Value-First AI Daily - Jan 14, 2026

[00:00] **Introduction** Chris Carolan: Good morning, LinkedIn friends, Value-First Nation. Welcome to another episode of Value-First AI Daily, your collaborative intelligence report. It is Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. George B. Thomas: That's the year, right? Chris Carolan: We're going today, folks. George B. Thomas: Doing pretty good. Doing pretty good. Got some uh some new releases. George B. Thomas: And uh not not surprisingly, uh some shocking new stuff for for everyday users. Ryan Ginsberg: Gotta love everyday users. Casey Hawkins: I'm doing good, Chris. How are you doing, Chris? I'm doing good. Chris Carolan: I'm doing good. Uh, I'm going to jump right into this this video uh from Chris Carolan: from Claude, uh from Anthropic, announcing Claude Co-work. Uh, let me share my screen.

[01:37] **Claude Co-work** [inaudible] George B. Thomas: Well, that was an interesting response to uh Claude Co-work uh video. Chris Carolan: Um, yeah, I have lots of thoughts. I'll share one and then and then I want to hear hear you guys. Um, I think it was yesterday that I mentioned um, a recent initiative with Claude Code was uh, suggesting that I want to minimize the number of places I have to go uh, during the day, the number of windows I have to work in, number of tabs, software, etc. And uh, my ask was I want to work with Claude Code in the IDE and then have the Value-First Team platform as probably the other place. Chris Carolan: Um, I think this probably gets to one place at some point, and I'm excited to see this development. And that's why I've been working with Claude Code in the desktop app as well, because it it wasn't it shouldn't have taken too much thought to understand once they put the Claude Code environment right next to the Claude um, LLM environment, that eventually those things were going to be connected in some way and the first thing they they show when you go from Claude to Co-work, like that Co-work is replacing Code. Um, so that's surprising. And I think the one thing that's probably hard to see hard to take away from the video and I really have only heard this because I don't have Mac, uh, it's and it's only available there right now. Um, but that those screens that were showing up is generative. So like depending on what you're working on. So when we think back to like Claude Imagine and like he's just making apps as he needs them, like this is like they're just putting all the pieces together at this point, looks like. George B. Thomas: Mhm. George B. Thomas: Yeah, I mean it's it definitely is a bummer per usual that it's only available on Mac first and then PC, but I think that pro I don't know at the end of the day, I'm not entirely sure if that's just a nostalgia thing, or if it's like sort of like a a nice way of saying like, let's do the low bandwidth first and then see how it goes. Um, but then again, I when I also think about it, your your average PC user is also like an iPhone user, right? So I think that actually does work to like try to get it out to that crowd. And if that crowd like accepts it and the use cases there and and the usage goes up, um, it works. Nico Lafakis: Can I works? George B. Thomas: I'm just wondering like by comparison to people who have been using Claude desktop. Ryan Ginsberg: Yeah. So, um, I want to be the weird guy in the room and piece a couple puzzle pieces together. Uh, a day ago, two days ago, there was a thing about how Google and Apple are going to work together on the new Siri. And now Claude is releasing this and it's only on Mac. When Chat GBT launched their uh meetings transcription system, it was on Mac. Uh there are too many things and I know Nico, you just said like the lowest bar to entry or the easiest way, but there are too many things that point in a direction that like sometimes you just have to, my opinion, send hate mail to Chris, not to me. Sometimes you just got to follow the money and what money can make things do. Ryan Ginsberg: Okay. Chris Carolan: All right. Ryan Ginsberg: That's that's I'm just going to throw that up. Now, now here's here's what I want to really talk about with this thing, is when I first saw the video, I was like, oh, okay, I've already built that in my terminal. Like I already I already have this system. Um, but it's cool that other people who might not have the time, talent, um, or friends around them to be able to build something like that. It's good that they'll have it. And then I did do the same thing when I I was like, Mac. Son of a gun! You know, like I was just like, really, come on. Um, but like I don't hate it. Like I think it's going to be cool. I think it's uh a needed piece where my brain goes to is like there's going to be at some level this convergence and maybe this is it by the way, this convergence of um normal chat, code chat, Claude and Chrome workability. Chris Carolan: Oh, that's exactly. Ryan Ginsberg: Like you know what I mean? Chris Carolan: Yeah. And I think to my take on on the first point, I think we're overthinking it. Uh for a long time, when anybody's doing apps or anything, they would come out on Mac first because it was an easier thing. It was an easier interface. It was an easier process. App Store existed first before Android. Like so many