FAQ · 30 questions · Honest answers

No stupid questions.

What you actually want to know about AI — answered without the fluff.

Basics 5 questions
What is AI really — for real?

AI is a collective term for systems that perform tasks we normally associate with human intelligence. There are many types: image recognition, recommendation systems, speech recognition — and the large language models (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini) that you probably think of when you hear the word "AI" today.

A language model is a program trained on massive amounts of text that has learned to predict which word comes next. It sounds simple — but emergent capabilities arise from that process in a way that no one fully understands yet. The result can reason, write, code, and analyze at a level that was unthinkable five years ago.

AI is not conscious. It doesn't think. It has no goals. But it is an extremely powerful tool — and it is the one you need to learn to master.

Can AI think?

No — not in the sense we mean when we talk about human thinking. A language model simulates thought processes by predicting likely text based on training data and your prompt.

But it's a bit more complicated. The models exhibit capabilities that resemble reasoning — they can solve problems they've never seen before, draw conclusions from new information, and change their minds when presented with counterevidence. Whether this is "thinking" or advanced pattern matching is an open question that philosophers and AI researchers are actively debating.

The practical answer: treat AI as an extremely capable tool, not as a colleague with its own opinions and interests.

Why does AI "hallucinate"?

A language model always generates the next likely token — regardless of whether it actually "knows" the answer or not. It has no built-in way to say "I don't know" unless it has been explicitly trained on that behavior.

The result: the model fills gaps in its knowledge with plausible-sounding text. It invents research papers, incorrect statistics, old events, and quotes that were never said.

The solution: always verify facts that are relevant for decision-making. Use AI for reasoning, phrasing, and structuring — not as a primary source for factual claims.

What does AI know about me?

Probably more than you think — but not from your conversations (unless you have Memory enabled). The models are trained on vast amounts of public internet text up to a certain date. If you have written publicly online, it is possible that the text you produced is included in the training data.

Your conversations: Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus do not use your chats for training by default. Free versions may do so — check the settings and terms.

Is it dangerous to use AI with personal data?

It depends on which service and how. The basic rules:

  • Don't do: Do not paste personal identity numbers, patient data, customer details, salaries, or other sensitive personal information into the free versions of AI tools.
  • Proceed with caution: Pro versions (Claude Pro, ChatGPT Plus) are safer — they do not train on your data by default — but you should still have a DPA if you process personal data on behalf of customers.
  • Okay for most: Using AI to write general texts, analyze public information, summarize non-sensitive documents.
Tools & Choices 4 questions
Which AI tool is best?

The short answer: it depends on what you plan to do.

  • For writing, analysis, and Swedish business texts → Claude Pro
  • For all-in-one with image generation and web search → ChatGPT Plus
  • For research with citations → Perplexity
  • If you already use Google Workspace → try Gemini first
  • For real-time events on X/Twitter → Grok

Daniel's daily driver: Claude Pro as primary, ChatGPT Plus as a supplement for images and web search.

What is the difference between Claude Pro and Claude Free?

Claude Free: Available, but with daily usage limits. Cannot attach files, limited context length, no access to the most capable models.

Claude Pro ($20/month, ~220 SEK): Unlimited use under normal conditions, access to Claude Opus and Sonnet, can handle long documents (200,000 tokens), file uploads, Projects feature to organize work.

For serious use at work: Pro is worth it. Calculate it as ~7 SEK per workday.

Can AI understand Swedish as well as English?

Almost — but not quite. The models are primarily trained on English text (dominant on the internet) and Swedish is a small language in that context.

Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini handle Swedish excellently for most tasks. You notice the difference in:

  • Nuanced formal texts: Claude is clearly stronger
  • Dialect, irony, Swedish cultural references: can get a bit clunky
  • Technical terms with Swedish equivalents: works well if you are consistent

Daniel's observation: Claude understands Swedish business context better than its competitors. That was one of the reasons for the switch from Gemini.

Should I pay for an AI tool or is the free version enough?

For private, occasional use: free is more than enough.

For regular professional use: calculate the value. If a tool saves you one hour per day and your hour is worth 500 SEK — then 220 SEK/month is a bad investment not to make.

The trap: subscribe to five tools and use none of them properly. Choose one. Get good at it. Add more only when you know what you're missing.

Practical use 4 questions
How do I know if an answer from an AI is correct?

You don't know — until you verify. Treat AI responses like advice from a smart friend without specialized training in the subject: interesting, often right, but requiring verification for important decisions.

  • Factual claims with numbers: always verify
  • Legal or medical advice: always supplement with an expert
  • Reasoning and structuring: high trust, low risk
  • Code: always test before deploying
Is it cheating to use AI?

It depends on the context and who sets the rules.

In school: many educational institutions have policies regarding AI use — follow them.

At work: if you deliver a result and AI helped you get there — most employers care about the result, not the process. Be transparent if asked.

In creative creation: a discussion without a clear answer. Tools change what is possible — just as text editing isn't "cheating" against handwriting.

