If you’re not sure AI is for you, this is the post to read
Fancy listening instead? Here’s this post as a five-minute podcast. I created it with Google’s free NotebookLM, which turned my words into a friendly chat between two AI presenters. It’s a great example of what you could do with AI too.
I meet a lot of people who arrive at my sessions quietly wondering whether AI is for them. Some come because a friend suggested it and some simply out of curiosity. By the end of the session, those tend to be some of my favourite conversations. The most thoughtful people often ask the best questions and when something lands for them, it really lands.
“I’m too old to learn this.”
I meet people in their seventies and eighties regularly who take to AI with enthusiasm. If you can type a question, you can use AI. That’s all there is to it.
“I don’t trust it.”
That’s a sensible instinct and you don’t need to drop it. Most of what people use AI for, such as writing, planning, explaining and organising, you can get on with straight away. For facts that matter, I give it the same quick check I’d give anything I found on Google. That’s just being thorough. I cover this at all my sessions. If health information is what you’re wondering about, my health series explains how to use AI to make sense of what your doctor tells you, while the decisions stay with you and your doctor.
“It seems very complicated.”
Opening a conversation with an AI tool is simpler than sending an email. My post on getting started shows you exactly how, one step at a time.
“I don’t see how it would help someone like me.”
This is the one I love most, because within ten minutes I can almost always find three or four things it would help with. Gardening questions. Letters. Holiday planning. Recipes. Understanding health information. Understanding what grandchildren are talking about. It’s remarkably broad.
To give you a flavour, here are three things people often try first: writing a tricky letter in a few minutes, making a meal from whatever’s in the fridge and checking a message that doesn’t look quite right.
“What if I break something?”
You type, it replies. Close the window and it’s gone. It’s completely safe to experiment and even the most cautious person I’ve met has relaxed completely once they’ve tried it.
“What happens to the things I type?”
This is the question I get asked most at my talks. It’s a good one.
The main AI tools are run by large companies with privacy policies, much like your email or online banking. What you type is saved in your account so you can come back to a conversation later. Some companies also use conversations to help improve their AI, though you can switch that off in the settings.
My simple rule is to treat it like a postcard rather than a sealed letter. Ask it anything you like. Just leave out your full name, address, bank details and NHS number, because it doesn’t need them to help you. If you want to keep your chats out of its training, ask it: “How do I stop my chats being used to train you?” It will tell you where the setting is.
For anything more personal, there’s an even simpler option. ChatGPT has a Temporary Chat button, the dotted circle at the top right of the screen. Claude has the same idea, called an incognito chat, marked with a little ghost icon. Gemini has one too, called a temporary chat. Chats started this way don’t appear in your history and aren’t used to train the AI. They’re kept for a short time for safety checks and then deleted. If you use Copilot, the training setting I mentioned above is the one to switch off.
“Does it cost anything?”
No. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot all have free versions and they’re all most people need. There are no card details needed to start and my post on getting started shows you how to set up your free account.
There are paid versions too, which give you more use each day and a few extra features. I’d suggest using the free version for a good few weeks before you think about paying. Plenty of people never need to.
“Won’t it replace talking to real people?”
In my experience it’s usually the other way round. The people I meet use AI to write a birthday verse for a friend, plan a trip with the family or help a grandchild with their homework. It helps them say and do the right thing for the people they care about.
I think of it as a helper in the background. The conversations that matter still happen face to face, on the phone or round the kitchen table.
“Aren’t scammers using AI?”
Some are. It’s one reason scam messages look more convincing than they used to.
The good news is that the same tools work just as well for you. Paste a suspicious text or email into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot and ask: “Does this look like a scam?” It will point out the warning signs in plain English. My post Spot the scam has real examples and the exact words to type. There’s also my free Scam Checker if you’d like to be walked through it.
“What if I get stuck?”
Everyone gets stuck at some point. I still do. The good news is that the AI itself can help you get unstuck and my post on getting AI to teach you shows you exactly what to say.
If you’d rather have a person alongside you, that’s what my free library talks, workshops and one-to-one sessions are for. People bring their own phone or tablet and we sort it out together.
Where to start
If you’ve read this far, you’re ready for the first step. My post How to start using AI online shows you how to get to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot on whatever phone, tablet or computer you have. Each post after that leads on to the next, so you can take it one step at a time.
A note on dates. Everything here was checked when it was written and I go back over my posts regularly to keep them up to date. Apps, prices and rules do change, so for anything important a quick look at the official source is worth it.
Come along and see for yourself
Kevin warmly welcomes everyone at his free library talks, especially the curious and the cautious. If anything sparks your interest, all of this can be explored in much more depth at one of his workshops afterwards. Bring your questions. They make for the best conversations.
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