Getting you set up
This is the bit where people give up. So we'll go slowly.
You'll need about ten minutes and an email address you can get into right now.
Which one to use
There are three worth knowing about: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Different companies, much the same for what we're doing.
We'll use ChatGPT, because it's the one you'll have heard of and the one your family mean when they mention it. Everything here works identically on the other two, so nothing is wasted if you switch later.
And it's free. There is a paid version. You don't need it — not now, and possibly not ever.
On your phone
1. Open your app store. The App Store on an iPhone, the Play Store on Android.
2. Search for ChatGPT.
3. Check the maker before you tap anything. This matters. There are copies — apps with similar names and similar logos that are not the real thing, and some of them will try to charge you.
The real one is made by OpenAI. It says so underneath the name. If it doesn't say OpenAI, it isn't the one.
4. Install it. That'll take a minute.
5. Open it and sign up.
If you have a Google or Apple account, use that button. One tap, and no new password to remember and lose.
If you'd rather use your email address, that's fine too. You'll choose a password, and then it will send you an email to check it's really you. You have to go and open that email and click the link. Nothing works until you do — this is where people wander off and don't come back.
That's it. You're in.
Your first message
There's a box at the bottom of the screen. That's where everything happens. That's the whole app, really.
Type this, exactly:
Explain what you are to someone who has never used AI before. Keep it short and don't use any technical words.
Send it, and watch the answer arrive.
There we are. That's you using AI. Genuinely — that's the thing everybody has been going on about.
Now do one more, because this is the part that surprises people. Type:
That was good. Now explain it again as if I'm nine years old.
Look at what just happened. You didn't start again. You didn't re-explain yourself. You said "do that differently" — and it knew what you meant, because it remembered.
That's the conversation working. That's the bit that isn't a search engine.
On your laptop
Same thing, bigger screen. Better for anything long — letters, documents, anything you'll want to read properly.
1. Go to chatgpt.com. Type it into the address bar yourself. Don't search for it and click a result — the adverts at the top of search results are not always what they claim to be.
2. Sign in with the account you just made. Everything you did on your phone is already there.
3. Bookmark it. Star it, favourite it, whatever your browser calls it — so you never have to find it again.
You've got it, on both devices, and you've used it twice. The next lesson is where it starts earning its keep.