What changed

This is the single log for the course. Newest release first. Each page also lists its own history at the bottom. Machine-readable copies: changelog.json and Atom feed.

November 3, 2026Release 2026.11.03dFull content check: corrections8 changes

Every page added or changed since the demand research was read against its sources. No factual errors were found. The corrections below are wording and consistency.

Updated (6)

  • Updated
    Module 23: memory policy and code comment

    The memory policy table now says that its consent and deletion rows become test cases, a note explains that memory about a person is personal data under GDPR and LGPD, and the comment in the code example now matches what the code does.

  • Updated
    Module 24: what to grade

    The section title said three things but its table lists five. It now reads "What to grade, and at what level". The wording on simulated users is softened to "often" and "tend to", because that behavior varies.

  • Updated
    Guide: Messaging and WhatsApp, wording

    The caution about the Brazil status is now neutral text instead of first person, and the message-template rule states the usual 24-hour window.

  • Updated
    Guia (português): WhatsApp, redação

    A mesma cautela sobre o Brasil agora está em texto neutro, e a sugestão de módulos virou links ("Comece pelos módulos 3, 19 e 18").

  • Updated
    FAQ: simulated users

    The answer now says simulated users tend to be more cooperative than real ones.

  • Updated
    Glossary: simulated user

    Now says "often kinder than real users".

Notes (2)

  • Note
    What was checked

    The two new modules and their quizzes, the 48 FAQ answers, the regulation tracker, the messaging and Portuguese guides, the explainer, career and human-handoff guides, five cheat sheets, both new case studies, the new sections in modules 8, 17, 18 and 19, and the 25 new glossary terms. The note that MCP became stateless (specification of 28 July 2026) was confirmed against the MCP project's own release post, and the GitHub case study against Simon Willison's original article.

  • Note
    What was not re-read

    Modules 1 to 22 as they stood before the demand research, and the eight earlier case studies, were not read again in this pass.

November 3, 2026Release 2026.11.03cLiability, human handoff and a Portuguese starting point6 changes

The last items of the demand research: what courts and lawmakers now say about who owns a chatbot's words, a plain list of what should stay with a person, and a Portuguese page that maps the course.

New (3)

  • New
    Case study: A clinic's chatbot invented medical titles

    A German appeals court (Higher Regional Court Hamm, 12 May 2026) held a company responsible for false answers its website chatbot gave about its doctors' titles. What the court said, what it did not, and how to design so a bot cannot make claims about your organization. Not final.

  • New
    Guide: What should stay with a person

    A list of ten situations an AI agent should not handle alone, what the assistant does instead, four questions to ask before automating a task, how to hand off well and what to test.

  • New
    Guia (português): Design de IA conversacional, por onde começar

    A map of the course in Portuguese, answers to three common questions (chatbot, assistente ou agente; aviso de IA; quem responde por um erro) and a pointer to the WhatsApp guide.

Updated (2)

  • Updated
    Module 18: liability watch

    Adds a dated box with the Hamm ruling and California AB 316, which stops a defendant from arguing that the AI acted autonomously, and a pointer to the guide on what stays with a person.

  • Updated
    FAQ: two answers updated, two new (48 in total)

    The answers on which calls an agent should never handle alone and on liability now point to the new guide and case study. New questions: whether an "AI can make mistakes" disclaimer protects a company, and what California AB 316 changes.

Notes (1)

  • Note
    Both legal items were checked against primary sources

    The Hamm ruling against the court's own press release and the published full text; AB 316 against the enacted bill (Chapter 672, Statutes of 2025). Both pages say these are summaries, not legal advice, and that the Hamm ruling is not final.

November 3, 2026Release 2026.11.03bFollow-up: fact check3 changes

A second pass on the same day: the new pages were spot-checked against the research sources.

Notes (3)

  • Note
    Fact check: regulation tracker

    The Article 50 dates, the Digital Omnibus postponement and the 2 December 2026 marking grace were re-checked against several law-firm summaries and found consistent. The California and FCC references rest on earlier, widely documented rulings and were not re-researched. No change to the text was needed.

  • Note
    Fact check: messaging guide

    The guide already says that reports disagree on the Brazil status and that it was not checked against Meta's own terms. That caution was kept.

  • Note
    What was not re-checked

    Pages not named in this release were not independently re-verified in this pass, and no vendor statistics were added.

November 3, 2026Release 2026.11.03Demand-driven update: rules, agent security, evaluation, memory and messaging27 changes

A research pass on what people search for around conversational design, AI bots and agentic support found gaps in regulation, agent evaluation, context and memory, agent security, support metrics and messaging channels. This release fills them and adds guides for the most common questions.

New (15)

Updated (10)

Notes (2)

  • Note
    Facts that move fast carry a "last verified" date

    The regulation tracker, the messaging guide and the protocol sections say when they were checked and against what.

  • Note
    What was left out

    Vendor statistics (resolution rates, ROI, salaries) and one list of incidents that could not be confirmed elsewhere were not used. Rulings and policies that rest on a single secondary source were kept out or marked to verify.

October 27, 2026Release 2026.10.27Rebuild since the first edition5 changes

The field moved fast. This rebuild reflects it, and each fast-moving page is dated.

LLMs lead, intents assistMost new assistants are model-first, with deterministic flows, retrieval and tools around the model. Intent platforms are now one option among several.
MCP went statelessThe July 2026 MCP specification removed the handshake and sessions. Module 8 covers what that means for tool design.
Agents need architectureState machines, single agents and multi-agent systems each fit different problems. Module 9 gives you a decision framework.
Evaluation is the jobTesting, tracing and red-teaming are where assistants succeed or fail in production. Modules 14 to 17 turn that into a routine for testers and analysts.
Prompts are per-modelThe same prompt behaves differently across models. Module 5 shows what differs and how to keep prompts portable.