Home and Learn: AI Beginners Course
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In this lesson, you'll learn what Generative AI is, who the big players are, and what's out there for free.
Generative AI creates new content such as text, images, audio and video by recognising patterns in the data it was trained on. This article explains what it can help with, introduces major free tools including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, and shows why it is useful for everyday tasks. It also makes an important point: AI can sound convincing while being wrong, so use it as a creative assistant and check important information.
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create entirely new content. To understand it, it helps to compare it to traditional AI, which is mostly designed to analyse, classify, or predict things based on existing data. For example, a traditional AI might look at a thousand photos of cats and dogs to learn how to tell them apart, or it might look at your past shopping habits to recommend a new product. Generative AI goes a step further by using those learned patterns to build something that didn't exist before, such as writing an original story, painting a digital image, or composing a piece of music.
The way Generative AI works is by analysing massive amounts of human-created data to learn the underlying structure of how things are put together. A text-based generative AI, for instance, reads billions of pages of writing to understand the statistical likelihood of which word usually follows another in a given context. It does not actually 'understand' ideas or possess a conscious mind. Instead, it treats language and images as complex mathematical patterns. When you give it a prompt, the AI predicts the most likely sequence of words or pixels that would satisfy your request based on the patterns it saw during its training.
The result is a tool that can feel remarkably human, as if it is thinking or imagining, but it is essentially performing a high-speed exercise in probability. Because it relies on patterns from existing data, it can be incredibly versatile and creative, but it can also make mistakes or confidently present false information as fact. Understanding that generative AI is a sophisticated pattern-prediction engine rather than a sentient being is the most important first step in learning how to use it effectively.
Here's a breakdown of what a typical Generative AI like ChatGPT can help you with.
Answer - Self-explanatory. Just type your question into a chat box and Generative AI will spit out the answer to your question faster than it took you to actually type it into the box in the first place.
Write - everything from essays to email, Generative AI can create it for you. Just tell it what you want and Generative AI will spit out something you can use. So good has it become at writing things for us, that there are whole businesses dedicated to figuring out if you used Generative AI to knock up that masterpiece.
Research - If you want a more in-depth answer to your question, Generative AI can do a deeper dive into your topic
Plan - Generative AI can help you out here, from what to wear on a first date to coming up with an exact and exacting itinerary for your approaching vacation. If you want a plan, Generative AI has got one
Code - It still helps if you can code in the first place. Then you can understand what Generative AI is spitting out when you want some programming done. But, even if you don't know a single line of code, you can achieve remarkable results with something called Vibe Coding. (We've got you covered here with beginner's lessons here - Learn to Vibe Code)
Brainstorm - Stuck for an idea? Consult Generative AI! For example, list your hobbies and interests and ask Generative AI to come up with a few ways you can make a passive income based on what you already know.
Translate - Need something translating from one language to another? Generative AI has you covered. Translation services have been out a while now. You may even have used a translation app for your vacation to a foreign land to help you understand what these weird strangers are up to.
Image - We have lots of tutorials on image creation using Generative AI. We use the free InvokeAI to create images and also have lessons coming up on character creation with a text prompt.
Analyse - If in doubt, upload it to your favourite Generative AI and ask it to analyse what it sees
Speak - You can get Generative AI to speak the text you write. You can choose from lots of different voices, use your own voice, and even replicate someone else's.
Chat - Just have a natter with Generative AI, if that's what you want. Lots of people consider a good chat with a chatbot far more stimulating than a conversation with a real, live human.
Video - You can create remarkable videos just by typing some text into a Generative AI text box. Want your own walking, talking avatar that you can barely tell is not human? Generative AI has you covered here, as well.
More - And probably lots more we haven't even thought about!
Below is a table of the big players in the world of Generative AI. We outline what the top players are good at and why you should use them. In some of the services below, you may have to sign up before you can use a service. But they are all free. Well, at least to start with!
| Provider | Free tool | Good first experiments |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | ChatGPT | Chat, writing, brainstorming, web search, limited image creation and file/image analysis. Usage caps apply. |
| Gemini | Chat, image generation and editing, research, voice, Canvas, and custom 'Gems'. Availability and limits vary. | |
| Microsoft | Copilot | Chat, web-grounded answers, writing, image creation, and file uploads, subject to capacity limits. |
| Meta | Meta AI | Chat, web answers, image generation, and editing. Also appears in Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Intensive features can be capped. |
| xAI / X | Grok | Conversational AI with live web and X search, voice, document analysis, and limited image/video features. Free access has limits and differs by region. |
| Anthropic | Claude | Particularly good for drafting, explaining, revising text, and analysing text or images. The free tier includes web search but has session limits. |
| Perplexity | Perplexity | An AI research/search tool with web-based, cited answers. Free users get core search and chat plus limited advanced searches and uploads. |
| Mistral AI | Le Chat | A European alternative with chat, web search, Canvas, image generation, document uploads, and code interpreter, all with daily limits. |
| DeepSeek | DeepSeek Chat | Rebranded as DSeek in the UK, Free web and mobile chat, useful for exploring reasoning and coding. Avoid entering sensitive information into public AI services. |
| DuckDuckGo | Duck.ai | A privacy-focused way to try several AI models. DuckDuckGo anonymises chats before sending prompts to providers and says they are not used to train the models. Free use has a daily limit. |
The best way to get comfortable with Generative AI is to pick one free tool and give it a small, useful job. Ask it to explain something, help you plan a trip, draft an email, improve a piece of writing or create an image. Start with a clear prompt, look at the result, then ask a follow-up question or make a change. You will quickly see that good results usually come from a short conversation rather than one perfect instruction.
Enjoy experimenting, but keep your common sense switched on. Do not share private or sensitive information, and check important facts against trustworthy sources. Generative AI is not a replacement for your judgement; it is a fast, creative assistant that becomes more useful as you learn how to guide it.
Use ChatGPT to Plan a Day Out -->
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