Tutorials: make something with AI

Write a difficult email in 5 minutes

DIFFICULTY: EASY · TIME: 5 MIN · TOOL: ANY CHATBOT

The fastest "aha" moment in AI. Works for complaints, requests, apologies, negotiations — anything where the blank page wins.

1. Open your chatbot and paste the prompt below, filling the brackets.
2. Read the draft. Reply with corrections: "warmer," "shorter," "don't apologize so much," "add that I've been a customer for 8 years."
3. Ask for two alternative versions with different tones, pick the best lines from each.
4. Read it out loud once — if a sentence doesn't sound like you, tell the AI to rewrite that sentence only.

Level up: paste 2–3 emails you've written before and add "match my writing style." The difference is remarkable.

Summarize and interrogate a long document

DIFFICULTY: EASY · TIME: 10 MIN · TOOL: ANY CHATBOT WITH FILE UPLOAD

Contracts, insurance policies, school newsletters, 40-page reports: upload, understand, decide.

1. Click the attach (📎 or +) button in your chatbot and upload the PDF, or paste the text.
2. Start with the prompt below to get the lay of the land.
3. Then interrogate it: "What does clause 7 mean in practice?" "Is anything here unusual or one-sided?" "What questions should I ask before signing?"
4. For anything high-stakes, verify the key passages yourself — ask the AI to quote the exact lines it based each claim on, then check them in the original.

Plan a trip (or a week of meals, or a project)

DIFFICULTY: EASY · TIME: 15 MIN · TOOL: ANY CHATBOT, WEB SEARCH ON

AI excels at turning fuzzy intentions into concrete plans — and at revising them instantly when reality intervenes.

1. Brain-dump everything: dates, budget, who's coming, energy level, dislikes. Messy is fine.
2. Use the prompt below; answer its questions.
3. Iterate like a conversation with a travel agent: "Day 2 is too packed." "Swap museums for outdoors." "What if it rains?"
4. Finish with: "Format the final plan as a day-by-day itinerary I can copy, with addresses and booking links to verify." Verify times and prices — this is where hallucinations sneak in.

Generate images that actually look how you imagined

DIFFICULTY: EASY · TIME: 15 MIN · TOOL: CHATGPT, GEMINI, OR MIDJOURNEY

For invitations, presentations, social posts, or pure fun. The skill is describing pictures the way a photographer would.

1. Describe four layers: subject (what), setting (where), style (photo? watercolor? flat illustration?), and mood/light (golden hour, moody, playful).
2. Generate, then refine with plain language: "same image but at night," "less cluttered background," "make the dog smaller."
3. For text on images (posters, logos) expect imperfect lettering — ask for "blank space for a title" and add text yourself.
4. Check the tool's rules on commercial use if it's for your business.

Build your own custom assistant

DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM · TIME: 30 MIN · TOOL: CLAUDE PROJECTS, CUSTOM GPTS, OR GEMINI GEMS

Stop re-explaining yourself in every chat. A custom assistant is a chatbot with permanent instructions and reference files — your tone, your context, your rules — ready every time.

1. Pick a recurring job: "my newsletter editor," "meal planner for our family," "study coach for my exam."
2. In ChatGPT look for GPTs → Create; in Claude, Projects; in Gemini, Gems. Each asks for instructions.
3. Write instructions covering: its role, what it knows about you, the format you want answers in, and what it should always/never do. (Meta-trick: ask the AI to draft these instructions first.)
4. Upload reference files if supported — past newsletters, the syllabus, your recipe collection.
5. Test with three real requests, then edit the instructions where it disappointed. Two or three rounds gets it sharp.

Vibe-code a small website or tool

DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM · TIME: 45 MIN · TOOL: CLAUDE (ARTIFACTS), CHATGPT (CANVAS)

Modern AI writes working code from plain English — and tools like Claude's Artifacts run it instantly in the chat window, no setup. Perfect first projects: a personal homepage, an invitation page, a tip calculator, a flashcard quiz for your kid.

1. Describe the thing, not the technology: who it's for, what it should do, the feeling it should have.
2. Ask for "a single HTML file" — these are easiest to preview and publish.
3. Iterate visually: "bigger text," "make it work nicely on phones," "add a button that shuffles the questions." You never need to read the code.
4. When happy, download the file. Free hosting: drag it into Netlify Drop, or use GitHub Pages — ask the AI for click-by-click publishing instructions and follow along.

Why this matters: this loop — describe, look, refine — is exactly how professionals increasingly build software. You're not playing; you're practicing the real workflow.