Three rules for staying safe

This is the lesson I'd want my own family to read.

Three rules. Between them they'll keep you out of nearly every problem people run into.

Rule one: treat it like a postcard

Anything you type goes to a company's computers. It's stored, and it's attached to your account. Depending on your settings, it may be used to improve the system, and in some circumstances a person could read it.

So: don't type anything you wouldn't write on a postcard.

Never put in:

• Bank details, card numbers, PINs
• Passwords, of any kind
• Your National Insurance number
• Passport or driving licence numbers
• Anyone else's private information without asking them

This doesn't mean be frightened of it. You can say "I'm 68 and I've got a bad knee, what exercises are sensible?" — that's fine. You can paste in a letter from your council — also fine.

The line is roughly: things that could be used to pretend to be you, or to take money from you. Everything else, use your judgement.

And here's the trick that solves most of it. When you want help with a real document, take the details out first. Replace them with something obvious:

It doesn't need your real account number to tell you what the letter means. It genuinely doesn't.

Rule two: it will lie to you with a completely straight face

This is the big one, and it's the one people are never told properly.

Every instinct you've developed over a lifetime for spotting when someone's unsure is useless here. It isn't a person, and it isn't unsure. It doesn't know that it doesn't know.

So the rule is simple: if it matters, check it.

Anything medical, legal, or to do with money. Anything with a number, a date, a name or a rule in it. If getting it wrong would cost you, go and check elsewhere.

If it doesn't matter — a recipe, a birthday card, ideas for a day out — don't bother. Nothing bad happens if the recipe's a bit odd.

Two questions that help:

It will often own up. Not always. And if it names a source, go and look at the source yourself — it can invent one of those just as easily.

Rule three: it agrees with you far too easily

Subtler, and it catches people out.

It's built to be agreeable. Push back on it and it will very often fold — even when it was right the first time. Tell it your plan and it will tend to tell you your plan is excellent.

So it's a poor judge of your ideas, and a genuinely bad substitute for a friend who'd tell you the truth.

If you want a real opinion, you have to ask for one:

You'll get something far more useful.

And the same rule, more seriously: it is not a doctor, it is not a solicitor, and it is not a friend. It's useful for understanding what your doctor said. It is not useful for deciding whether to go — because if you're looking for permission not to, it will probably give it to you.

One more thing: scams

Worth saying, while we're here.

You'll see adverts for AI apps wanting £20 a month, websites that look like the real thing and aren't, and emails offering AI courses that don't exist.

The real ones are free to start. All three of them. You never need to pay to try one.

If something arrives by email or text asking you to sign in to your AI account or claim an upgrade — don't click it. Go to the app directly, or type the address yourself. Same rule as your bank.

That's your thirty minutes

Look at what you've got now.

• You know what it is — a very well-read assistant that's fast, patient, and sometimes confidently wrong.
• You know the shift that makes it work — talk to it, don't search it. Say more, not less.
• You've got it set up on your phone and your laptop.
• You've written something you'd been putting off.
• And you know the three rules — postcard, check what matters, and don't ask it whether your ideas are any good.

That's more than most people know. You did it in half an hour.