{"id":544641,"date":"2026-03-18T14:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544641\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T14:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T14:16:08","slug":"we-asked-experts-about-the-most-responsible-ways-to-use-ai-tools-heres-what-they-said-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544641\/","title":{"rendered":"We asked experts about the most responsible ways to use AI tools \u2013 here\u2019s what they said | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years on from the release of ChatGPT<\/a>, two broad camps have formed: those people who refuse to use it, and those who use it every day.<\/p>\n

A 2025 survey<\/a> by the Pew Research Center found that one-third of US adults say they have been using ChatGPT. This includes 58% of US adults under 30 \u2013 roughly double the share two years ago.<\/p>\n

Experts say the emerging divide \u2013 between those who may already be deeply invested in AI, and those who are refusing to engage with it \u2013 makes it increasingly important to have an open conversation about how best to use it.<\/p>\n

So how should we approach AI tools? Here is a step-by-step guide informed by experts.<\/p>\n

Brainstorming ideas<\/p>\n

Knowing when to use AI can be daunting if you\u2019re not already familiar with what it\u2019s able to do. You can start by simply asking it for help with what is already on your mind, or outstanding on your to-do list.<\/p>\n

Timothy B Lee, author of the Understanding AI<\/a> newsletter, recommends using AI tools to brainstorm and break down tasks or projects into achievable steps. \u201cAny time you\u2019re trying to come up with ideas, it\u2019s a good starting place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Catherine Goetze, a content creator and AI educator who goes by @askcatgpt<\/a> on TikTok, suggests thinking of it as a \u201cthought partner\u201d, helping to bounce around ideas, break through creative blocks or refine your thinking. But it\u2019s important that, in reviewing the results, you continue to draw on your own judgment, expertise and taste, rather than letting the AI have the final say. The best tasks for AI are those \u201cwhere you know what the right answer looks like\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n

Researching projects<\/p>\n

For more complex or intensive research, an AI tool can give you a rundown of what has been published. \u201cThink about it as similar to Wikipedia,\u201d Lee says. \u201cWe know it\u2019s fallible, and we know how to check citations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity all offer some variation of a \u201cdeep research\u201d feature. This will scour documents on your topic and summarize them in a report of a few thousand words. The bot will even ask you clarifying questions so as to assemble the most relevant results.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really astonishingly good,\u201d Lee says. Its responses will provide primary sources and links, enabling you to refer to them yourself. Lee says the deep research function is helpful for \u201cgetting a lay of the land\u201d \u2013 identifying key papers to read, questions to answer and next steps for your project.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the important bit, experts agree: after using an AI tool for preliminary orientation, you still need to do the actual work yourself.<\/p>\n

Learning new skills or hobbies<\/p>\n

You can also use AI \u201cwhen it allows you to expand your world\u201d, says Ella Hafermalz, an associate professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, who studies generative AI\u2019s impact on work.<\/p>\n

Hafermalz has been using it for help with growing a mini lotus flower, as well as learning the basics of investing in stocks and even sparking ideas for what to make for dinner.<\/p>\n

She says its benefit is \u201cgetting you off the ground\u201d with a new interest, activity, hobby or skill, particularly those that have a high barrier to entry.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many people, the hurdle in trying a new thing is embarrassment, fear, time, discomfort, not even knowing what you need to know,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Back-and-forthing with the AI can break down those barriers, and \u201cget you to that next step\u201d, Hafermalz says. But, again, it\u2019s best treated as a starting point for tasks that are perhaps lower stakes and where you remain the ultimate authority.<\/p>\n

Organizing information<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve got started with your research project, AI tools can help you structure your findings, such as by identifying themes, answering questions or generating timelines or summaries.<\/p>\n

If research is your priority, Hafermalz recommends using Google\u2019s free-to-use application NotebookLM, which draws only from documents, notes and materials you\u2019ve uploaded, rather than the entirety of the web.<\/p>\n

Historians are now using NotebookLM as a research assistant, Hafermalz says. She continued: \u201cIt acts as an organizer \u2026 If you\u2019re trying to organize information and synthesize things, and you don\u2019t want it to go off-piste and pull things from Reddit, NotebookLM is a more contained space.\u201d<\/p>\n

For personal use, AI can function like a domestic helper or an executive assistant, helping you to plan meals or workouts, create a budget or structure your afternoon from high- to low-priority tasks.<\/p>\n

How to get better results<\/p>\n

A year or so ago, crafting the prompt was important to getting the best out of an AI tool, but \u201cit\u2019s getting less and less important over time,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n

However, there are still certain things you can do to get the most out of them.<\/p>\n

You can now trust the leading AI tools to respond more intuitively, and to more casual language and phrasing \u2013 though context helps, Lee adds: \u201cThe more information you give it, the more likely you are to get a good result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goetze encourages people to throw out the idea of prompting altogether. \u201cYou really want to think about it as chatting,\u201d Goetze says. \u201cThe magic actually comes from the back-and-forth.\u201d That is ChatGPT\u2019s advantage over Google search, after all, she adds: \u201cWhat I would say is go into it and just ramble.\u201d<\/p>\n

So long as you\u2019re careful to avoid sharing sensitive information, you can also link to websites and upload PDFs and other material for it to refer to in its answer. For example, you could share your new phone contract and ask the AI to flag terms you should be aware of or potential opportunities to make savings.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re ever stuck on something you can also do something called a \u201creverse-prompt\u201d. When Goetze recently hit a mental block with a document she was working on, she asked ChatGPT to come up with five questions that would help her push past it. \u201cThey prompted me to reflect in slightly different ways,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s essential to check all of your AI responses. While they are improving every day, they still need to be checked against primary and reputable sources, the experts agree. Not only can it regurgitate falsehoods and misinformation, the model can actively make things up \u2013 what\u2019s known as a \u201challucination\u201d.<\/p>\n

Goetze says: \u201cCheck your sources, check those links, check the dates of the sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is also possible to use AI in ways that shrink our world, undermine our ability and even our humanity. Often, they stem from treating it as a shortcut, or the final stage in a process, rather than a first step.<\/p>\n

Goetze uses ChatGPT to help her come up with ideas for content, but if she were to prompt it to write scripts that she then read verbatim, she says, \u201cthat would be me totally using it as a crutch, and it hindering my creative ability\u201d.<\/p>\n

All three experts agree that it will become harder to parse what parts (or proportion) of a text were written, and which were AI-generated. For now, Goetze says, \u201cyou should aim to be transparent\u201d, and take care to avoid plagiarism and breaches of copyright.<\/p>\n

Another potential danger is overinvesting in an AI tool\u2019s responses and even becoming reliant. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to stay in a feedback loop with AI \u2013 you will end up in dark places,\u201d Hafermalz says.<\/p>\n

She recommends setting a clear goal or intention every time you use ChatGPT, and slowly upping the stakes of your engagement so that you always remain in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be a prison that holds you in, it should be a stepping stone \u2013 a way to get out, and do other things,\u201d Hafermalz says. \u201cUse it where you can verify it yourself, in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n