La tua prima conversazione

~ min di lettura

Riepilogo in 30 secondi

Apri una IA gratuita (claude.ai, chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com). Per la prima volta non fa differenza quale scegli.
Scrivi un prompt, premi invio, la risposta appare parola dopo parola. È una conversazione come un normale scambio di messaggi.
Non devi “chiudere” niente: basta chiudere la scheda. Le conversazioni restano salvate nel tuo account.
Se la risposta è troppo lunga, vaga o oscura: dillo all’IA e la rifà. Non si offende e non si stanca.

Questa è la lezione in cui apri un’ per davvero. Poca teoria: trovi un esercizio guidato da copiare e incollare, e finito di leggere saprai come interagirci.

Dove apri l’IA

Puoi scegliere una di queste (o un’altra che già usi). Sono tutte gratuite per un uso di base, basta registrarsi con un’email.

claude.ai: l’IA di Anthropic. Forte per scrittura e ragionamento articolato.
chatgpt.com: ChatGPT, di OpenAI. La più conosciuta, solida per compiti generici.
gemini.google.com: Gemini, di Google. Si integra bene con gli altri servizi Google se li usi.

Per la prima volta non fa molta differenza quale scegli. I concetti che impari qui funzionano ovunque.

Cosa aspettarti

Quando apri un’IA conversazionale vedi una barra dove scrivere. Tu scrivi un , premi invio, aspetti qualche secondo, e la risposta appare una parola dopo l’altra (come se stesse digitando al momento). Poi puoi rispondere di nuovo, e così via: è una conversazione come un normale scambio di messaggi.

Ciao! Non ho mai usato un'IA. Come si fa a usarti?

Ciao! Benvenuto. Usarmi è facile: scrivi quello che vuoi sapere o chiedere, come faresti in un messaggio a un amico. Facciamo subito una prova concreta: raccontami una cosa che vorresti capire o fare oggi, e vediamo insieme come posso aiutarti.

Una conversazione può durare una domanda sola o cento. Non devi “chiudere” niente: quando hai ottenuto quello che volevi, chiudi la scheda del browser. Le conversazioni restano salvate nel tuo account: la prossima volta che torni le ritrovi tutte nella barra laterale.

Provalo adesso, con una guida

Ho preparato un prompt che dà all’IA il ruolo di tutor paziente. Si presenta, ti chiede un argomento qualsiasi, ti aiuta a formulare una richiesta chiara, e ti mostra dal vivo la differenza fra una domanda vaga e una contestualizzata.

Come si fa: copi il prompt qui sotto, apri la tua IA scelta, lo incolli nella stessa barra in cui scriveresti un messaggio normale, e premi invio. Da lì in poi è una conversazione come tutte le altre. Non serve prepararsi niente.

Cosa fare se qualcosa non va

Le situazioni più comuni.

La risposta è troppo lunga: dillo all’IA. Scrivi “accorcia” o “dammela in metà parole”, premi invio. La rifà più corta.
Non capisci la risposta perché usa parole che non conosci: dillo all’IA. Scrivi “spiegamelo in italiano semplice, senza termini tecnici” oppure “spiegamelo come a un ragazzino di dodici anni”. La rifà a un livello più accessibile.
La risposta non c’entra con quello che volevi: riformula. Spiega meglio cosa ti serviva, oppure dai un esempio di com’è una risposta che ti andrebbe bene.
L’IA si inventa cose: capita. Per il tuo primo giro non è un problema, ma nella lezione Quando fidarsi e quando no vedremo come riconoscerlo e cosa fare.

Verifica cosa hai capito

Cosa viene dopo

Come fa l’IA a “capire”?: uno sguardo dietro le quinte, per capire perché risponde come risponde e perché ogni tanto sbaglia.
Quando fidarsi e quando no: riconoscere quando sta inventando e come verificare.

Chi sono Privacy Manuale aperto, scritto da una persona vera, in collaborazione con l'IA.

AI-Guide

A free, bilingual (English and Italian) manual that teaches non-technical readers how to use conversational AI well, from the very first question through everyday productivity, work scenarios, and advanced topics. Audience: parents, teachers, professionals, students. Not engineers.

The canonical site is https://ai-guide.larosa.work. English is the default locale (`/en/`); every page is mirrored in Italian at the same path under `/it/`. URL slugs are identical across languages so any English URL below can be translated by replacing `/en/` with `/it/`.

Start here

Start here: Pick the path that fits your level. Get to where you need to go in the fastest way.

