Module 01 / 10 · 40 planned minutes
Meet your AI assistant
Choose a low-risk task and produce a checked action note without treating generated text as evidence.
No AI experience is required. Complete the starting route, then learn how an assistant can help with a small office task and why its result still needs checking. Keep the casebook and workbook open.
First pass: use only C01's short meeting notes. Move on when you can explain one useful contribution AI made and correct one unsupported statement without asking the assistant to approve itself.
Learn 14 planned minutes
Start with work you recognise
An AI assistant can help organise notes, suggest questions, explain a passage or produce a draft. You remain the person deciding what the job is, which information may be used and whether the result is acceptable. Begin with a short, fictional document whose content you can check yourself. A first successful task does not need to involve legal advice.
“AI” covers many technologies. Generative AI produces new content: for example, a paragraph, table, image or audio response. A large language model is a kind of model used for language tasks. It generates responses from learned patterns and the information available in the interaction. That is not the same as consulting an authoritative legal database or establishing what happened in a matter. A fluent answer can be incomplete, misleading or invented. NIST
A useful mental distinction is generate, retrieve, act. Generating makes a draft. Retrieving finds material. Acting changes something outside the conversation, such as sending a message or editing a shared record. A product may combine all three, but your instruction and permissions should still separate them. “Prepare an email” is not “send an email”.
What an assistant can see
The model is not the whole product. The assistant may have files, search, memory or connected tools, depending on the product and settings. Do not assume that it sees your screen, reads your files, knows your firm's policy or has checked today's law. Name the source you want used and confirm that the relevant content is actually available.
Open a new conversation for the exercise. Confirm the correct training account. Paste C01 only, or attach the synthetic file if permitted. Ask for a short action table. Read the result beside the source. Use a follow-up to fix an identifiable mistake. Save your checked version separately from the source. You may stop or restart a conversation; you do not have to persuade a failing answer to become usable. OAIPROMPT
If no approved tool is available, use S01 in the simulation pack. Write your instruction first. Reviewing a supplied response practises useful skills, but record that it was a simulation.
Know when not to delegate
AI is a better starting point when the task is bounded, the input is permitted and checking is practical. It is a poor shortcut when you lack the expertise or sources needed to recognise a dangerous error. Independent judgment, client decisions and approval do not become the assistant's responsibility. “Do this manually” can be the best answer. ANTHROPIC
Worked example
Separate fictional example: a note says, “Rae will ask for the missing invoice. A deadline was not agreed. The team discussed a discount.”
Instruction: “Make an action table from this note. Show owner, action and deadline. Separate discussion from a decision; do not invent a deadline.”
A checked result is: “Rae — request missing invoice — deadline not agreed.” A second note can say, “Discount discussed; no approval recorded.” A candidate row saying “Apply discount tomorrow” would create both an action and a date that the source did not establish.
The value is not merely shorter text. It is a usable note that preserves what is known and makes the gap visible.
Practise 20 planned minutes
Guided practice
Use C01. Ask for the actions, owners, due dates and source paragraphs. Check Nia's deadline and whether weekend support was approved. In simulation, review S01. Write a follow-up correcting the largest meaning error, then produce your own corrected table.
Feedback — compare after your attempt
C01.2 gives Nia an action but no due date. C01.3 gives Omar a comparison task before the 15 June review. C01.4 records discussion, not permission to activate weekend support. C01.6 leaves the final update's approver unconfirmed. A useful note keeps those gaps rather than supplying plausible answers.
Practice assignment
Complete A01 with a checked three-row action/gap note of no more than 120 words. Add the source paragraphs, one correction you made and one thing the assistant cannot decide from the notes. Do not send the note. This independent version follows your guided correction; no long essay is required.
Participation
Ask a colleague which row could cause someone to take an unauthorised action. Solo alternative: write the colleague's likely question and your answer in two sentences. Include this within the practice block.
Check 6 planned minutes
Two formative checks. Choose an answer, then check it or open the comparison. Retry freely; this is not an award or an observed-skill record.
Source study and completion check
Optional two-minute pointer: OAIPROMPT, “Prompting overview” and “Set boundaries that prevent real problems”. Identify the difference between creating a draft and permitting an action. Record inaccessible readings as such. Complete AI01's two checks in the question bank.
Before moving on, compare your artifact with the module feedback, correct material errors and keep its actual route label. This page does not record or certify completion.