Getting Started with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is one of the most powerful AI tools available to everyone right now — and it's free to start. This lesson will get you up and running in under 10 minutes.

What you'll learn

• What ChatGPT actually is
• How to write your first prompt
• 5 practical prompts to try today

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a conversational AI made by OpenAI. You talk to it like a person, and it responds with remarkably human-like text. You can ask it questions, get it to write things, explain concepts, brainstorm ideas, and much more.

Writing your first prompt

A prompt is just what you type to ChatGPT. The quality of your prompt determines the quality of the response.

Weak prompt: Write an email

Strong prompt: Write a polite follow-up email to a client who hasn't responded in a week. Keep it under 100 words and maintain a friendly, professional tone.

The difference: specificity. The more context you give, the better the output.

5 prompts to try right now

1. Summarize: Summarize this article in 5 bullet points: [paste article]
2. Explain: Explain [topic] to me like I'm 12 years old
3. Brainstorm: Give me 10 ideas for [your project or problem]
4. Edit: Improve the clarity and tone of this paragraph: [paste text]
5. Plan: Create a 7-day plan to help me learn [skill]

Next steps

Try each of these prompts and see what you get. The best way to learn is to experiment — there's no wrong answer.

Want to understand why ChatGPT works the way it does? Read What Is an LLM? How Language Models Actually Work — it explains the technology behind the tool in plain English.

You should also know about AI Hallucinations — why AI sometimes confidently gives wrong answers, and how to spot it.