Lesson 1 · Meet your AI assistant: a safe first conversation
| Runs with | Lesson 1 (25 minutes of slides), then this tutorial |
|---|---|
| Format | Prompt-based: each step is a short prompt you copy into your AI assistant, then a check you do yourself |
| You need | A phone, tablet or computer with internet; an email address; a notebook or a blank document |
| You leave with | A free AI account, your first conversations, a habit of checking what the AI says, and three problems you have noticed |
| Safety tip | AI can sound sure and still be wrong. Check anything that matters with a real source or a real person |
Where you are
This is the first hour of five. You do not need to know anything about AI or computers beyond using a web browser. Today you get a free AI assistant, talk to it, catch it making a mistake, and use it to help you notice problems around you. Nothing you do here can break anything.
What you will make
A short list of three problems you have noticed in your own life, your work or your community. In Lesson 2 you pick one of them and start turning it into an idea.
Our example all the way through the course is fictional: a community café run by volunteers, where the coordinator struggles to fill the weekly volunteer rota. You will use your own problems, not the café's.
Outcomes
By the end of the tutorial you can:
- Open a free account with an AI assistant and start a conversation.
- Ask a clear question and ask the AI to explain its answer more simply.
- Spot when the AI is confidently wrong, and check it.
- Say what you should never paste into an AI assistant.
- List three real problems you have noticed.
How to use the prompts
- Copy each prompt as written, paste it into your AI assistant and press send.
- Replace anything in [square brackets] with your own words, and delete the brackets.
- Every prompt works in ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, on a free account. Use whichever you prefer.
- After each prompt, read the Check and answer it honestly before moving on.
- Never paste personal information: no names, addresses, phone numbers, health details, money details or anything about the people you help or work with.
Tutorial
1 · Set up and say hello 8 min
Pick one free AI assistant: ChatGPT (chatgpt.com), Claude (claude.ai) or Gemini (gemini.google.com). Type the address yourself rather than clicking a link in an email or an advert, because fake copies of these sites exist. Sign up with your email address and choose a strong password you do not use anywhere else. Then start a new chat and send this:
Hello. I have never used an AI assistant before and I am a bit nervous. In three short sentences, tell me what you can help me with, and one thing you are not good at. Please use plain English.
Check. Did you type the website address yourself? Did you get an answer in plain English? If any word was unclear, did you ask "What does [the word] mean?"
2 · A first real conversation 7 min
Ask about something you already know well, so you can judge the answer.
I know a lot about [something you know well, for example gardening, cooking, a sport or your town]. Tell me three useful tips about it for a beginner. Keep each tip to one sentence.
Then send a follow-up in the same chat:
Make tip number 2 simpler, as if you were explaining it to a 10-year-old.
Check. Did the AI remember what it said before? Did you notice whether its tips were good, ok or wrong, based on what you already know? You are the expert here, not the AI.
3 · Catch the AI being confidently wrong 8 min
AI assistants are built to give an answer, even when they don't know one. This prompt often makes them invent details. That is the point: you are practising checking.
Give me three quotes from famous people about community cafés. For each one, give the exact book it comes from and the page number.
Now search the internet for one of the quotes, word for word. Then ask:
How sure are you about those quotes, books and page numbers? Tell me honestly which parts you might have made up.
Check. Did you search for at least one quote yourself? Did you find it in that book, or not at all? Did the AI admit it might be wrong only after you asked? Remember this feeling: whenever an answer matters (a fact, a date, a law, a price, a health question), check it with a real source or a real person.
4 · List three problems you have noticed 8 min
A good product starts with a real problem, not with a clever idea. Let the AI help you remember them.
Help me notice problems around me. Ask me five short questions, one at a time, about my week: things that took too long, things I forgot, things that annoyed me or the people around me, and things I do with paper, phone calls or lists. Wait for my answer before asking the next question. After five answers, suggest three problems I seem to have.
Answer each question in a sentence or two. Talk about situations, not people: say "a volunteer", never their name.
Check. Did you write down three problems in your notebook, in your own words? Is each one something that really happened to you or someone you know, not just something the AI suggested? For the café, one might be: "Every Sunday night the coordinator phones round to fill empty rota slots."
5 · Keep it safe 4 min
What kinds of information should I never type into an AI assistant? Give me a short list in plain English, and tell me how to spot a fake message or scam that pretends to come from an AI company.
Check. Did you compare the list with the safety tip at the top of this page? Could you tell a friend three things you will never paste into an AI assistant? If a message ever asks for your password or money "to keep your AI account", did you know to ignore it and go to the website yourself?
Facilitator notes
- Allow extra time for step 1. Sign-up is where most people get stuck: email codes that don't arrive, forgotten passwords, or age checks. Have one or two spare accounts ready on a shared device so nobody waits.
- Let learners pick their tool. Different tools in one room is fine, and it shows that the skills work everywhere.
- Step 3 may not work perfectly: some assistants now refuse or warn instead of inventing. Either result is a good teaching moment. Ask the group "How would you check this?"
- In step 4, listen for real names, health details or client stories, and gently suggest a general phrase instead ("someone I support").
- Celebrate the first answer out loud. For nervous learners, the win today is confidence, not the three problems.
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