1. What is Claude?

Course: Claude 101 Estimated time: 3 minutes

Learning objectives

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Name the principles that guide its design
• Describe Claude's core capabilities
• Identify the different ways to access Claude (web, desktop, mobile)

What is Claude?

Claude is an AI assistant — more than a chatbot, it's a thinking partner for complex work. Claude is powerful, helpful, harmless, and honest. It's designed to be a tool for thinking partners, not a replacement for human judgment.

Key takeaways:

• Claude is helpful, harmless, and honest. At a high level, Claude is guided by principles that help it avoid harmful content, remain honest, and stay focused on being helpful.
• Claude is more than a chatbot — Claude is capable of a wide variety of conversations and text processing tasks while maintaining a high degree of nuance. You can use Claude for writing, analysis, coding, and much more.
• Before you start a conversation with Claude, consider writing the stage-setting prelude. By addressing the stage (context), defining the task, and specifying rules (format and style), you give Claude what it needs to produce exactly what you're looking for.
• The real power of Claude comes with a consistent and frequent collaboration practice.

Ways to access Claude

• Claude.ai (web, desktop, and mobile apps) — Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans
• Claude Apps: Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude for Chrome, Claude for Slack, Claude for Excel

Lesson reflection

Before moving on, consider:

• What is something you already use other tools for that Claude might help with?
• How might Claude's design principles (helpful, harmless, honest) affect how you work with it?
• What's one thing you'd like to try in your first conversation with Claude?