Claude on Derek's Guides

AI, LLMs, ChatGPT, Claude, and Agents: A Practical Primer

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If you have heard people talk about AI, LLMs, ChatGPT, Claude, or agents, it can feel like everyone is using the same words to mean different things.

That is because they often are.

This guide is a practical, non-hype primer. It is written for someone who wants to understand what these tools are, how they differ, when they are useful, and when to be careful.

The short version

AI is the broad category: software that performs tasks we associate with intelligence.
Machine learning is one way to build AI: systems learn patterns from data instead of being hand-coded for every rule.
Large language models, or LLMs, are machine learning models trained to work with language.
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and similar products are applications built around LLMs.
Agents are LLM-based systems that can use tools, follow goals, and sometimes take actions on your behalf.

A normal chatbot answers.

How to Prompt Without Feeling Weird

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Prompting an AI assistant can feel strange at first.

You are typing to software, but the software responds like a person. If you are too brief, it guesses. If you are too formal, you feel ridiculous. If you overthink the prompt, you can spend more time asking the question than doing the task.

The good news: you do not need magic words.

You need to explain what you want the same way you would brief a capable assistant who is smart, fast, and new to the situation.

AI Safety for Normal People

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

AI safety can sound dramatic.

Depending on who is talking, it either means “do not paste your password into ChatGPT” or “the machines are coming for civilization.”

This guide is about the first kind: practical safety for normal people using AI tools in everyday life.

No panic. No sci-fi. Just useful habits.

The short version

Use AI safely by remembering six rules:

Do not paste secrets or sensitive personal information.
Verify important claims before acting on them.
Use AI for drafts and preparation, not final authority.
Be extra careful with medical, legal, financial, and work data.
Understand when an AI can take actions, not just answer questions.
Keep humans in charge of consequential decisions.

That is most of the practical safety model.

Local AI vs Cloud AI

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Once you start using AI tools, a natural question comes up:

Should I use cloud AI, or should I run AI locally on my own computer?

The answer is not “one is always better.”

The answer is: it depends on what you care about for that task.

Cloud AI is usually easier and more capable. Local AI is usually more private and more controllable. Both are useful. Both have tradeoffs.