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Axios CEO Shares How He Writes With Claude and ChatGPT

June 17, 2026 at 21:33 EDT

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Axios CEO Jim VandeHei published a column on June 18, 2026, distilling more than a year of personal experiments writing with AI, and laid out concrete methods for using Claude and ChatGPT as tools to sharpen his thinking and expression.

June 18, 2026 · Axios

Writing With AI: Building a "Bionic YOU"

After a year as his own "lab rat," Axios CEO Jim VandeHei lays out how to clone your voice into a personalized AI — using Claude Projects and Custom GPTs to get "better at the things you don't want to do."

~50

documents uploaded to feed the clone

10×

better clone from that volume of material

~1 hr

to get "JimGPT" up and running

More material in → a sharper clone

A few files

1×

baseline

→

~50 documents

10×

better clone

Claude Projects

Manages multiple conversations and files together, retaining long-term context.

Custom GPTs

Builds a custom AI with specific instructions and personal knowledge.

Three work-ready prompts

Premortem

Acts as devil's advocate to flag five data-based failure factors before a decision.

Briefing

Organizes the past six days of industry news into a top-five ranking with sources and links.

Hunch test

Proposes data points and methods to verify whether a trend is real.

"Use AI" — don't just "talk AI."

Give the model your voice, blend it with Smart Brevity, and the use case shifts beyond text generation — toward a "bionic YOU" that makes you better at the things you don't want to do. The tools stay imperfect; results come from daily practice and repeated fine-tuning.

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