AI for Everyone · Part One · Free · No signup
What AI actually is.
No jargon, nothing to install, nothing to buy. In the next few minutes you will understand what this tool is, what it is not, and you will ask it your first real question.
Part 1 · 3:06 · captions available · Dr. Pesach Walter, Ed.D.
Three things it is not
It helps to know the limits before you begin. None of these are reasons to stay away. They are the reasons you stay in charge.
Not a person
It does not know you and has no feelings to protect. You may be as blunt with it as you like.
Not always right
It can state something false in beautifully confident prose. Part Three gives you the habit that handles this.
Not your judgment
Sixty, seventy, eighty years of knowing how the world works is yours. It drafts. You decide.
Practice · Part 1
Do this today.
Read each step, then actually do it. Ten to twenty minutes. The point is not to be perfect — it is to finish having done it yourself.
Step One
Pick your tool
Open your web browser and go to any one of these. The free version is enough for this entire series. There is nothing to download and no credit card required.
- Perplexity — perplexity.ai — shows its sources by default, which is why I lean on it
- ChatGPT — chatgpt.com
- Claude — claude.ai
If you already have one of these, use it. Switching tools is not a skill. Asking well is.
Step Two
Ask one real question
Not a test question. A real one — something you have actually wondered about, or a piece of paper on your counter you have been avoiding. Copy one of these and change it to fit your life.
Step Three
Or try this one instead
If the first prompt is not your situation, this one is closer to most families.
Step Four
Ask exactly one follow-up
This is the whole lesson. The first answer is a first draft. The follow-up is where the real skill starts, and it is one short line.
- “Say that more simply.”
- “Give me an example.”
- “What did you leave out?”
Watch what happens. Most people never ask a second time, and it is the reason they think these tools are underwhelming.
Step Five
Write down one sentence
Before you close the window, write down what surprised you. One sentence, on paper or in a note on your computer. Keep it. In Part Five you will compare it to where you have landed, and the distance will be larger than you expect.
Keep this beside your keyboard
Use your browser's print command to put this page on paper. The video and buttons will not print — only what you need.
- One question. Something you actually care about.
- One follow-up. “Say that more simply.”
- One sentence. What surprised you.
“Nobody can tell you it is too late to learn something new. And nobody can tell you that this particular thing is too complicated for you. It is not.”