Daniel's position: AI is a tool. Using a powerful tool skillfully is a skill, not cheating. The important thing is that you understand what you are producing and can stand behind it.

Why does AI give different answers to the same question?

For two reasons:

Temperature — a setting that controls how "creative" the model is. A bit of randomness is built in by design to ensure responses are varied and natural rather than robotic.

Phrasing — AI is extremely sensitive to how you phrase your question. The same question with slightly different word choices can yield noticeably different answers. It's actually a feature, not a bug — but it requires you to learn to express yourself precisely.

How long does the AI remember what we've talked about?

Only during the current conversation — unless you activate the Memory feature (available in Claude and ChatGPT). Every new conversation starts from scratch.

This means: if you want the AI to understand your context, your company, or your writing style — you either need to tell it in every conversation, use Memory features, or build a system prompt that includes the context automatically.

Safety & Legal 4 questions
What happens to my prompts — are they saved?

Claude Free/Pro: Saved to show in your history. Not used for training by default since 2024. You can turn off history in the settings.

ChatGPT Free/Plus: Saved in history. Not used for training if you turn off "Improve the model for everyone" in the settings.

API (direct integration): Anthropic and OpenAI log API calls for a limited time for security/abuse detection, but do not train on them by default.

Recommendation: go into the settings of your AI service and verify what applies to your subscription.

Is AI harmful to the environment?

Yes, to some extent. Training large models requires enormous amounts of electricity and generates significant CO2 emissions — the training of GPT-4 is estimated to have consumed as much energy as hundreds of average households for a year.

Inference (using the model) is energy-intensive, but the cost per query is small compared to the training.

Counterargument: AI can contribute to efficiencies that reduce total energy consumption in other sectors. The net picture is unclear and is actively debated.

What is the EU AI Act and does it affect me?

The EU AI Act is the EU's law regulating AI based on risk level. It affects you if you run a company that uses AI.

What you probably don't need to do: Anything special to use Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini for common office tasks — emails, texts, analyses. These are GPAI (General Purpose AI) and are not classified as high-risk.

What you should do: Ensure your staff has basic AI literacy (Article 4, applicable from February 2025). A 45-minute workshop is sufficient.

What requires more: If you use AI for recruitment, credit decisions, medical assessments, or similar — then it is high-risk and requires documentation, risk assessment, and human oversight.

Full application of high-risk rules: August 2, 2026.

Does my company need an AI policy?

Not legally mandatory (yet) — but strongly recommended.

A simple AI policy (one page is enough) should cover:

  • Which AI tools are approved at the company
  • What can and cannot be sent to AI tools (personal data, etc.)
  • How AI-generated content should be labeled/handled
  • Who is responsible for AI-related decisions

It takes an hour to write. Polaris has a template in the prompt library (FO-08).

Technology & Future 5 questions
What is the difference between AI and automation?

Automation does exactly what you programmed it to do — always, every time, without deviation. An Excel macro is automation. A Zapier integration is automation.

AI can handle unstructured input, make judgments, and manage situations it has never seen before. It is flexible but unreliable in a different way than automation — it can make "creative" mistakes.

The most powerful approach is to combine them: automation for the deterministic, AI for what requires judgment.

Can AI write code?

Yes — and it is one of the most transformative use cases. Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini can all write, explain, debug, and refactor code. Claude Code (the agent tool) can do so autonomously in several steps.

Limitations: AI-written code needs to be reviewed. It may contain security issues, be inefficient, or solve the wrong problem. The more you understand code, the more effectively you can use AI to write it.

Can I trust AI for legal matters?

As a starting point for understanding — yes. As a substitute for legal advice — no.

AI can explain what a contract clause likely means, summarize a law, or identify questions you should ask a lawyer. That is valuable.

But AI may have outdated information, miss jurisdiction-specific nuances, and bears no professional responsibility for its advice. Use AI to understand — and a lawyer to decide.

What will happen with AI in the next 5 years?

The honest answer: nobody knows. But some trends seem clear:

  • Agents are becoming mainstream — AI that doesn't just answer but acts autonomously in complex environments.
  • Multimodality continues — text, image, audio, video in one and the same model.
  • Local execution is becoming more accessible — models running on your phone or laptop without internet.
  • Prices continue to fall — token costs have dropped 100x in three years. That trend continues.
  • Regulation is increasing — the EU AI Act is just the starting shot. More laws are following globally.

What doesn't change: you still need to understand what you are asking for, verify what you receive, and take responsibility for what you publish.

How are AI models trained?

In broad terms:

  • Pre-training: The model is fed with massive amounts of text (webpages, books, code, articles) and learns to predict the next token. Extremely expensive and energy-intensive.
  • Fine-tuning: The model is adjusted on more specific data to become good at interpreting instructions.
  • RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback): Human reviewers rate the model's responses. The model learns to generate answers similar to those that received high ratings.
  • Constitutional AI (Anthropic's method): The model is trained with principles and learns to evaluate its own responses.

The result: a model that is good at following instructions, being helpful, and avoiding harmful responses.

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