I Get AI With a Little Help From My Friends

A practical guide for real people who want a straight answer to a simple question: is there anything useful I can do with this AI stuff?

This started as notes I was keeping for friends and family. Too many people in my orbit were either avoiding AI altogether or wading in without much of a guide. The noise around it was making things worse, not better.

So I wrote down what I'd learned, after a couple of years of using these tools daily. The honest version. What's useful, what's overhyped, what's worth paying for, and where to start if you've been putting it off.

You don't need a tech background. There's no test. Welcome.

By Kenneth Langdon

How to use this site

Pick a tab above. Each one is a self-contained section, like chapters in a book you can open in any order.
There is no test. Skim what catches your eye, skip what doesn't.
When a tool sounds useful, the Prompt Library has ready-made prompts to get you started.
Stuck? Hit "Send Feedback" at the bottom — I read every one.

What's in each section

Read

The book itself. Plain-English chapters on what AI is, what you can do with it, and what to watch out for. Read in any order.

Prompt Library

390 prompts I've already written and tested. Fill in the blanks, copy, paste into ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney or Suno.

Persona Explorer

100 ready-made personalities for the AI to wear. Patient Teacher, Devil's Advocate, Plain-English Translator. Same question, very different answers.

Prompt Grader

Paste a prompt, get a sharp critique that points at the actual weak words plus a stronger rewrite. Powered by Claude Sonnet 4.6.

The Big Picture

The questions you can't answer with a prompt. AGI, regulation, the people sounding the alarm, what could go wrong. In depth discussion, deeper thinking.

Reference

The lookup shelf. Cheat Sheet, the AI tools list, the reading list, and notes on how this site was built.

Questions

Real questions from readers, answered honestly. Browse what others have asked or send your own through the feedback link at the bottom.

What's new

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Read

The book itself. Six sections, each self-contained — pick a chapter, in any order.

Start Here

What AI is, what it can't do, how to talk to it, what it costs. Read these first if you've never used the tools seriously.

Chapter IThe AI Primer

What AI is, in plain English. Read this first.

› Chapter IIWhat AI Cannot Do

Where these tools fall over and how to spot it before you trust the answer.

› Chapter IIIHow to Prompt

A handful of rules that change the quality of what you get back.

› Chapter IVStarter Toolkit

The minimum set of tools worth installing first. What to skip until later.

› Chapter VYour First Week

A seven-day on-ramp. One small thing to try each day.

› Chapter VIWhat It Costs

What the major paid plans actually cost, and what the free tiers leave out.

› Chapter VIIPrivacy and Safety

What happens to what you type. The lines worth holding.

› Chapter VIIIWhere to Use AI

A practical map of what AI's good at, what it's bad at, and what it makes worse.

› Chapter IXNot Convinced Yet?

For the sceptics. The honest reasons, and which survive contact with the tools.

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What You Can Do

Concrete jobs AI can do alongside you. Each chapter focuses on one thing — the right tools, the prompts, what to expect.

Chapter IWriting & Brainstorming

Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini compared for actual writing work.

› Chapter IIResearch

Using AI for research without losing track of what's actually true.

› Chapter IIIImages

Midjourney, ChatGPT, Gemini and Ideogram for picture-making.

› Chapter IVVideo

Runway, Veo, Kling and Pika. What works in Australia, what doesn't.

› Chapter VMusic

Suno, both Quick mode and Custom mode, with prompt examples.

› Chapter VIVoice

ElevenLabs, voice cloning, and the ethics of putting words in real mouths.

› Chapter VIIUse Your Camera

Photograph a sign, a receipt, a menu — let AI read it for you.

› Chapter VIIINotebookLM

Source-grounded research that won't make things up.

› Chapter IXTranscription

Turning recordings into searchable text, with the gotchas to watch for.

› Chapter XPresentations

Gamma, Beautiful.ai, and what AI design can and can't do for slides.

› Chapter XIJob Search

Resume help, interview practice, and the line between help and dishonesty.

› Chapter XIILanguage Learning

Practising a new language with an AI conversation partner that doesn't get bored.

› Chapter XIIIMicrosoft Copilot

If you live in Word and Excel, what Copilot actually adds to your day.

› Chapter XIVEveryday Life

AI in the things you actually do all week. Family, health, hobbies, home admin.

› Chapter XVSemi-Retired Professionals

For people winding down work but keeping a hand in.

› Chapter XVIAI Browsers

Comet, Dia, Atlas. When the browser does the searching for you.

› Chapter XVIIAustralian AI Tools

Built locally, with Australian privacy and tax law in mind.

