Introduction
The last section explained what AI is and how it got here. This one is hopefully more practical and demonstrates how to use it.
The best-known frontier AI systems are ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. They overlap considerably: all three can answer questions, analyse documents, research topics, write and edit material, work with images and use code to build things.
They each have particular strengths, but these can change surprisingly quickly as new models and features are released. Grok, which is closely linked to X, is another prominent system, although I have never really used it and cannot offer much of an opinion on it.
I currently pay only for ChatGPT, which costs me just over €20 per month. Until recently, I paid for Claude instead. I switched because ChatGPT gives me many of the same capabilities, while also having particularly strong voice, image-generation and image-editing features which helps for things like this website.
That does not mean I think ChatGPT will remain my best choice indefinitely. These products are constantly leapfrogging one another, and I could easily move back to Claude as it develops new or improved features.
I think the best first approach is to choose one capable system and use it regularly, gradually learning its strengths and limitations.
It helps to think of AI as a very capable and enthusiastic assistant. It can produce useful work remarkably quickly, but it can also misunderstand you or state something incorrect with complete confidence.
You remain responsible for verifying what AI produces and deciding whether it is fit to use.
Before you start
The tools on this page are consumer products. What you type is sent to a company's servers, and depending on your settings it may be kept and used to train later models. That decides what you can and can't put in.
What Can Go In
Published guidelines, papers and product information
Your own teaching notes and slides
Cases you have invented
What Stays Out
Names, dates of birth, hospital numbers and addresses
Clinic letters and referral letters
Clinical photographs
Anything copied from the hospital system
Taking the name off isn't always enough. A rare diagnosis, an age and a town can identify someone.
Your hospital or employer will have a position on staff using AI tools, and it may be stricter than what I've written here. Find it before you use any of this for work.
Start With the Desktop App
I prefer the desktop apps for ChatGPT and Claude. You can download ChatGPT or Claude here. ChatGPT at chatgpt.com now looks very similar and works much the same for ordinary Chat. The examples that follow use the desktop app, but you can follow the conversation steps in a browser too.
Start With a Conversation
Most people begin by typing a question, and that is the right place to begin.
“Give me an overview of the treatment of atopic eczema.”
You'll get a reasonable general answer. It doesn't know who the answer is for or how much detail you want, so it guesses. Tell it.
“Write a one-page information leaflet for parents of a child with atopic eczema. Explain what eczema is, how emollients and prescribed treatments are used, what to do during a flare, and when to contact a healthcare professional. Use clear, reassuring language. At the end, provide links to relevant patient-friendly Irish guidance.”
The second prompt works better because it gives the audience, the situation and the details of what to cover. Without those, ChatGPT has to make assumptions.
Modern models are less dependent on “prompt engineering” tricks that were once said to improve results. You can write naturally: a clear goal, useful context and a follow-up matter more than special phrases such as “think harder” or worrying about whether you've said “please”.
Then Keep Going
The conversation remembers what came before, so you can reshape the same material without starting again:
“Make it shorter. One page.”
“Now write it for GP trainees.”
“Give me five MCQs on this, with an explanation for each answer.”
“What have you left out that a registrar would be expected to know?”
Chat, Work and Codex
Chat is for asking questions and working through ideas. Work can look through files on your computer and create new ones for you to review. Codex can also work with your computer, but specialises in building things with code — for example, an interactive 3D model of the skin that shows how blistering diseases develop.