AI
AI Tools & Generative AI
Use generative tools with clear prompts, checks, and a real task.
AI Tools & Generative AI is a practical course on using generative tools for writing, research drafts, and simple images. You will learn how to brief a tool, how to check what it returns, and where a person still has to decide. The lectures do not treat a model as a source of truth.
Course syllabus
01. What a model is
- What these tools are doing
A useful mental model, without the marketing language.
- Fluency is not evidence
A smooth answer can be wrong, and a confident tone is not a source.
- It does not have your files
The model does not know a document until you put that document in the conversation.
- Open the page it cites
If it names a source, open that source, because the citation can be wrong or empty.
- Chat, editor, or image tool
The product changes, and you still check the result before you use it.
- A paste is a disclosure
Do not put secrets or customer records into a tool you have not been cleared to use.
- A refusal is not a puzzle
When the product declines a request, that is the end of that request.
- You still decide
You choose what is true, what is published, and what is sent.
02. The brief
- A brief the tool can follow
Role, task, context, and the format you want back.
- A role that changes the task
Name the reader and the job, and skip a role line that does not change the output.
- Notes marked as notes
Separate the material you want used from the instruction, so the two are not mixed.
- Constraints in a list
Length, words to keep, and what you will reject.
- One example of the shape
A sample you wrote, so the draft has a pattern to follow.
- Ask for a draft, not a fact
The brief says this is a draft you will check, not a finished claim.
- Make it better is not a brief
Without a criterion, the next answer wanders.
- Fix the brief before the next try
If the task was unclear, another reply will be unclear too.
03. Context
- Only the context the task needs
The relevant notes, not your whole archive.
- Extra pages dilute the task
Unneeded material makes it easier to follow the wrong part.
- Name where each chunk came from
Label the notes so a later sentence can be traced to them.
- Say what you do not know
If you do not have a figure, tell the tool not to invent one.
- Your names for your things
The product name and the terms you use, so it does not swap in a generic one.
- Who will read it
The audience, and what they already know, in a single line of the brief.
- Unseen files are not in the draft
If a file was not provided, the draft cannot be using it.
- Strip private details before you paste
Remove names and account numbers from a real example.
04. Iteration
- Iterating instead of restarting
Tighten a weak answer without throwing the thread away.
- One change at a time
Length, or tone, or a missing section, so you can see what the edit did.
- Point at the sentence
Quote the line you mean, so the rest of the draft stays.
- Say what is wrong with it
Name the fault, such as a missing step, rather than saying you dislike it.
- Keep the version you liked
Copy it out before the next pass, in case the next pass is worse.
- Stop when the brief is met
More turns are not the same as a better result.
- A new chat with the best draft
When the thread is confused, start again from the brief and the draft you kept.
- Save the instruction that helped
The line that improved the work, kept for the next task of the same kind.
05. Your voice
- Drafting and rewriting
Use a draft as material, then edit it into your voice.
- Read the draft aloud
If you would not say the sentence, it does not go out under your name.
- Cut a sentence that adds nothing
Remove a line that sounds like a brochure and contains no fact.
- Your paragraph is the style guide
A sample you wrote beats a list of adjectives about tone.
- Put your words back
Restore the terms your reader already uses when the draft swapped them.
- A fact you did not supply
Mark any claim that was not in your notes, and delete it unless you can source it.
- You choose the order
The sequence of points is your decision, not a default the draft picked.
- Finish in your editor
Move the text out of the chat and edit it as you would any other document.
06. Facts
- Checking facts and refusing slop
What to verify, and what should never be pasted through.
- Open the source
The page or the file, not the model's mention of it.
- Copy a quote from the source
If you need the exact words, take them from the original.
- Check every number
A date, a price, or a statistic stays only if you found it.
- Search a name before you repeat it
A person or a paper the draft names may not exist.
- Run the code
Put a snippet in the project and run it, because a plausible block can still fail.
- Fluent and empty
Sentences that could sit on any site, with none of the detail from your notes.
- Nothing you cannot source
Do not publish a claim you could not point to if someone asked where it came from.
07. Tasks
- Headings from your notes
Turn a messy list into headings, then you decide which headings stay.
- Shorter, with no new claims
Cut to a length you set, without adding anything you did not write.
- A reply you will edit before sending
A first pass at an email, for a message you are willing to own.
- Change the format, keep the values
Notes into a table, or a table into bullets, with the figures unchanged.
- Questions, not invented answers
Ask for the gaps in your notes, and do not accept made-up fills.
- Differences between your two options
The tool lists how your two written options differ, and you decide.
- Steps from a process you described
A checklist of steps you already know, for you to correct.
- A translation you cannot check alone
If you do not read the language, a person who does has to review it.
08. Images and other files
- Describe the picture you need
Subject and setting, then you look at what came back.
- Words in the image are often wrong
If the text matters, add it in an editor afterwards.
- A generated picture is not a photo of an event
Do not present it as a photograph of something that happened.
- What you are allowed to publish
The publishing rule you have to follow, and any credit the tool requires.
- Crop, fix, or discard
Generation is a start, and you still edit the result or throw it away.
- A formula still has to be run
A suggested spreadsheet formula is unchecked until you run it and look at the total.
- Slides from an outline you wrote
The points stay yours, and the tool only lays them out.
- A file, not a chat link
Hand over the document, not a conversation the other person cannot open.
09. Research drafts
- A draft of a summary you will check
Ask for a summary of a source you provide, then compare it with that source.
- Separate what the source said
Keep the source's claims distinct from anything the draft added.
- A citation you have not opened
An unread reference is not support, so open it or remove it.
- Do not invent a study
If you need a finding, find the document, and do not ask the model to supply one.
- Dates and versions
A product fact can be out of date, so check the version you mean.
- Disagree with a confident answer
Ask for the objections, then judge those objections yourself.
- Today needs a source you can open
Unless a tool showed you a page, treat a claim about today as unverified.
- The model is not a source of truth
A fluent paragraph does not become true because it was generated.
10. A repeatable pass
- Brief, draft, edit, check, file
The same pass each time, ending in a document rather than a chat.
- A template for a repeated task
The parts of the brief that stay, and the notes that change.
- A time limit on the chat
A cap, so using the tool does not become the work.
- Keep the notes with the draft
Later you can see what the model was given.
- A person reads public text
If it will represent you, someone else reads it before it goes out.
- A near miss and the check that catches it
A wrong fact that almost shipped, and the step that would have caught it.
- What the team may paste
What is allowed in the tool, what must be checked, and who is allowed to publish.
- Drop a step that never changed the result
After a month, keep the check that caught errors and remove the step that did not.
11. Limits
- What a refusal is for
The product will not do that task, so you reword the real work or do it another way.
- Do not try to get around a safety check
This course does not teach tricks to obtain an answer the tool refused.
- It will agree with a weak plan
Praise from the model is not a review, so ask what could go wrong and judge that yourself.
- People you must not invent facts about
Do not ask for made-up details about a real person.
- A professional decision stays with a person
Medical, legal, and financial choices are not settled in a chat.
- Replace the generic reader
The default example is a generic person, so put your real reader in.
- When the tool is the wrong tool
You already know the sentence, or a mistake would cost more than the time you save.
- One real document from your week
Use a document you need, write the brief first, and keep only what you checked.
Lecture videos stay with the course. Playback for enrolled students will open once payments are available. Video links are not published on this page.