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Build & Tinker

For when you stop being a user and start being a builder. Custom GPTs, agents that work while you step away, websites you can finish in an afternoon.

Chapter IAI Agents

Manus, Cowork. Tools that do the whole job while you step away.

› Chapter IIBuilding Custom GPTs

Make your own specialised AI assistant in an hour.

› Chapter IIIAdvanced Projects

Real applications you can build in a single session in plain English.

› Chapter IVBuild a Meal Planner

A small example: from idea to working tool, end to end.

› Chapter VBuild Websites & Apps

What's actually possible with vibe coding in 2026.

› Chapter VIOpenClaw

The open-source coding agent. And how it sits next to Claude Code.

› Chapter VIIRunning AI Locally

Open-weight models on your own hardware. Privacy at the cost of polish.

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Reality Check

What AI gets wrong, when not to use it, how to verify what it tells you, and how to compare tools without falling for the marketing.

Chapter IRules That Matter

Two short lists for when you're tired and tempted to take a shortcut.

› Chapter IIWhen Not to Use AI

The jobs AI makes worse. Spot them before you start.

› Chapter IIIHow to Check What AI Tells You

Verifying claims without doing the whole job twice.

› Chapter IVScams & Fakes

How AI is changing the scam landscape. What to watch for.

› Chapter VAI & Creativity

AI in creative work. What it adds, what it flattens.

› Chapter VIFuture of Work

Honest reflections on what these tools are doing to jobs.

› Chapter VIIImportant Reminders

Small reminders worth pinning to the wall.

› Chapter VIIIClaude vs ChatGPT vs Gemini

Honest comparison of the big three, with clear recommendations.

› Chapter IXA Real Workflow Example

One concrete week of AI-assisted work, end to end.

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AI Devices

AI is moving off the screen. What's actually useful today, and what's still a demo.

Chapter IAI Devices Overview

AI moving off the screen: phones, glasses, cars, and what's still a demo.

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Beyond the Home

How AI is changing whole industries. Useful background if you work in any of them, or want to see what's coming for the rest of us.

Chapter IHealthcare

Diagnosis, drug discovery, hospital admin. Where AI is in actual use.

› Chapter IIBanking

Fraud detection, credit scoring, customer service. The AI you don't see.

› Chapter IIIRetail

Recommendations, demand forecasting, the supermarket's AI brain.

› Chapter IVManufacturing

Quality control, robotics, supply chains. What's automated, what isn't.

› Chapter VDefence

Drones, surveillance, and the harder questions.

› Chapter VIResearch & Science

AlphaFold to weather forecasting. AI in the lab.

› Chapter VIIGovernment

Welfare automation, smart cities, the cases worth knowing.

› Chapter VIIIInsurance

Claims, pricing, risk. Where AI is fair and where it isn't.

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The Big Picture

The questions you can't answer with a prompt. Where this is heading, what governments are doing about it, who's sounding the alarm and whether they're right.

The AGI Question

What AGI actually means, when the people building it think it might arrive, and what difference it would make. The disagreements left intact.

AI Regulation

The EU AI Act, US executive orders, Australia's Voluntary AI Safety Standard, NIST and ISO/IEC frameworks. What each one actually requires — and where the real teeth are.

When AI Goes Wrong

The most important AI failures of the past decade. What the patterns reveal — and why "the algorithm did it" is never an acceptable answer.

Who's Sounding the Alarm

Brief portraits of the people shaping the public debate about AI risk — doomers, optimists, and the people inside the tent who left because they were worried.

Listen: Two Conversations About Where AI Is Going

Two AI-generated podcast episodes about the people building AI and what they disagree about. A useful entry point into the heavier reading on this section.

My Take on AI

What I think about all this, after using these tools daily for the better part of two years.

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Reference Library

The lookup shelf. Cheat sheets, the curated tools list, the reading list, and notes on how this site itself was put together.

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Cheat Sheet: I Want to Do X, Use Y

The shortest possible answer to "which tool for which job", on one page. Bookmark and come back.

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AI Tools Worth Knowing

100+ AI tools tagged by what they're for, refreshed every fortnight. No rankings, no expiring prices — just what each one does and when to reach for it.

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Reading List

Thirty books across the AI debate, plus the essays, papers and journalism I rely on. With Australian retailer links.

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How I Built This Site

Claude, Cowork, Netlify, the Anthropic API, Cloudflare, Pagefind. The honest story of what's actually under the bonnet.

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Building a Fan Site With AI

A single conversation in Cowork, one HTML file, a whole lot of iteration, and a daughter to impress.

Looking for the Prompt Grader and its build journal? Both live under their own tab now. See Prompt Grader.