Ask NewTwos
Ask AI
Ask AI works on the thing or selection in front of you, without opening chat.
Why you'd care
Most AI questions are about something specific you are already looking at. Ask AI keeps that in place: the things are the context, so you do not have to describe them.
The 60-second version
Press ⌘⌥A on a thing, or on a selection. Ask your question.
What you can point it at
Three scopes, all the same box:
| Scope | How |
|---|---|
| One thing | ⌘⌥A, or Ask AI from the thing's menu |
| A selection | Select several, then Ask AI from the selection bar |
| A whole list | Ask AI in the list's ... menu, which passes every thing in the list |
The list scope is the one people miss. It is how you summarise a whole project, or ask what is left, without selecting anything first.
Saving prompts you reuse
Underneath the box is a set of ready-made prompts, and you can add your own. Type a prompt, press Save, and it is there next time on every scope and every device.
This is worth doing for any instruction you find yourself retyping. "Rewrite this as three bullet points." "What is blocking this project." "Turn this into a packing list." The prompt is the part you refine over time, and saving it means you refine it once.
Saved prompts hold ten. Adding an eleventh drops the oldest, saving one you already have moves it back to the front, and each has a remove control.
The same box also has a control that runs Smart Suggestions across everything in scope, which is a faster way to process a batch than asking about them one at a time.
Good uses
- Expanding a fragment into something readable
- Summarising a run of things into one
- Explaining something you saved and no longer understand
- Restructuring: turning a paragraph into a proper list
Going further
It works on selections. Select twenty things and ask about all of them at once, which is the fastest way to summarise a meeting or a week. See select many things at once.
Saved prompts are on your account, not on the device, so one you write on your laptop is there on your phone.
Ask AI or chat? Ask AI is about what you have selected. Chat is about everything. If you can point at it, use Ask AI. See chat with Twos.
It has its own switch, Settings Smart Features Ask AI, so you can keep it while turning chat off, or the reverse.
Settings that change this
- Settings Smart Features Ask AI turns Ask AI on and off.
- Settings Smart Features AI features is the master switch.
Tips
- Put Ask AI in your selection bar if you use it. Two taps beats a menu.
- Ask it to shorten rather than to improve. Shorter is a clear instruction and better is not.
- Save the third time you type a prompt, not the first. By then you know the wording that actually works.