Start with One Useful AI Task

By William Paul “Bill” Herald

What could AI take off your plate today? Pick one small task, decide what a useful result would look like, and keep the final decision yours.

You might want a clearer draft, organized notes or help understanding a document you are allowed to share. You should be able to tell whether the answer helped. What did it get right? What did you still need to change?

I am working on a project called the Personal Life Operating System, and I want to share what I learn in a way that is useful beyond my own software. You should not need a technical background to take part. Curiosity, a clear purpose and a willingness to check the answer are a good beginning.

Here is the method I want to explore in the free material I share: ask, examine, choose and check the result.

Ask for something specific

Choose a piece of work with a recognizable finish. It might be understanding a document you are allowed to share, organizing your own notes or improving the clarity of a draft. Start with material you would be comfortable giving to the service you are using.

Explain who the result is for and what would make it useful. If you want a short explanation, name the audience and length. A starting prompt could be: “Using only the text below, explain its main points in five bullets for a beginner. Flag anything the text does not explain.” If the answer must stay within supplied source material, say so. If you want options to consider, describe the criteria that matter to you.

The first answer does not have to finish the job. A smaller question may be more useful than asking the tool to handle everything at once.

Examine what comes back

Read the answer against the task. Look for information that was left out, details added without support and wording that changes your meaning.

When sources matter, ask for citations. Then open the sources and look for the passage that supports the claim. Check dates when the information could have changed. If the source says something narrower than the answer, narrow the answer too.

Keep uncertainty visible. A statement you cannot verify should not become more convincing just because the prose is smooth. You can remove it, ask for a better source or leave the question unresolved.

Make the choice yourself

You know why you started the task. Keep what helps, revise what misses the point and reject what does not fit.

Writing is a useful place to practice this. Read a draft aloud. Does it sound like something you mean? Does it include a personal experience that never happened? Would you be comfortable explaining its claims to a reader?

Your name on the finished work should mean you made that judgment. Getting help with the draft does not remove your role as its author.

Check the finished result

Return to your original purpose. Is the explanation clearer? Did the final version preserve the important facts? Can you use it without doing the whole task again?

If you want to judge whether AI saved time, include your checking and correction time. Count the work needed to reach an acceptable result, not just the seconds until text appeared. One successful task is useful evidence about that task. It is a starting point for further learning.

I want to show both the useful parts of this work and the limits. That includes changing direction when a demonstration becomes too technical or when a tool takes too long to be practical. Learning what to simplify is part of building something worth using.

You can begin with a small task and keep your own standards. You do not need to surrender privacy, judgment or your voice to explore what AI can help you do.

Follow my work through wphc.us. I am sharing practical lessons as I develop them. If the free work helps you, an optional tip is welcome; it purchases no support, access or deliverable. The current GitHub tip service requires a GitHub account.

AI can help you do more. You still make the call.