What AI's great at — and where it trips up
The single most useful thing to carry around isn't a list of tricks — it's a feel for when to lean in and when to keep a hand on the wheel. Here it is at a glance. Then rate your own task at the bottom.
Lean in
- First drafts emails, posts, outlines — beating the blank page
- Rewriting & tone shorter, clearer, warmer, simpler
- Explaining things at the level you ask for
- Brainstorming angles, names, what-ifs to react to
- Summarising & sorting boiling a pile down to its shape
- Translating & rephrasing plain language, other languages
Keep a hand on the wheel
- Hard facts & citations it can invent sources, confidently
- Maths & careful counting plausible-looking, sometimes wrong
- Very recent events its knowledge has an edge
- Your private context it only knows what you tell it
- High-stakes calls legal, medical, money — verify, decide yourself
- Knowing when it's wrong it sounds just as sure either way
How much can you lean on it for your thing?
Tick whatever's true about the task in front of you. The meter's a rule of thumb, not a ruling — you always make the call.
A great start. Use it to draft and think — then keep a hand on the wheel and make the call yourself.
Those figures and the meter are rules of thumb, not measurements — a feel for the shape, not a promise. The real answer also depends on the exact task, how well you steer the tool, and whether it knows when to back off. You're the one who decides; the meter just nudges.
Carry it on
The whole knack is calibration — knowing how far to trust it on this one. That's a human skill worth sharpening.