Will you join Prompt for America?

A call for a grassroots movement for helping Americans move from AI anxiety to AI agency.

A friend prompted me to consider what I’d do with an extra eight hours each day. This post is my attempt at an answer. If you’d answer in a similar way, send me a note or leave a comment.

Do you consider yourself AI savvy?
Do you use Claude on a daily basis?
Do you wake up thinking about token-maxxing?
Does your LinkedIn profile now include “builder”?

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you’re part of “Prompt for America” (PfA).

I know you didn’t sign up, but it’s your obligation to help other Americans join you in the future. We need you to be the AI-equivalent of a driving instructor: meeting people where they are (literally), taking note of their goals, aspirations, and backgrounds (letting them practice in their own car on their local streets), and setting them up for success (allowing them to take the wheel).

Your service in PfA is what will help us avoid the faults of yesterday’s technological transitions, when productivity gains were concentrated in a few communities and among even fewer individuals, and when people developed unhealthy habits that subverted their ability to steer a new technology rather than be controlled by it.

The future belongs to people who adopt AI. For all of its faults, this technology is a game-changer when it comes to empowering individuals to do more things. People can learn new skills, create whole companies, and assert and defend their rights with a few prompts. That’s absolutely wild, and it should be a transformation that unleashes human flourishing in communities across America.

AI literacy will also become the prerequisite for the jobs of the future. Sooner than later, you won’t even list your AI skills on your resume because, like “Proficient in Microsoft Office,” employers will just assume that’s the case. By helping more Americans learn these tools sooner, in a manner that reflects their goals and values, you’ll give them the best odds of charting a path through a turbulent economic period.

Despite the importance of AI to personal and professional well-being today and for many tomorrows, most Americans are still at the parking-lot stage of learning how to use AI. They’re behind the wheel of an incredible technology, but they don’t know how it works, how to steer it, or how to stay safe during a downpour or traffic jam. So they’re still practicing stops and turn signals in the empty lot behind the Best Buy.

It’s likely that many of them will never venture onto main roads, let alone the highway. They’ve heard about AI agents deleting hundreds of files. They’ve read about lawyers embarrassing themselves before judges by submitting briefs filled with hallucinated citations. They’ve listened to podcasts warning that AI will turn our brains to mush and send our kids down emotional spirals. You, too, would be afraid of a car if your only exposure to driving came from crash reports and horror stories.

That’s precisely why you’ve been voluntold to join Prompt for America. You’re the driving instructor who turns a teenager afraid to hit the gas into someone thrilled by the autonomy of driving to the grocery store, the freedom of moving to a new city, and the joy of exploring the open road. An army of individuals willing to sit down with their neighbors and explain how and why they use AI is an underappreciated avenue for catalyzing a tremendous amount of positive change.

So where do we go from here?

Like many projects that should have started yesterday, this effort should begin as an informal, grassroots movement. It’s easier than ever for people to coordinate and collaborate across borders and communities. Those eager to be part of Prompt for America should not wait for a state or federal official to give a stamp of approval to their efforts. Formal recognition and support are worthy long-term goals. The short term demands a more immediate response.

There are four ingredients necessary to get this effort underway:

Space.
Tools.
Attendees.
Experts.

Space should be easy. Public libraries, public schools, churches, and office-building lobbies are all fair game. The goal should be centrally located, public-transit-accessible, internet-equipped locations that don’t break the bank.

Tools are a bigger challenge, but my hunch is that the labs will step up to do PfA a solid. They should, if they want some sorely needed good PR. Labs can partner with PfA to donate access and credits to their tools. If they refuse, PfA can still make substantial progress by relying on free versions or open-source models. The latter may even prove preferable if they can be configured to the needs of a specific audience.

Attendees won’t be hard to find. My experience has been that people are hungry to learn the basics of AI. That may partly reflect living in Austin, but I suspect parents, teachers, workers, and retirees across the country are eager for practical guidance from people they trust. Many may even have AI training available through work and still prefer a setting where they can experiment without their boss hovering nearby.

Experts: that’s you, remember? The AI class needs to wake up to the importance of helping millions of Americans learn how to use these transformative tools. And while I wish that mission alone were enough to inspire people to volunteer, I’m realistic enough to know incentives matter. Again, the labs can help. Plenty of people would gladly run a one-hour AI training session in exchange for discounted access to Claude or another frontier model. Surely we can make participation worthwhile for people who already feel like there aren’t enough hours nor tokens in the day.

So where do we go from here?

First, let me know if you’re interested by leaving a comment.

Second, tell other people you’re interested and that they should be too. Tag them in your comment for a little peer pressure.

Third, let’s design a few really practical AI 101 sessions.

Fourth, let’s run some pilots. The first one can happen right here in Austin at the law school.

Fifth, keep prompting and helping others do the same.

The goal is simple: get more Americans out of the parking lot and onto the road while they still have time to choose where they’re headed.