---
title: "How to Get Started with AI: Be Curious, Try Everything"
date: "2026-01-20"
author: "Graham"
description: "Practical guide encouraging curiosity with AI - use it for things you'd Google, test it, push back, and have fun."
tags: ["Guide", "GetStarted", "BeCurious", "Philosophy"]
url: "https://powerofai.ca/article/be-curious-try-everything"
readTime: "10 min"
---

# How to Get Started with AI: Be Curious, Try Everything

I want to share with others literally the power of AI. It blows my mind that we can talk natural language with these LLMs and they respond well and can help with so many queries.

**It's a supercharged Google** is what I say to some people. But really it's like having a very smart expert on many topics available at any time. They never get mad or frustrated. They help, but they don't always have the answers.

## How to Think About It

You can use AI for fun, work, professionally, for health, even **therapy in a sense** - I don't mean or push that part too hard, but if you just want to say something and get a level-headed response back, you can, and sometimes that's helpful.

I tend to use AI to code - something I've always wanted to do but never tried hard enough to learn. It's powerful to me and the largest reason I'm excited for it. I use it for research standard, and **deep research is amazing**.

**You are the driver.** Don't just accept what it says. Question everything.

## The Strategy: Be Curious

- **Use it for things you'd Google.** Recipes. History. Explanations. Comparisons. Just ask.
- **Be specific or vague** - but always follow up. Keep pushing. Ask it to search more. Ask it to do better. Tell it to think hard.
- **Test it.** Use your own knowledge - quiz the model on things you have certainty about or are expert in. Does it lie? Is it wrong? How can you tell?
- **Ask for sources.** Where can you find the source it linked? Ask it what it got wrong.
- **Push back.** Say "double-check this" or "prove it" or "show me direct quotes."
- **Be silly.** Ask it to make poems, songs, jokes, quizzes. Have fun with it.

## The Hallucination Problem

I do not ever fully trust AI when using it for true research. Good thing is you can ask for sources and check them. They can still **"hallucinate"** - confidently state wrong things. They struggle to say "I don't know." (Newer models are getting better at that.)

A lot of people try the free models, ask it math (which it wasn't great at initially) or the "how many R's are in strawberry" question, watch it fail, and write the whole thing off. **That's a mistake.**

You need to chat with these models and test them yourself for hours. It's fun. Push them. Tell them they're likely wrong. Ask them to do better.

## Who Should Use This: Everyone

### Small Businesses

**It's like a $20/month employee.** Use it for:

- Marketing ideas and social media posts and ideas
- Business plans and workflows
- Logos, posters, any creative work
- Negotiating for stock or merchandise
- Reviewing fine print in contracts
- Legal matters - free help for research, asking questions, reviewing things
- Generate new ideas, review old data you have for new insights
- Build a website free essentially for yourself
- Reviewing emails and responding before final reviews
- Creating code - simple tools or programs niche for your own needs

### Parents and Kids

- Kids can ask questions and push further for more guidance about animals, facts, knowledge
- Get recommendations for kids' learning tools
- **Make stories together** - kids change them, print them out, read them
- Images are fun to play with

### Adults - Literally Anything

- Financial questions, budget help
- Researching large purchases
- **Construction ideas:** Use ChatGPT image making to add a deck in your backyard and see if you like it. Tell it where you live, ask it to search for local companies or price out materials based on local costs.
- Trip planning, hotel research, things to do, reviews, ideas
- Use it to learn - don't mean it's your teacher but it can help guide you
- Ask it absolutely whatever you want

**No question is dumb.** You now have essentially infinite questions to a legitimate expert-level system across most domains.

### Developers

Claude Code or Codex CLI. **Game over.** The advantage is unreal.

Agents and Claude Code take this to another level with constant improvements and upgrades to models, abilities, skills, hooks, agent teams, MCP servers, and subagents. People are running 10+ Claude Code Max accounts (20x Pro limits) for $200/month each.

### Scared of the terminal?

Try [Claude Cowork](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/13345190-getting-started-with-cowork) instead. Same AI power, friendlier interface. You don't need to be a developer to use this stuff.

## The Point

It can code websites and games. It can make incredible images. It has voice mode so you can have actual conversations. These are things that would have blown minds a few years ago. **They're available to everyone right now.**

Any idea you have, run it by these AI. Ask it questions. Ask it to search more. Ask it to do better. Think hard. Be specific or vague but always follow up. Keep pushing.

I want to share that power with you.

**Stop reading. Start asking.**