reasons. And when I think about the way that this is meant to work, Mac OS versus Windows, like definitely like vibes with Mac the whole Mac experience that people want. So I can think of it in cases like product development, I think it's always to be considered, whatever is easiest, the easiest path to getting something out the door is often the main reason why like the last decisions are made. Um, but it is interesting to seeing all to see all these companies working together in these various ways, which again points to the like that kind of this kind of collaborative the kind of collaboration we're seeing between like super competitive companies like is just not something we've seen before and speaks to, I think the importance of not getting left behind and but also the importance of the like getting to where we need to go as as quickly as possible and putting it in front of as many people as possible. But I think, um, to your last point, George, like this is definitely the convergence and, um, it says in the in their blog here, when we released Claude Code, we expected developers to use it for coding. They did, and then quickly began using it for almost everything else. And I think what's interesting there is when they say we expected developers to use it like the people I I'm just when you have non-developers coming into like I immediately started using it for for everything else, right? Because I think outside of code and like these just because I still like when I meet more like more product engineers and and software like, you know, engineering experts. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: It's they don't think outside of the guard rails in my opinion too much. They're thinking about like all of the like everything starts from code and how it works and how it needs to work and then how like they take it from that direction into the production where I'm thinking production and user experience then coming back. And so I think it's a natural convergence and it definitely looks to be, you know, them like putting putting the pieces together. I think just like I've talked about in HubSpot a lot, when you can open your mind to understand that they're trying to build a cohesive system at the end of the day and you see development over here, like get excited and start ideating about what it could mean like in the rest of the system and you're just so much you can leverage this stuff like so much faster, but. George B. Thomas: Yeah, I just the only thing that's uh still kind of like that that's the only statement that kind of threw me though was like, oh, well, when we gave gave Claude Code to developers, you know, they they were really using it to do other stuff. And then you look at like what Claude coworker is and it's like, okay, well, that's Claude like that's Claude desktop basically with like computer use and stuff and like connectors to your internal files, which you kind of already have as well. So, I don't know if it's so much like the the tying to Claude Code, I didn't understand. I would have understood it a lot more if if it was like, we've redesigned Claude for desktop, right? Because trying to say that like Claude coworker is some kind of offshoot of Claude code doesn't work for me. Like it it doesn't doesn't make sense. Like one is used to write programs, the other one's used to do shit. And I guess the the reason I I saw that split, well, look, the only reason I have the split is due to this morning, um, thanks NLP, uh, doing doing your good deeds as always. Um, and he was making a uh from uh um AI Daily News brief. Um, Nathaniel was making a comment and was saying that uh when it came to Claude Code, uh, that people were really, they were, you know, coders were using it to do some interesting stuff. And then like normal people started getting a hold of it and started writing emails and started summarizing documents and started doing all sorts of really stupid office stuff with Claude Code. So then when somebody was like, oh, Claude Code for desktop for normal users. I was like, oh, awesome. There goes my usage limits because people want to start writing stupid ass emails and shit again and rewriting their favorite whatever it is, right? So that's why like just rebrand it as Claude for desktop and please, please don't conflate these two things because they are not the same thing. Ryan Ginsberg: I I just want to go back to that Claude Code is for writing programs. Man, it is so much more. Like literally we were on a we were on a call for three hours and Chris showed video editing with Claude Code. Um, I literally have a folder, multiple folders in my uh desktop that I use Claude Code and Nico is like, I'm out. He says you want to be part of the conversation. I'm I'm like like multiple folders that are things that have nothing. Now have I built programs? Have I designed websites? Yes, but I have things that are absolutely nothing to do with programming and using Claude Code to do it because it smashes it out of the park. Like, so I just I'm I'm I'm nervous to say, and I didn't, you did. But I'm nervous to say that Claude Code is only for this when I'm watching what people also online are doing and I don't mean like dumb office stuff. I mean like intelligent humans on YouTube channels like creating dope