AI BASICS & GETTING STARTED
Build Confidence With AI—One Useful Task at a Time
Start with the fundamentals, learn how to ask better questions, and build the habit of checking important answers. You do not need technical experience to begin.
A simple place to begin
These three guides cover the habits that matter most when you are getting started.
01
Your 4-Week AI Skill Ladder
A practical month-long path from your first prompt to one useful AI routine.
02
Put AI to Work on One Useful Task
Start with something manageable and measure whether AI actually helps.
03
Use AI Search and Check the Sources
Learn how to open original sources and verify what the AI tells you.
All AI Basics Guides
Browse the complete collection. New and refreshed beginner guides will appear here automatically.
A practical guide to explaining AI assistance, following the rules for your work, and describing what you actually checked.
Try AI on one manageable task, give it clear source material, check the result, and measure the total effort before expanding your workflow.
A practical way to check AI announcements, test useful features, and avoid switching tools just because of a headline.
Spot an overly agreeable AI answer, ask for evidence and useful criticism, and check important claims independently.
Keep control of your thinking with a simple routine: make your own first attempt, ask AI for a specific kind of help, verify the result, and practice without it.
Learn how to ask a focused AI search question, open the original sources, compare current information, and keep track of what still needs checking.
Ask AI to question a plan, separate evidence from assumptions, and compare options. A worked example keeps your own judgment at the center.
A practical prompt template that gives AI your goal, constraints and useful background while keeping unnecessary personal and confidential details out.
Use AI to plan one practical skill, choose trustworthy learning material and test progress through real exercises, without promises of mastery in 12 weeks.
A practical four-week plan for trying AI after 40: start small, improve your prompts, check the results, and build one useful routine.
Learn the difference between AI, machine learning, generative AI and a chatbot, and understand why a useful answer still needs checking.
Compare Claude, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot using official information and a simple task. Check accuracy, access, privacy, and cost before choosing.