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Artificial Intelligence (AI): Start Exploring in Under 10 Minutes
The Problem
Trying something new can be difficult, and you might also imagine that it will be time-consuming, awkward, or that you’ll probably do something wrong or make a mistake.
If you’ve held back from exploring what so-called “artificial intelligence” can do, here’s my advice: Now is the time to try it. Dipping your toe in the water with AI will probably take you 10 minutes or less, and I’m optimistic that you’ll at least find it interesting, if not also useful.
I was reluctant
For me, the topic of AI was loaded with conflict and complexity. Some people predicted the dawn of a new age, while others predicted the end of the human race.
I was also bothered by the misuse of the phrase “artificial intelligence” which, in this modern parlance, did not fit the definition I had learned in college in a computer science course taught by renowned Professor Patrick Winston over 40 years ago: A system that demonstrates human-level intelligence and cognition, meaning that it can learn, understand, and reason in complex and new ways. By this measure, none of the examples that I saw (or read about) deserved to be called AI.
How I got started
In January 2025, my terrific business-consultant colleague Shelly Berman-Rubera (http://www.SmallBusResults.com) offered a 2-hour workshop, “Essential AI Tools” for business owners. I’ve known Shelly for years, and she would not waste her time (or anyone else’s) on fluff. In everything she does, her focus is on useful, productive, and proven ideas, tools, and techniques that save time, money, and effort to achieve your goals.
Shelly’s workshop helped me see that, at its best, this AI technology is a potentially helpful tool that anyone can use to explore, learn, create, and develop ideas and techniques and content in a huge variety of ways, spanning an enormous number of topics. It also validated my concerns that not only can AI be intentionally misused, it can also mislead the user with false or poorly-researched information or advice.
This will barely take you 10 minutes
I suggest the following simple approach to get starting using AI:
Step 1: Pick a platform.
There are numerous “conversational AI” websites to choose from. Many require that you at least create a free account to get started. However, as of this writing, the following (among others) permit you to use them without creating an account, making them very easy to explore with minimal effort:
Another popular platform is Claude (http://claude.ai), but it does require that you first create a free account.
Step 2: Go to that platform’s website.
Step 3: Type a simple prompt into the “Ask” or “Message” box, then click the “arrow” or “triangle” button, or tap the Enter or Return key on your keyboard.
This is the easiest way to use AI. Prompt it with a topic or a question that interests you or piques your curiosity, or one where you already know the answer so you can evaluate its response.
For example:
- Enter something that you’d normally search for using Google or Bing: “2025 post office holidays” or “GE stock price” or “How to tie a tie,” etc. Note that unlike Google, you can be wordy, write multiple sentences, and not worry about synonyms or being precise.
- Something you’re curious about: Which is better, leaving my computer on 24/7 or turning it off when I go to bed? What does “dew point” mean? What are the highest protein foods I am likely to find at a grocery near me?
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Amusing variations: In the voice of Dr. Seuss, explain “dew point.” How would Mr. Rogers explain war?
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Pop culture: Which episode of Columbo had Johnny Cash as the guest star, and what was that song he played on the guitar while the detective was on the phone? What do the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody mean?
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Work-related: I run a business in the greater [CITY] area, providing [SERVICE or PRODUCT] to clients that have [PROBLEM] and need [SOLUTION]. Ask me questions that can help me put together a marketing plan to find qualified prospects in my area.
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Time-saving: Summarize http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1dgn_C0AU using bullet points. Summarize http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Williams in 2 paragraphs, no more than 100 words each.
- Reduce repetitive work: Describe something that you have to do on the computer that is labor-intensive or tedious along with the goal that you want to accomplish, e.g.: Create an Excel file that lets me enter my store’s inventory and then tells me what to restock and what finished products can (or cannot) be produced with the raw materials on hand.
