AI Is Not Google

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's AI Prompts journey — lesson 2 of 23.

Many people approach AI the same way they use Google: type a few keywords and hope for the best. But AI works very differently.

When you search Google, you're looking for existing information. Google finds web pages that match your keywords and shows you links. The information already exists somewhere—Google just helps you find it.

AI doesn't search for anything. It generates a response just for you, word by word, based on your prompt.

There's no database of pre-written answers. Every response is created fresh in the moment.

This changes everything about how you should communicate. With Google, you might type:

capital France

With AI, you can have a conversation:

What is the capital of France, and why did it become the capital?

The AI will generate a complete, contextual answer—not a list of links.

You can ask follow-up questions, request explanations in simpler terms, or ask it to focus on specific aspects. It's a dialogue, not a search.

Challenge

Unlike Google, AI doesn't just find information—it generates a complete response tailored to your question. Ask the AI about a country's capital, but phrase it as a conversational question that asks for both the capital and one interesting fact about it.

The AI's response must:

Contain the word capital

Tip: You can explicitly instruct the AI to use these words in its response, or you can frame your question in a way that naturally encourages it to explain rather than just list facts.

Cheat sheet

AI doesn't search for existing information like Google does—it generates responses word by word based on your prompt. This means you should communicate conversationally rather than using keywords.

Google approach (keyword-based):

capital France

AI approach (conversational):

What is the capital of France, and why did it become the capital?

With AI, you can ask follow-up questions, request simpler explanations, or explore specific aspects through dialogue.