Start here#
AI chat assistants can draft, explain, summarize, translate, brainstorm and write code. They can also be confidently wrong, leak what you paste into them, and do your learning for you if you let them. This course teaches the judgment that decides which of those happens: how to ask, how to check, what to keep private, and which decisions to keep for yourself.
It is written for everyone. Students, people learning on their own, and people using AI at work will all find their situation in it. You do not need any technical background: every technical word is explained the first time it appears.
Work through the modules in order if you are new; each one builds on the last. If you already use AI every day, start with Module 03, Checking its answers, and Module 04, Privacy and safety. Every module has things to try with any free AI assistant, so keep one open in another tab.
The ten modules#
- 01
What AI is, and what it is not
What a large language model really is, why it can be fluent and wrong, and which everyday jobs to hand it.
18 min of reading
- 02
Asking well: how to write a request an AI can actually help with
What to put in a request so an AI can actually help: the goal, the context, the real material, limits, examples and the form you want.
18 min of reading
- 03
Checking its answers: how to catch AI mistakes before they cost you
Why fluent is not true, how to match checking to the stakes, and the quick checks that catch AI mistakes, ending with a hunt for three planted errors.
18 min of reading
- 04
Privacy and safety: what not to paste, and AI that acts for you
What never to paste into an AI chat, how to check AI-powered scams, what prompt injection is, and how to keep AI agents on a short leash.
18 min of reading
- 05
Learning with AI without letting it do the learning
Why recalling beats rereading, and how to set up any AI as a tutor that hints, asks and checks while you do the learning.
18 min of reading
- 06
Writing with AI and keeping your own voice
Use AI to get unstuck, tighten and check your writing without handing over your ideas, your facts or your voice.
18 min of reading
- 07
Research, sources and citations
Check any source an AI gives you in about two minutes, trace a claim back to the original study, quote exactly, and use AI where it genuinely helps in research.
18 min of reading
- 08
Coding with AI, even if you are not a programmer
Get formulas, scripts and automations from AI even if you are not a programmer, and prove they work with test rows you can check by hand.
18 min of reading
- 09
Images, audio and video: making them, spotting them, using them responsibly
Make AI images, voice and video that fit the job, check them, spot fakes before sharing, and handle consent, copyright, labels and alt text.
18 min of reading
- 10
AI at work and school: delegate the work, keep the decisions
The capstone: what to hand to AI at work or school, what to keep, the duties to disclose, verify and own, and a personal workflow you can reuse.
18 min of reading
About 180 minutes of reading in all, plus the exercises.
Free: Give Your AI a Memory#
Most AI chats start from scratch. Our free starter prompt fixes that: upload it to Claude or ChatGPT and it walks you through a simple memory system, six short files your AI reads at the start of every chat. It also helps you set up the desktop app.
Give Your AI a Memory: the explanation, the app setup steps, and the download.
Get the starter prompt →How this course was made#
This course was written with an AI assistant, which seems only fair. Kestrel Exams is a small study site built by one person working with an AI assistant every day: the practice questions, the study guides and the code behind the site. Along the way the assistant made real mistakes, some caught in time and some not, and we kept a log of each one and the rule it taught us.
Those moments are in this course as From our own work boxes: a statistic copied from the wrong measurement in a slide deck, an independent reviewer catching errors before students saw them, a one-line command that deleted four important files. They are here because they teach better than invented examples, and because a course about checking AI should show its own checking.
Every factual claim in the course links to a source we opened ourselves, listed at the bottom of each module. If you find a mistake, tell us at support@kestrelexams.com.
Frequently asked questions#
Is this AI course free?
Yes. All ten modules are free to read, with no account, no email and no paywall.
Do I need to know anything about AI or computers first?
No. Every technical word is explained the first time it appears, and the exercises work with any free AI chat assistant.
Which AI tool does the course use?
None in particular. The skills apply to any chat assistant, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot, and the course avoids depending on features that change from month to month.
Is there a certificate?
No. This is a free study course, not an accredited program, so no certificate or credit is offered.
Was this course written with AI?
Yes, with an AI assistant, and checked by people and by separate review passes. The course says how, and uses real mistakes from that work as examples.
Free, with no ads and no account. Kestrel Exams is paid for by one small company and by readers who choose to help.
Support Kestrel Exams →