An AI assistant is a chat program, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Microsoft Copilot. You type a request, called a prompt, and it writes a reply. It uses learned patterns, your message and other context the product supplies. Some assistants also search the web or read uploaded files.

Think of the reply as a first draft from a helper. It can be useful and still need corrections. Smooth, confident writing does not prove a fact is true. A reply can change a date, invent a detail or make an arithmetic error without sounding uncertain.

Start with tasks you can easily check: suggest headings, turn notes into a list or rewrite a sentence. You choose what to keep. Check facts and numbers before using them, and be careful with private information and decisions affecting people.

1. Pick one assistant. The named assistants offer browser-based free options, subject to age, region and account rules. Check the current sign-up page. If your school or employer provides one, use that account.
2. Check the minimum age in the sign-up page. Some services require users to be 18.
3. Open Settings and find the privacy or data section. Read what it says about whether your chats are used to improve the product, and choose the option you are comfortable with.
4. Start a new chat. You will see a message box at the bottom of the screen. Type there and press Enter or the send arrow. The reply appears above. Earlier messages in the same chat stay in view, and the assistant uses them as context for its next reply. A new chat starts a new conversation thread. Some products may still use saved memories or account settings. Check those features if you want to keep tasks separate.

Type only fictional or public information in this course. Never paste passwords, account numbers, or someone else's private details.

If you cannot use an assistant today, use the sample replies in this lesson and come back to the live steps later.

Copy each prompt into a new chat and save the reply in a document called first-prompts.

1. Study plan: "I have 3 hours this week to learn spreadsheet basics. Suggest a plan split into three 1-hour sessions. Use a short list."
2. Work email: "Rewrite this to sound polite and clear, under 60 words: need the budget file by friday or we cant print the guides."
3. Budget: "I am buying 18 guides at $2 each, 6 marker packs at $3 each and 18 practice packs at $1 each. What is the total? Show the working."

Check the third reply yourself: 36 + 18 + 18 = 72, so the total is $72. Write Correct or Wrong next to it. For the email, check that it kept Friday and did not add a new promise.

Source A says: "The Neighborhood Study Workshop is in Community Room B on June 2, 2027, 3:00 to 4:30 PM Eastern Time. Capacity is 18. Participants practice files and a simple budget."

A reply to "Write a short invitation from Source A" came back as: "Join our certified workshop online at 3:30 PM. Eighteen students have confirmed attendance, and everyone receives a qualification."

Check each claim against the source:

A supported version: "Join the Neighborhood Study Workshop in Community Room B on June 2, 2027, from 3:00 to 4:30 PM Eastern Time. There is room for 18 people. You will practice organizing files and building a simple budget."

1. In a new chat, paste Source A and ask: "Write an invitation of no more than 80 words using only this information."
2. Save the reply. Make a table with the columns Reply says, Source says and Decision, and check every claim.
3. Write your own corrected invitation of no more than 80 words. Do not add a booking process, because the source does not give one.

Your reply will differ from the worked example. You got it right when every fact in your corrected invitation appears in Source A and nothing in it is missing from Source A.

Question: The reply says 18 people are coming. Is that supported?

Answer: No. Capacity is the most the room holds. The source does not say how many people registered.

Question: The reply leaves out the end time. Is that a wrong fact?

Answer: It is a missing fact. Your table should separate wrong facts from missing ones, because you fix them differently: replace one, add the other.

Save Source A, first-prompts, your checking table and the corrected invitation in a folder called ai-practice. Add one sentence: "I checked the event facts against Source A before using the draft." This starts the record you will hand over at the end of the course.

Next, you will time a real task done by hand and with the assistant to see whether it actually saves you time.