Fundamentals

But what is AI?: Let's demystify the words "artificial intelligence". What it really is, what it isn't, why everyone is talking about it now.
What is a prompt?: The word "prompt" explained without fluff. It's what you write to the AI to get an answer, and how you write it matters more than you'd think.
Your first conversation: Open an AI and put what you've read into practice. No theory: a guided exercise for your first conversation.
How does the AI "understand"?: A look behind the scenes. The AI doesn't really understand: it guesses the next word, one at a time. But it guesses so well that sometimes it feels like magic.
When to trust it (and when not): The AI is wrong with the same confidence as when it's right. Learning to recognize the cases and to verify is the difference between using it well and getting fooled.
What you share when you use AI: What actually happens to your messages after you send them to ChatGPT or Claude? Who sees them, what stays, what you can control. And what you should never put in.

Everyday use

Ask well: Four levers that make the difference between a vague answer and a useful one when you ask the AI.
Photos, images, and files: Uploading a utility bill, a screenshot, a PDF. Modern AIs can see, and you can use that to read the world around you.
Iterate the conversation: The first answer is rarely the right one. The move isn't rewriting from scratch, it's keeping the chat going.
Learn something new: The AI as a personal tutor. Techniques to actually understand, not just get a reply.
Summarize a long document: PDFs, articles, reports, books. How to ask for a summary that's actually useful, and how to know if you can trust it.
Understanding something complicated: Bills, contracts, medical reports, regulations. The AI is an excellent translator of bureaucratese, if you use it well.
Things NOT to do: AI helps with almost everything. But there are cases where delegating the decision is a bad idea, even when the answer looks right.
Write better: The AI as editor on your draft, not as ghostwriter. Three patterns to use it without losing your voice.

At work

AI as a thinking partner: Stress-test an idea before you propose it, anticipate objections, brainstorm with method. Without an explicit constraint AI confirms everything: the value comes from forcing it into discomfort.
Company data and privacy: Whatever you paste into a public AI can leave your company. Three risk levels (red, yellow, green), what changes with Enterprise or Team plans, the NDA gut check, and what to do if your company has no policy yet.
Working with data and tables: Cleaning messy data, Excel or Sheets formulas you can't remember, small analyses on extracts. AI is the right copilot for one-offs, but company data is still company data.
Drafting professional documents: Proposals, briefs, reports. AI as a structured first draft, not as a ghostwriter who writes the whole thing.
Hard emails: Saying no, responding to someone who messed up, giving delicate feedback. Where the wrong word costs.
Preparing a meeting: Structured agenda, preparation brief, actionable extract, follow-up. AI works before and after; the meeting stays the human moment.
Research for work: Mapping a new territory, synthesizing multiple sources, doing live research with citations. AI speeds you up a lot and hallucinates a lot, and method is what separates a solid deliverable from an embarrassing one.
Reuse context with projects: Claude Projects, ChatGPT Custom GPTs, Gemini Gems: same mechanism, three different names. You load once the context that recurs (who you are, what you do, how you write, reference files) and reuse it across every chat in that thread, instead of starting from scratch every time.
Slides and presentations: Outline from a document, tight bullets, speaker notes. AI helps with content, not design; the default produces text-heavy slides, and that's the risk to neutralize.

For students

Ethics of studying: Eight lessons in, the question that closes the module: where does AI's help end and copying begin? The answer is a method of judgement.
Notes from lectures and long texts: Audio transcription, slides, chapters, your own notes. How to compose course material into a study-ready form.
Revise before an exam: Simulated oral exams, written tests with corrections, mind maps and flashcards. AI as a simulated professor that generates the pressure of the test.
Sources and citations: The bibliography is where AI does the most damage in academic work. Telling a made-up citation from a real one is a skill you can learn.
Study a new topic: Formal study against a fixed syllabus. AI as a tutor that stays within your textbook's frame, not one that drifts off.
Translating and comparing texts: Translation is where AI looks perfect and can instead be sneaky. Use it as a study aid for the language, not as a translator you paste from.
When AI tricks you: You're studying a topic for the first time, and the AI answers with confidence. How to notice it's wrong precisely when you can't know.
Writing a thesis: A thesis isn't something you delegate. AI as a second reader that helps you build a months-long project without writing it for you.

Reference

Glossary: The technical words you meet in the lessons, explained in two sentences. With a button to ask your AI to go deeper.
About: AI-Guide is written by Fabrizio La Rosa. Here's what I do, where I come from, and why I decided to write this manual.

Translations

The same manual is available in Italian at https://ai-guide.larosa.work/it/. Every English page has an Italian counterpart at the same path; replace `/en/` with `/it/` in any URL above to get the Italian version.

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