the map / step 1, talk

Chat

A chat assistant is a box you type into, and it answers in full sentences. You can ask it to explain something, write something, fix something you wrote, or think through a problem with you.

It is the front door to everything else on this site. If you only ever use one AI tool, it will be one of these.

Our picks

checked sep 2026. we say what each one is bad at on purpose.

Start herehas a free plan

ChatGPT

good at: The one most people already have. Writing, explaining, planning, and now images and voice in the same app.
bad at: Confident when it is wrong. It will invent a fact or a source if you do not ask it to check.

web · iPhone · Android · desktop app

Open ChatGPT ↗

Best freehas a free plan

Gemini

good at: Comes with Google. It can see your Gmail, Docs and Drive if you let it, and the free plan is generous.
bad at: Answers can feel thinner on hard questions, and Google renames its features often.

web · iPhone · Android

Open Gemini ↗

Step uphas a free plan

Claude

good at: Long documents, careful writing, and following detailed instructions without drifting. The intro blueprints are written for it first.
bad at: Fewer built-in extras than ChatGPT, and the free plan runs out sooner on a busy day.

web · iPhone · Android · desktop app

Open Claude ↗

Try this first

Open ChatGPT, paste this in, and change the parts in brackets. That is the whole first step.

Explain something you half understand

copy it, paste it into the tool, change the parts in [brackets]

Explain [something you half understand, like how a mortgage works] to me like I am smart but new to it. Use plain words, keep it under 200 words, and end with the one question I should ask next.

Go deeper

6 min read

What AI actually is

The kind of AI everyone is talking about is a very good guesser of the next word. That one idea explains most of what it can and cannot do.

7 min read

How to talk to AI so it does what you mean

Six habits that separate people who find AI useless from people who find it indispensable. None of them are technical.

Do something with it

The fastest way to learn a tool is a real job.

Say who you are and we hand you one, in about ten minutes, with the prompt written.

Pick who you are