💼 Dear Employees Learning AI · an open letter

You didn't ask to become the AI person at work.

TL;DRAn open letter to every employee suddenly expected to know AI: five honest rules for using it without it using you — disclose it, keep the receipts, verify what should be checkable, never let it speak in your name without you reading it first, and remember the machine drafts, you press.

Somebody handed your team a tool, called it a productivity boost, and left the actual thinking about it to you. Fair enough — here's the training manual nobody gave you. Free, because this shouldn't cost anything to learn right.

Five rules, honestly earned

1 · Disclose it

If AI touched the draft, say so — in the doc, the email, the meeting. Hidden AI use is how careers end (a real 2025 court sanctioned attorneys for exactly this). Disclosed AI use is just called using a tool.

2 · Watch for The Tell

The machine sounds most confident exactly where it's guessing — a date, a citation, a number that should be checkable. Read the field guide: that polish is the warning sign, not the reassurance.

3 · Keep the receipts

Anything a client, boss, or regulator might ask "did you check this?" about — check it yourself, against a real source, before it goes out with your name on it.

4 · It drafts, you press

The house rule behind this whole site: the machine drafts, the human presses. Nothing goes out in your voice until you've read every word of it and meant it.

5 · Fix it, don't worship it or fear it

AI isn't a replacement for your judgment, and panic about it doesn't help either. It's a tool with one real gap — it doesn't doubt itself. You're the part that does.

Read The Tell → How this house fact-checks

No affiliation with any employer, vendor, or AI company claimed. This is general guidance, not professional or legal advice for your specific workplace policy — check your employer's actual AI-use policy first. Reach a human: (517) 798-1794 · [email protected]. No lying.