systems around this. I I don't know. I don't know. George B. Thomas: Well, I mean, I I guess I guess the reason the main reason I say it is because like there's more yeah, I don't know. It it's the it's the fact that one company geared itself towards commercial use, geared itself towards white collar office use. The other company geared itself towards uh enterprise use. Ryan Ginsberg: Uh you're you're afraid that they're going away from that. George B. Thomas: They are. You don't make Claude coworker for enterprise. You make that for everyday use and you don't advertise it on YouTube for enterprise, you advertise it on YouTube for everyday use. So Wait a minute. Wait a minute. What if if if we go with that knowledge, then normal humans don't work at enterprise level organizations. Superhumans work at normal enterprise organizations because, you know, people who work at enterprise don't need easy tools to do the things they're trying to do during their day like, I don't know, a thing that they might go co-work and give out to the like people that work at enterprise organizations that want to do all of these. I don't I don't know. I don't know. Chris Carolan: Yeah. Ryan Ginsberg: I don't know. Chris Carolan: I I um, this is what we need to rethink like the meanings of the words that we use. I Yeah. Like programming is no longer just for developers. Like and like programming to build an app is certainly different from programming to like design your life. George B. Thomas: Right. Chris Carolan: And you haven't really been able that's why I maintain that like the number of people who are going to go from doing everyday. Nico Lafakis: I mean, look. Chris Carolan: But you're suggesting that programming to design your life is not a valuable activity. Oh, it is. And it definitely is. And I can only do that through Claude Code. And like just to put the pieces together because I think like there's uh there's an argument for this still being enterprise, like this still being a path to further their impact on enterprise, right? So this is Claude desktop and even though I was using like projects and stuff, I wasn't setting up, you know, ask the Value-First Team. Um, and there's still some other stuff I could have been doing with this that if I could come over here and use Claude Code to set up more of that infrastructure, like I certainly would, um, just tying it to these projects as like agents. I'm excited for when that day comes. But I've also dramatically reduced my my usage of this side of this app. Um, so, but then on the enterprise route, man, like what that video could like could be the next OS and enterprise OSs are dominated by Windows. Ryan Ginsberg: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Uh who who like who jumps for joy when they start talking about the experience from Microsoft and Windows. Um, so and and I don't know anymore. We've also seen like copilot, they should have been in the best position to do something like this. And they might be well on their way in there now. I've enjoyed listening to like some of their new AI leader like conversations about what they're trying to do. But copilot has has like most people don't enjoy that experience. So either and now that again, this is this convergence of if they're able to converge on these experiences and create this like just this vertical um and enterprise is loving the data security and and this kind of functionality, how far are they away from being like, oh, maybe we could maybe we don't need windows like anymore. Um, so I would I would. Chris Carolan: I would I wouldn't count that out. Like this is basically could replace the the the user experience of any of any PC out there for sure. Ryan Ginsberg: Well, when it makes it to PC. Chris Carolan: Yeah. Ryan Ginsberg: It won't be long. I mean like yeah. George B. Thomas: Yeah. George B. Thomas: The the enterprise use of Mac I think is almost almost exclusive to um anything entertainment potentially. Um so again like I I see the Mac play as nostalgic. Um I see the Mac play as desperation. Um like honestly I think they're just trying to do Tim Cook a favor and I don't think they owe him anything. Um should just let that company fold where it belongs. And uh it's it's I don't know. Nico Lafakis: Wow. George B. Thomas: Yeah, look, I mean. Nico Lafakis: Wow. George B. Thomas: They're they're way, way, way, way, way, way, way back behind the game. Like so way back that they are just now like, oh, we're going to make a deal with Google. Okay, cool. You made a deal with OpenAI. Awesome. Like who who else is left? Why don't you just make a deal with the devil and go shake Microsoft's hand and maybe you guys will save your company again. Well, they're standing at the they're realizing they need to stay in their lane and not develop AI. Like in general. Nico Lafakis: I mean general. Chris Carolan: They they clearly failed at that. George B. Thomas: You have. Chris Carolan: And but they still have this product infrastructure that has a huge audience that like that's where like they're going down the path they need to go on if they want to survive in terms of let's build what we're good at and not build what we're not good at and create all these partnerships. Um, so it's going to be very like it it's hard for me to imagine a day