What Counts as an "AI Tool"

An AI tool is any product built around an AI model that you actually use to get something done — not the research or the theory, the practical thing on your screen. Four categories cover most of what you'll run into: conversational assistants (chatbots you talk to), generators (image, video, or audio from a text description), coding assistants (autocomplete and chat built into a code editor), and writing/summarizing tools (drafting, rewriting, condensing text).

A lot of tools genuinely blur these categories — a chatbot that can also generate images, or a writing tool with a chat window bolted on. That's fine; the categories are a map for orienting yourself quickly, not a strict rulebook you need to memorize.

It also helps to know what these tools are genuinely bad at, not just what they're good at: verified up-to-the-minute facts, anything requiring real accountability (medical, legal, or financial decisions), and tasks where being wrong is expensive and hard to catch. Treating an AI tool as a fast, occasionally-wrong assistant — not an infallible authority — is the single biggest mindset shift that makes using one well easier.

Which of these is one of the four broad categories of AI tools covered here?

An AI tool that turns a text description into an image is best described as a(n) ____.

The best mindset for using an AI tool well is treating it as a fast, occasionally-wrong assistant rather than an infallible authority.