Free forever · Available

AI Foundations the patterns that work everywhere

Before you go deep on any single AI tool, learn the prompt patterns and mental models that make every one of them better. Tool-agnostic. Always free.

Lessons 8 lessons available
Time ~65 min total
Level Beginner → Intermediate
Price Free

Why start here

Most people learn AI tool-first — they pick up ChatGPT or Copilot and collect tricks. Foundations flips that. These eight lessons teach the patterns that sit underneath every tool: how to get a specific, non-generic answer on the first try, how to catch a confident-sounding mistake before it costs you, how to pick the right AI for the task in front of you, and how to use AI on sensitive work without giving away anything you shouldn't.

Learn them once and every other track gets easier — you're no longer memorizing tool-specific tricks, you're applying judgment that holds as the models change. Free forever, about 65 minutes total, and the single highest-leverage hour on the whole site.

Who this is for

🌱 Total beginners 💼 Knowledge workers 🧰 Self-taught AI users 🏢 Teams getting started 🧑‍🏫 Anyone who feels behind

Lessons in this track

Each lesson stands alone — but they build on each other if you take them in order.

🎓
New here? Meet your AI Coach. These lessons pair with the Playground — run the same prompt across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and more, side by side, and the built-in AI Coach breaks down why one answer beats another and gives feedback on your own prompts. Reading teaches the idea; the Coach is where it clicks. Look for the “Try it in the Playground” links inside each lesson.
01

Specific friction & the constraint stack — the two upgrades that change everything

Watch four AIs attempt the same task, see why their first drafts all sound generic, then learn the two prompt patterns that produce dramatically better output on any AI: specific friction and the constraint stack.

~10 min read 4 playground exercises Hands-on
Available
02

Spotting hallucinations before they cost you

Every AI makes things up sometimes. The skill isn't avoiding hallucinations — it's recognizing them fast. The 4 patterns that should trigger a fact-check, and the 3 prompt tricks that drop hallucination rates dramatically.

~8 min read 3 playground exercises
Available
03

Which AI for which job — a decision framework

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok — they're not interchangeable. A simple decision tree for picking the right AI by task type, plus the use cases each one wins.

~7 min read 2 playground exercises
Available
04

When NOT to use AI

The cases where reaching for AI costs you more than just doing it yourself. Recognizing them saves you from looking like the person who lets AI write everything (including the bad parts).

~6 min read
Available
05

Privacy, data, and what NOT to paste into an AI

Customer data, internal docs, NDAs, code — what's safe, what's risky, and the simple workflow that lets you use AI on sensitive work without giving away the farm.

~7 min read
Available
06

Staying safe with AI — security & privacy essentials

Lock down the right privacy settings, harden your accounts, and recognize the new threats — prompt injection, AI phishing, and deepfakes — that come with putting AI in your workflow.

~11 min read
Available
07

Which AI on your iPhone & Mac — choosing your Apple Intelligence model

iOS 27 lets you pick ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok for Siri, Writing Tools, and Image Playground. How to set it, which model for which task, and the privacy trade-off.

~8 min read
Available
08

The 10 most popular AI tools — by who actually uses them

A vendor-neutral leaderboard ranked by monthly active users: ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, Perplexity, Grok and more — what each is best at, and how to read the numbers honestly.

~7 min read New · June 2026
Available

What you'll be able to do

Write prompts that get specific, non-generic answers the first time
Catch a confident-sounding mistake before it costs you
Pick the right AI for the task in front of you
Recognize when AI is the wrong tool entirely
Use AI on sensitive work without leaking data
Spot AI-era threats — prompt injection, AI phishing, deepfakes
Apply patterns that work on every AI, not just one
Get more out of every tool track and build on the site

Common questions

Is it actually free?
Yes — the whole Foundations track is free forever, no credit card. It's the one track that never goes behind the paywall.
Do I need a paid AI subscription or any tools?
No. The patterns work on any AI — free ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever you already use. Each lesson pairs with our free Playground so you can try them side by side.
I already use ChatGPT daily — is this too basic?
Probably not. Most daily users have never learned the constraint stack, how to choose between models, or how to spot a hallucination fast. This is the judgment layer most people skip.
What should I do after Foundations?
Pick the AI you use most and go deep with a Tool Track, or jump into a hands-on Build. Foundations makes both easier.
$

What AI actually costs — tokens, credits & subscriptions

The four pricing models behind every AI tool, what a token really is, and what a single prompt costs in real money. The lesson that makes every pricing page make sense.

~9 min read
Free
$

AI Cost Calculator — compare any tool for your usage

Interactive: enter how much you use AI and see pay-per-use vs. subscription vs. Copilot Cowork credits, side by side.

Interactive tool
Free tool

Want to go deep on a specific AI?

Foundations gives you the patterns; the Tool Tracks teach you to master each AI. Pro membership unlocks every lesson, every track, $9/mo founding pricing.

See Pro membership →