---
title: "AI fluency cheat sheet | Ian Nuttall"
description: "ai fluency course and cheat sheet"
canonical: "https://ian.is/post/ai-fluency-cheatsheet"
language: "en"
---

# AI fluency cheat sheet

Jun 2025 / 4,712 views / [via X](https://x.com/iannuttall/status/1930182575693410392)

Anthropic just published a course on AI fluency, so of course I threw all of the content into o3 and asked it to create a cheat sheet 😂

Course: [https://www.anthropic.com/ai-fluency/introduction-to-ai-fluency](https://www.anthropic.com/ai-fluency/introduction-to-ai-fluency)

## 1\. The Goal

Work with AI effectively, efficiently, ethically, and safely—this course’s definition of “AI fluency.”

## 2\. The 4‑D Framework

| Competency | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Delegation** | Decide **if** and **how** a task should involve AI. |
| **Description** | Tell the AI exactly **what**, **how**, and **why**. |
| **Discernment** | Judge the AI’s work and process with a critical eye. |
| **Diligence** | Own the results—be transparent, verify, stay responsible. |

> **Collaboration modes**: Automation → Augmentation → Agency

## 3\. Delegation Fast‑Check

-   **Problem awareness** – be clear on the goal before invoking AI.
-   **Platform awareness** – know each model’s strengths/limits.
-   **Task match** – hand off well‑defined, reversible & low‑risk chunks.

## 4\. Description (Prompt Craft)

Break every prompt into the **3 P’s**:

1.  **Product** – desired output, format, audience, tone.
2.  **Process** – step‑by‑step approach you want the model to follow.
3.  **Performance** – behaviour guidelines (concise, exhaustive, playful, etc.).

## 5\. Six Core Prompting Techniques

1.  Give **context** (who/what/why).
2.  **Show examples** of the target style.
3.  **Specify constraints** (length, structure, formatting).
4.  **Break into steps** for complex asks.
5.  **Tell it to reflect** and improve (“Think through, then answer”).
6.  **Iterate** via the Description–Discernment loop.

## 6\. Discernment Checklist

-   **Product** – accuracy, relevance, coherence, appropriateness.
-   **Process** – look for shaky reasoning, missing sources, bias.
-   **Response** – revise the prompt or reject the output; never ship blindly.

## 7\. Description ↔ Discernment Loop

1.  **Describe →** Prompt with clarity.
2.  **Discern →** Critique the result.
3.  **Refine →** Update the prompt or your task split. Repeat until the output earns your trust.

## 8\. Diligence Pillars

| Phase | Your responsibility |
| --- | --- |
| **Creation** | Pick the right model & guardrails. |
| **Transparency** | State how and where AI helped (when audiences need to know). |
| **Deployment** | Fact‑check, de‑bias, and own the final output. |

## 9\. Generative AI in One Minute

-   Generates new text, code, images—not just analysis.
-   Enabled by transformers, massive training data, and big compute.

## 10\. Practice Ideas

-   Run the 4‑D checklist on a real work task.
-   Build a prompt library using the six techniques.
-   Pair‑review AI outputs with a teammate for Discernment drills.

**Quick mantra:** *Delegate → Describe → Discern → Diligence → Ship.*

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