where there's not an Apple like hardware ecosystem around. Ryan Ginsberg: Yeah. Chris Carolan: That doesn't mean it it can't happen for sure, uh in this day and age, especially as like, you know, Open AI starts creating pens and and like but the audience, right? Like the B2C audience that that Apple has. George B. Thomas: I think it's I think the time is coming up, right? And I think things like Claude coworker and um continued efforts in that direction are really only like it's so funny that these companies think that they're saving Apple and and they don't realize that they're hastening its demise. Because the faster you put these tools in people's hands, the faster you give them freedom from having to be subjected to the same old shit all the time. So the faster you help people develop an operating system that they love better than Mac OS Jaguar Hawk something. I don't know. Chris Carolan: Yeah. And that's said. This is such an interesting conversation because the audience like because I think like when we first came out on the green room today like started talking about like people that like to talk about slap and like defense of human human value, whatever the domain is. George B. Thomas: Yeah. Chris Carolan: Right? Uh, I and this is an assumption. Obviously, I'm probably like crazy here, but like when you think about the the audience and customer profile of the people who would choose uh Apple ecosystem like over over Microsoft over Google, like I would my guesstimation would be that um the people that uh place a lot of value, maybe too much value or too much importance on the human like art, the human art and the creation of the thing and it's just better because a human did it, even though an AI can maybe get a better emotional response. The fact that the human did it, like we've just got to hold that on a pedestal, right? The way that people talk about AI slap, like when they start to defend their writing or whatever their creative territory is. It's usually, you know, you know, like there's plenty of reasons and ways to defend it. But, um, the ones that immediately go to like, oh, AI is just using stolen everything. So just like completely shut it off. Like we shouldn't even we shouldn't be considering its value. Like I think um, it's just interesting to think about that uh that there's a there's an ecosystem there where if if what I'm suggesting there is is correct, people will be able to lean into those those audiences, um, in a different way than the people that are focused on like AI, AI, AI. Ryan Ginsberg: Right. Chris Carolan: It probably won't be as big. Well, that's not true. 25% of the nation in the US. Nico Lafakis: No, it'll it'll get there. George B. Thomas: Yeah. George B. Thomas: No, I think yeah. I think it's a good uh a push in the good direction and you know, if like I I don't know entirely. like again, I think you know, coworker gets Claude in the hands of more users that weren't using Claude before. Um, I think for regular users, yeah, it's going to be like a pretty big boost. Is it like I don't know. it depends, right? Like adoption is still adoption. So that's that's what kind of sucks about it. So I'm hoping that people do see that you can do more. I think that the real thing is like doing more like being slightly more either flawless or not quite in the way, right? Like that's one of the good things that um, or I should say that's one of the characteristics that Jobs was really good at when it came to product design was and and Ive uh or Ive just making sure that whatever it was was not actually in the way of you getting to what it was that you wanted. And even though GPT has like all these connectors and stuff like that and it can do a lot of this stuff, it's still like tab back and forth and then go look at this thing and come back to this thing. So building that all in one, uh definitely helps. People love that. They love the Swiss Army knife tool. Um so yeah, I I I I hope that it brings more uh user I hope it breaks down the barrier. Ryan Ginsberg: I mean, I I I think at the end of the day, the one thing that I haven't heard us say and that where my brain is at the kind of end of this conversation, which by the way, this has been a very weird to me conversation. It's been a little bit all over the place, but it's kind of in the same thread. Um, where my brain is right now is like it's just another choice. Like you have the choice to use or not use the things that are being created and delivered to us. And so like there might be a massive adoption that love it and there might be a massive adoption that don't. Just like I said a year ago, there might be a massive part of the world that goes back to being Amish and a massive part of the world that just leans highly into the tech side of of where this world could be heading. We're just happen to talk about a company that made a new style of uh program based off of based things that they've been building and now we have a choice. Our choice is good. Our choice is bad. It depends what choice you make. Chris Carolan: Oh man. I I don't think this is the last time we're going to talk about this one. Um, but we're going to we're going to end it for today. Uh, um, hope everybody has a great Wednesday. We'll see you tomorrow. George B. Thomas: Thanks everybody.