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How I used AI to prank my ex (and sneakily delight my kids) — with a Jack Russell

TL;DR — Got a Jack Russell for safekeeping. Wanted to prank my ex and the kids. Used AI to edit photos into a ridiculous, believable (mostly) scene. No harm, lots of laughs, 5 minutes of work, and a priceless "WTF" reaction. Here’s the cheat-sheet.

1-line pitch: take a real photo → pick a believable gag → use image-editing AI → add small, authentic details → send to your targets and watch the chaos.
People trust photos. But we now live in an era where convincing edits are a 10-minute job, not a black-belt skill. That’s the whole power move: you can fake a moment that looks real enough to trigger a reaction, then reveal it’s a prank. Do it safely and don’t embarrass or traumatize anyone (or any pets).

The prank idea (safe & funny)

Do something absurdly human: dog sitting on a toilet lid looking curious, or dog at a birthday cake licking frosting. Both are low-risk, obviously jokey, and super shareable.

Tools you’ll need (easy mode)

• ChatGPT (for prompts & concept, or just do the whole thing here)

• An image-editing AI: DALL·E’s inpainting/edit tool, Photoshop (Generative Fill), or img2img in Stable Diffusion / MidJourney (if you prefer).

• Small finishing touches: Snapseed or Lightroom mobile (contrast, warmth, shadow).

• Optional: phone camera + the original dog photo (your starting asset).

Step-by-step (prank in ~5 mins)

1. Pick the base photo
   Use a clear, well-lit shot of the dog (you already have one). Crop slightly to focus on the dog.

2. Decide the gag and constraints
   Keep it harmless. Example: “Dog sitting on closed toilet lid looking curious.” Not: “Dog on fire pit.” Boundaries matter.

3. Prompt the AI (copy-paste templates)
   For an inpainting/edit tool (DALL·E / Photoshop Generative Fill):

   • Mask the area where the dog meets the toilet and the surrounding floor.

   • Prompt: “Realistic photo edit: place the dog on the closed toilet seat so it appears to be sitting on the lid. Maintain original lighting and shadows. Keep dog’s collar and expression. Make edges natural and slightly warm rim light from a nearby lamp.”
     For img2img (Stable Diffusion):

   • Positive prompt: “photo-realistic dog sitting on a closed toilet seat, natural lighting, slight shadow on seat, warm indoor tones, high detail”

   • Negative prompt: “cartoon, blurry, implausible anatomy”

4. Iterate quickly
   Do 2–3 variations. Tweak “lighting”, “shadow intensity”, and “edge blending” until it looks real.

5. Final polish
   Add micro-shadows under paws, slightly boost contrast, reduce saturation a touch — humans trust minor imperfections.

Messaging tips (the reveal)

Send with a short caption: “You won’t believe what happened… 😂”

Wait for the reaction!

How Canva, Perplexity and Notion turn feedback chaos into actionable customer intelligence

Support tickets, reviews, and survey responses pile up faster than you can read.

Enterpret unifies all feedback, auto-tags themes, and ties insights to revenue, CSAT, and NPS, helping product teams find high-impact opportunities.

→ Canva: created VoC dashboards that aligned all teams on top issues.
→ Perplexity: set up an AI agent that caught revenue‑impacting issues, cutting diagnosis time by hours.
→ Notion: generated monthly user insights reports 70% faster.

Stop manually tagging feedback in spreadsheets. Keep all customer interactions in one hub and turn them into clear priorities that drive roadmap, retention, and revenue.

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SORA 2 Just Broke Reality (And My Brain)

You know that moment when tech jumps from “wow, that’s impressive” to “okay, this is officially witchcraft”? Yeah, that’s SORA 2.

OpenAI just dropped their new video model — and it doesn’t just make videos… it understands them. The dog runs like a real dog. The lighting shifts like a film crew has shown up. The camera pans like Spielberg’s behind the lens.

This isn’t your old-school AI that made people look like melting wax sculptures. Nope. SORA 2 gives you Hollywood-level clips — straight from text. You type “a golden retriever surfing at sunset” and boom, instant viral commercial for dog shampoo.

Where it’s live:

• The SORA iOS app and sora.com (web) — if you’re in the right country.

• It’s also inside InVideo, meaning you can make SORA-powered videos right now without waiting for OpenAI’s invite list.

If you thought TikTok filters were confusing your sense of reality… wait until every 15-year-old can make a blockbuster from their couch.

SORA 2 isn’t just an upgrade — it’s the moment movies became prompts.

Now, excuse me while I try to convince my mom that the video of me windsurfing with a Jack Russell in November is real.

The free newsletter making HR less lonely

The best HR advice comes from those in the trenches. That’s what this is: real-world HR insights delivered in a newsletter from Hebba Youssef, a Chief People Officer who’s been there. Practical, real strategies with a dash of humor. Because HR shouldn’t be thankless—and you shouldn’t be alone in it.

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We Asked Lumen5 to Make a Video About Itself — It Said Yes.

Ever written something and thought, “This would make a great video”? Lumen5 exists for that exact moment. It’s an AI-powered video creator that transforms blog posts, articles, or even newsletters into short, engaging videos — complete with captions, stock footage, and background music.

The magic? You don’t need editing skills, just text.

 What’s Cool About It

• Instant Video Generation – Paste your text or link, and Lumen5 builds a full video sequence from it.

• Smart Scene Detection – The AI splits your text into logical scenes and matches them with relevant visuals.

• Built-In Media Library – Thousands of stock clips, music tracks, and templates.

• Automatic Captions – Perfect for social media — your text becomes subtitles instantly.

• Easy Manual Editing – Change visuals, font, colors, or pacing with just a few clicks.

 The Other Side

• Template-Like Feel – Even with editing, some videos still look “AI-generated.”

• Stock Footage Repeats – You’ll notice familiar clips if you use it often.

• Free Plan Limitations – Watermark and limited templates for free users.

 🧪 Our Test – Lumen5 Makes a Video About… Lumen5 🤯

For our test, we decided to go full meta.
We copied this very article about Lumen5 — yes, the one you’re reading now — and pasted it into the platform.

Within seconds, the AI started generating a promo-style video about itself.
The visuals? Surprisingly well-matched: upbeat music, people typing, stock footage of digital storytellers.
It even added subtle zoom effects on the key phrases, like it knew which lines sounded dramatic.

We changed the font, swapped a few clips, and— our self-referential experiment was ready.
The result looked like a polished product explainer… made by the product itself. See for yourself.

Lumen5 also supports voice-over integration, which makes it great for storytelling and educational videos. While it doesn’t yet include built-in AI narration, you can upload your own recorded voice or use an AI-generated voice from tools like ElevenLabs or Play.ht. The platform automatically syncs scenes to match the pacing of the narration, giving your video a natural, polished flow without extra editing.

 Final Thoughts

Lumen5 feels like having an eager intern who reads your articles, grabs a few stock clips, and cuts a video overnight.
It’s not a replacement for full video editing, but for creators who need fast, social-friendly content, it’s a genuine timesaver.

The fact that it made a coherent, slick video about itself from our test text says everything about how far automated storytelling has come.

We’re giving it 4.5/5 on our LMAI scale — creative, quick, and slightly surreal.

Now, excuse us while we ask it to make a trailer for this newsletter. 🎬

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