What these tools are — and are not
A chatbot predicts likely words. That one fact explains what it is good at and where it goes wrong.
An account in one assistant, and your first three answers — one of them caught being wrong.
Lesson 1 of 12 · Part 1: Start well
What these tools are — and are not
Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot are the same kind of tool: a large language model you talk to. It has read an enormous amount of text and learned which words tend to follow which. When you ask it something, it writes the most likely good answer, one word at a time. It does not look the answer up unless it says it is searching — and it never knows when it is guessing.
The idea
Fluent is not the same as correct
It writes a wrong answer in exactly the same confident voice as a right one. Names, dates, numbers, quotes and references are where it most often invents. Treat it as a fast, well-read assistant on their first day: useful, and checked.
Good at: drafting, explaining, reshaping
A first draft of a letter, a lesson plan, a notice. Explaining a hard idea three different ways. Turning your rough notes into a table, a list, a quiz, a translation. Anything where you can tell a good answer when you see it.
Weak at: facts you cannot check, and today
Exact figures, the latest rules, what happened this week, anything about a particular person. Ask it to search, ask for sources, or use your own documents (Lesson 5).
Step by step
- 1
Pick one assistant and stay with it for this course
On an Android phone, Gemini is already there — open the Gemini app or gemini.google.com and sign in with your Google account. ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot work just as well; every prompt in this course works in all four.
- 2
Ask it something from your own work
Not a test question — a real one. A letter you need to write, a topic you teach tomorrow, a form you do not understand.
- 3
Ask it something you already know well
Your own village, your subject, your trade. Read the answer as an expert would. Where is it vague? Where is it simply wrong?
- 4
Ask it how sure it is
Follow up with: “Which parts of that answer are you least sure of?” A good assistant will point at its weak spots. That habit — asking — is the most useful one in this course.
Prompts to copy
Change the parts in [brackets], and the details to fit your own day.
Teacher
Explain photosynthesis to a Class 7 student in Kashmir in five short sentences. Use an example from an apple orchard.
Anyone
Tell me five facts about the history of my town, [town name], with the year for each. Then tell me which of the five you are least sure of, and why.
Anyone
Which parts of your last answer are you least sure of? What should I check, and where?
Try it
Your task
Ask about something you know better than anyone — your school, your street, your work — and find one thing it got wrong or made up.
When you are done: You have caught it out once. From now on you will read its answers the way you read a stranger’s.
Check yourself
Think of your answer first, then open it. Nothing is marked or saved.
An assistant gives you a book title and author for a quote. What do you do before using it?Show answer
Search for the book yourself. Invented references are one of the commonest mistakes — they look exactly like real ones.
Is it looking things up on the internet when it answers?Show answer
Only if it says so (“Searching…”, or it shows links). Otherwise it is writing from what it learned in training, which can be out of date or wrong.
What kind of task is it most reliable at?Show answer
Ones where you can judge the result yourself: drafting, rewording, explaining, reshaping your own material.
Keep the trust
You are the one who signs it.
Whatever you send, print or teach from an AI draft is yours. Read it all before it leaves your hands.