- Ask the AI platform about itself: What can you do for me? What are you good at? What are your vulnerabilities, imperfections, and biases? How can I minimize the chances that you’ll give me false or misleading answers? What do you do with my prompts and uploaded documents? Why would I upgrade to each of your paid plans? Who are your competitors, and how do they compare to you and each other?
- Ask something that you’ve wondered or been confused about, but you haven’t found a helpful friend or resource that explains it in a way that you can understand -- Quantum mechanics? Why bread rises? Why tattoos don’t disappear?
Step 4: Keep the following in mind:
- After 5 or 10 prompts, most of the conversational AI platforms above will ask you to create a free account. You can simply click “Stay logged out” or “Close” to continue without an account.
- While not having an account means that you haven’t revealed your name, email address, or phone number (unless you mention them in your prompts), like any website they will still get your IP address (which does imply your general geographical location) along with the type of computer or smartphone you’re using.
- While AI may impress you with its ability to produce seemingly knowledgeable responses in a fraction of a second, it’s not alive, it’s not a person, it doesn’t “know” or “understand” or “feel” anything, and it isn’t creative. It can only construct sentences, lists, and tables from the words and data that it was “trained” on.
- Many times I’ve asked a carefully-worded question, only to have it ignore some of my qualifiers or give me answers that are clearly inadequate or completely wrong.
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Don’t tell the AI anything confidential or proprietary about you, your finances, someone else, or your company, and don’t upload a document, photo, screenshot, audio recording, or video containing any sensitive information for it to analyze or summarize. Like using a search engine, most AI platforms will make use of every prompt you enter and every document you upload, and it may be difficult to get a clear explanation of that use.
Why I think this technology is important
Whatever you think of this AI technology, it’s here to stay, and it’s changing things in more and more areas of our lives, and not always in visible ways.
Whether it will have (or has already had) a positive or negative effect on you, or your work, or people or causes that you care about, learning more about it helps you to be more informed and understand it better than simply ignoring or avoiding it.
What I’ve learned so far after 6 months of exploring this
Patrick Winston’s definition of human-level machine intelligence is now embodied in the modern phrase “AGI” or artificial general intelligence, which no current system has achieved yet.
Treat AI like an assistant who may have lots of information but has no real-life experience or common sense, and will probably never learn those skills. You supply the creativity, AI can help by collecting and organizing information and performing mechanical tasks.
Don’t let yourself get fooled by AI’s conversational style and immediate responsiveness. Remind yourself that it’s just software that’s been trained on a pile of data. Use more than one platform so you get a variety of exposure. Many AI models will try to tell you (or echo back to you) what you want to hear.
"Conversational AI" (where you type in a prompt and receive a response) is just one of many forms or levels of AI. There are at least 6 others.
Beyond giving you data (information, suggestions, pictures, etc.), since it’s software, the current generation of AI can only actually do something for you if you give it electronic access. In other words, if you want it to actually send email on your behalf, put an appointment on your calendar, contact a vendor, or pay a bill, then you have to give it permission to access those resources or accounts. This also means that if those resources are off-line, then it cannot, for example, put something on your paper calendar or handwrite a check.
The only constants are change and subscriptions
AI is evolving rapidly. Existing companies and software (models, tools, etc.) will change, get acquired, or disappear. Things that are free today may cost money tomorrow, and monthly subscriptions (not one-time costs) seem to be the norm if you need higher-level or premium features.
Are you already using AI?
If so, email me at martin@kadansky.com and tell me about your experience with AI. What have you tried? What have you learned? I will probably write more about AI in future newsletters.
Where to go from here
As always, if any of my advice seems too difficult to follow, I recommend that you find someone you know and trust who can help you.
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http://conta.cc/3U4IU5B - “Use ChatGPT as your therapist? Your kids probably are; and a joke” - The July 2025 newsletter issue from my colleague Patrick O’Malley who has years of experience using and teaching AI
- google: how to use chatgpt
- google: how to use ai
- google: compare chatgpt perplexity gemini copilot
- google: writing better ai prompts
- google: ai privacy
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