, Dave wants to comment on the payment run, so you share the doc. On Friday he approves it, so you export a PDF of the version he approved. The PDF is a fixed copy, and the doc can keep changing. The PDF does not prove the approval itself. That needs its own record, such as Dave's sign-off in the payment system.

Build on what you already know

The earlier sections taught you the other parts of an AI Worker: the borrowed desk in the cloud, your own folders, connected apps, skills, projects and scheduled tasks. You do not leave them behind here. They make your artifacts better.

First, one link between them. A cloud job runs on a borrowed desk, and the desk is cleared when the job ends, as Why the borrowed desk gets cleared showed. An artifact is kept by Anthropic, outside that desk, in your Artifacts tab.¹,⁴ So an artifact is one way finished work leaves the borrowed desk and stays. A downloaded file, or a file saved to Google Drive, also stays.

Each of the next six pages adds one earlier part to its artifact:

You find each one in a short Combine it part, just before the page's Try it task. They are optional: the Try it tasks and the final exercise work without them. Some need a paid plan or a connected app. ChatGPT has the same parts under similar names: projects, plugins, skills, scheduled tasks and your own files through its desktop app, as ChatGPT 2.0 showed.

Rule to remember: the earlier parts decide what Claude can reach and when it works. The artifact is what you keep, check and share.

Start with Docs. The last page, One job, three deliverables, puts everything together in one exercise, with an optional part that uses these earlier parts too.