New in the AI Lab
Welcome back to The AI Lab Weekly!
Mark your calendar: Wednesday, August 19.
A few weeks ago we asked what you'd want from paid, hands-on sessions and the response completely overwhelmed us! Hundreds of you have now told us what you want to learn, what you're nervous about, and what you'd actually pay for. The loudest theme by far? Everyone from "I haven't touched AI yet" to the people shipping builds every week suspects they're doing it wrong and wants to get properly set up.
So we're building one big thing first, and it's designed to fix exactly that: one day that gets every single member of this Lab to the same level. Not a webinar you watch, a working session where you leave with things actually built.
Full details and registration next week. For now: clear the afternoon of Wednesday, August 19.
This Week’s Live Call:
Wednesday, July 29, 2026 · 2:00 PM ET - Bill Kinney: Obsidian Demo - Add to Calendar
Bill's walking us through how he uses Obsidian! Come see a member's real setup, ask your questions, and (if you were paying attention above) hear us drop a few more hints about August 19th. Same time, same link, free as always!
Recent Recordings:
After last week's GitHub 101 call, 40 of you went and made GitHub accounts and joined the ALFA org! That's the whole spirit of this group in one stat: we don't collect ideas, we act on them. If you haven't joined the org yet, it's not too late! https://github.com/AI-Lab-for-Accountants and what's coming August 19 is built on exactly this principle, at full scale.
Denise Yelvington's Do-io, a CPA-built 2026 federal tax calculator, is moving into the AI Lab GitHub org!
The federal engine is done and independently verified against 2026 authority. The state calculators are where you come in. Denise is a Massachusetts CPA, so she is building the Massachusetts module. Nobody understands a state's quirks like a practitioner licensed there. If you're licensed in a state and want your name on its module, this is your project. You build it, you share it, we all get better. Who's next?
Want in? Two ways.
Just want to run it? It opens to everyone in the coming weeks, so watch for the access link. No GitHub account, nothing to install. Your inputs never leave your browser, because the whole calculator is a single HTML file with no server, no accounts, and no data collection. It takes financial figures only, with no fields for names, SSNs, or any other identifiers.
Licensed in a state and want to build its module? Reply with your state, and your GitHub username if you have one. It's free at github.com and takes five minutes. You'll be first in line when the repo opens, with Denise's Massachusetts module as your template. One builder per state, first hand up claims it.
If you haven't tried Charlie's Tool Safety Index yet, give it a try and let us know what you think!
Also, still looking for a few more beta testers for Charlie’s Ask AFLA tax research tool. Reply to this email if you want to get added to the list.
That’s it for this week! Keep building, keep experimenting, keep asking Claude.
See you in the lab,
-Rebecca, Michael, and Charlie