✍️ AI That Doesn’t Overwrite You

✍️ You’ve got browser tabs breeding like fruit flies, a half-scribbled outline on your second monitor, and a quote you swear you read last week—but can’t find again. You’re not anti-AI. You just don’t want it writing the piece for you. You want it teeing up your sources, double-checking your facts, and keeping track of the 43 things you’ll forget by lunch.

This week, we’re spotlighting AI tools that support your process. (3-minute read)

Week’s Highlights: 

• Tool Spotlight: CheckMate AI flags false facts mid-draft. Mem remembers what your tabs forgot.

• Sherpa Shortcuts: Use Scribe to auto-document workflows, and Merlin to speed your research with quick summaries.

• The Ridgeline news: Cafés ban laptops and AR glasses are coming for freelancers?

• 😜 Tools Gone Wild: Fake writers with imaginary dogs—Sports Illustrated’s AI cautionary tale. 🐕

AI tool spotlight:

Tool Sherpa explores the flood of new AI apps and carefully selects only proven tools.

🔍 Harpa AI: Your Research Sidekick in the Sidebar

Why It Matters
Harpa AI brings ChatGPT-style assistance directly into your browser. Highlight any paragraph, and it can summarize, fact-check, explain, or rephrase it—no tab-hopping, no copy-paste gymnastics.

Best Use Case
You're mid-draft on an article and stumble on a stat that seems... questionable. Instead of opening multiple tabs to verify it, highlight the text, right-click, and select a command like "Summarize" (and then) "Fact-check." Harpa AI springs into action, analyzing the content—all within your current browser window.

Who Should Use This

• Freelancers writing research-heavy content

• PR and comms pros scanning articles and press releases

• Anyone who wants ChatGPT-level help without leaving the page

Pros
Harpa AI can shave off 15–25 minutes per project by eliminating tab-jumping. Setup time is under 2 minutes with the Chrome extension.

Cons
The interface can feel a bit busy at first, and Safari is not supported.

Pricing
Free plan limited to 10 AI tasks per day. Paid plans start at $12/month (billed annually) and unlock GPT-4o, Claude 3.5, and advanced workflows.

👉 Try Harpa AI

🔍 Mem: Your Brain, But Searchable

Why It Matters:
You snagged the perfect stat last week. Now it’s lost in a sea of tabs, Slack messages, and half-finished docs. Mem fixes that. It quietly saves every note, thought, and link, then resurfaces the right one when you're writing—no folders, no tagging, no sleuthing.

Best Use Case:
You’re building a media brief, brand strategy, or article and vaguely remember, “Wait—I already wrote something like this…” Mem pulls it up before you even finish the sentence.

Who Should Use This:

• Writers with too many tabs

• PR pros who reuse the same pitch six ways

• Marketers who’d love their own personal research recall bot

Pros:
Saves 20–30 minutes per project. Even chat with your notes as a brainy assistant (“What did I say about that launch again?”) Setup takes two minutes.

Cons:
AI suggestions aren’t always perfect—and there’s no “off” button for overachieving brains.

Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10/month.
👉 Try Mem

Sherpa’s shortcuts 🪓

Sherpa-approved hacks to streamline your workflow—especially when you're nowhere near home base.

⚡ Hack #1: Show the Work—Without Another Call

Problem:
You wrapped the project, dispatched the files… and now your client’s asking how to use the thing you just built.

Solution:
Use Scribe, a free Chrome extension, to record yourself doing the task once. It instantly creates a step-by-step guide—(screenshots, text, and all). Instead of explaining it again (and again), just send them the link.

How to set it up:

1. Install the Scribe extension in Chrome.

2. Click “Record,” then walk through the task on your screen: Publishing a blog, updating a spreadsheet, scheduling posts, etc.

3. Click “Stop.” Scribe then auto-generates a clean tutorial you can edit, brand, and send. Done.

💡 Sherpa Tip: Ideal for onboarding clients, delivering how-to instructions, or escaping the endless “Can we jump on a quick call?” trap.

👉 Try Scribe for free

⚡ Hack #2: Pull the Stat, Close the Tab

Bottom line: You don’t want to read a whole article. You just want that one stat.

Solution: With Merlin AI, you highlight any part of a page—an article, pricing table, even a blog post—and it instantly spits out the summary or key takeaways in the sidebar. No tab juggling, no pasting into ChatGPT.

How to:

1. Highlight the text you’re too tired to read

2. Click the Merlin icon

3. Choose “Summarize,” “Explain,” or “Reply”

4. Grab the line you need and move on like a legend

💡 Sherpa Tip: Works wonders on press releases, case studies, and those long “State of the Industry” PDFs. Great free plan—102 queries per day and no credit card required. Works with Chrome and Edge browsers.

👉 Try Merlin AI:

The Ridgeline 🏔️

News on how AI is rewriting the rules for freelancers & solopreneurs

Your coffee shop just banned laptops, freelancers are tapping AR glasses, and you’re about to sell a digital course from a hammock. Let’s trek:

💬 Prompt Like a Pro: These 7 ChatGPT prompts can make you look 10x smarter to clients, with zero extra effort (or meetings). 🔗Read and steal

☕ Laptop Ban at Latte HQ: Cafés are pulling the plug on Wi-Fi and laptops to reclaim sales. Remote workers, consider yourselves gently evicted. 🔗See it here 

🧠 Your Nose, Now a Monitor: One writer wore a 100-inch screen on his face. The verdict? High-tech migraine, low practical payoff, and yet... 🔗Peer into the pixels

📣 Turn Content Into Cash: These 5 ChatGPT prompts can spin a dusty blog post into a slick LinkedIn banger. 🔗Start posting smarter

💸 Set It, Forget It, Collect: Ignition just launched AutoCollect—automating invoices so freelancers stop chasing payments and start getting paid faster. 🔗See it in action

📦 Digital Products That Sell: From planners to courses, here’s what’s actually making solopreneurs money in 2025—no warehouse required. 🔗Get the list

🎙️ AI Levels the Creator Field:
Free AI tools are powering a new generation of DIY creators with videos, voiceovers, and all, minus the fancy gear. 🔗Join the wave

🎥 Final Sip:
AI’s helping you dodge meetings, collect payments, and turn old blogs into LinkedIn gold. Meanwhile, your local café just unplugged the Wi-Fi. Adapt accordingly.

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Tools gone wild! 😜

Let’s end with a laugh — when AI tools take a detour off the happy path.

The Case of the AI Author Who Never Existed

The AI wrote the reviews. The bylines were made up. The author photos? Total catfish. And the bios? Packed with fake hikes and imaginary golden retrievers named Max. 🐕‍🦺

Turns out Sports Illustrated quietly tested AI-generated articles, hoping readers wouldn’t notice their new stable of non-humans. They did…immediately. A backlash followed and the magazine’s credibility went down faster than a free app trial with no credit card required.

📌Lesson Learned:
Let AI handle the drudgery—but if it’s got your name or your face, you better show up. Clients trust you, not a nom de plume with a leash and a LinkedIn.

🧭 What’s Next?

You kept the voice, cut the chaos, and let AI handle the research sprint so you could focus on the final draft. That’s the way, Sherpa-style.

📬 Like this edition? Forward it to a fellow writer, marketer, or client-wrangling freelancer who’s drowning in tabs. 👉 Until then, write sharp, rest your browser, and tell your crew to subscribe here.

— Your Sherpa Team