The Georgia Club · November 6, 2026
AI on Purpose
You've lived through the moon landing, the personal computer, the web, and the iPhone. This one is different. Here's how to use it well, for yourself and for the people you love.
Five minutes a day. Free. No experience needed.
What it is, in one minute
- 1
It learned from a huge share of what people have written, and it works by predicting the next word. Think "peanut butter and ___."
- 2
It can be confidently wrong. Check what matters, the way you'd check a new employee's work.
- 3
You talk to it in plain English. The skill that matters most is one you already have: explaining clearly what you want.
Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Grok all have free versions and phone apps. Pick one and use it every day for two weeks.
What changed
Yesterday
- A team
- Months
- Money
Today
- One person
- An hour
- A subscription
The question used to be "Can we build it?" Now it's "Should we, and who is it for?" That's a judgment question, and judgment is what this room has.
Head, Heart, Hand
A few rules for using it wisely.
Head (how you think)
Do: Think first, then ask. Draft it yourself, then ask, “Where am I wrong?”
Watch: Confidence doesn't mean correct. Check facts before you share.
Heart (how you care)
Do: Use it to prepare. Rehearse the hard conversation, then have it in person.
Watch: It should never replace presence. Visits, calls, and prayers can't be outsourced.
Hand (what you do)
Do: Give it the busywork. Lists, forms, summaries.
Watch: Don't hand it your decisions. It can explain options. You decide.
Six easy uses this week
Copy any of these, paste it into Claude, and change the details to fit your life.
Research
"Find the five best-reviewed hip surgeons near Athens, Georgia, and tell me what each specializes in."
Check your work
"Here's my letter to the board. What's unclear or likely to be misread?"
Rehearse a hard conversation
"Play my son-in-law. I need to talk with him about the family business. Push back the way he might."
Learn something new
"Teach me how Medicare Part D works. Ask me questions to check that I understand."
Plan a trip
"Plan three days in Savannah for me and two grandkids, ages 8 and 11."
Ideate
"Here's a problem I've noticed in my neighborhood. Ask me five questions about it, then suggest three ways to solve it."
Always check what it tells you.
Your experience is your defense
3 in 4
When an AI assistant was secretly wrong, people accepted its answer about 3 times in 4, and felt more confident doing it.
Shaw & Nave, "Thinking – Fast, Slow, and Artificial," Wharton School, 2026
What protects you is background knowledge and the habit of asking questions. You have decades of both.
Keep their curiosity alive
26
questions an hour, preschoolers at home
fewer than 2
questions an hour at school
Susan Engel, The Hungry Mind (Harvard University Press, 2015)
Ask your grandchildren what they're curious about. Then explore it with AI together: you asking, them doing the thinking.
Start tonight. Five minutes a day.
The Claude Primer gives you one short exercise a day for 20 days. By the end, you'll use AI with confidence, and you'll know when not to.
Know a business owner figuring this out?
I help small and mid-sized businesses put AI to work: an honest assessment, the right tools, and training for the whole team. If your son, daughter, friend, or former colleague runs a company wrestling with this, I'd be grateful for an introduction.