Why Plain AI exists

This is voluntary work. There's no business model, no signup, no premium tier. There never will be.

Most explanations of AI sound like marketing or panic. The honest middle was missing, so it's getting written one topic at a time, in the language a friend or family member would actually use.

Anyone can copy, translate, or reuse anything here under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 — the same licence Wikipedia uses. If a school, parent group, library, or community group wants to take a lesson and run with it, that's the point.

What you won't find here

• Streaks, badges, points, or "come back tomorrow" loops
• Email signup forms or notifications
• Sponsored content, vendor logos, or affiliate links
• A paid tier, premium lessons, or paid certificates
• Tracking pixels or per-visit analytics
• A login wall

What you will find

• Short pages, one idea each
• Real examples
• Honest takes — including when AI is good, and when it's overselling
• Lessons that try to be useful, not addictive
• Translations as they're contributed by community

If a feature would distract from those, it doesn't ship — even if it would help "the brand."

What data this site collects

Almost nothing.

• No accounts. No email signup. No way to log in.
• No cookies for lessons. Reading any page sets nothing on your device.
• Search runs in your browser. Your queries don't leave it.
• The flashcard deck stores your own card choices in your browser's local storage. Not on our server. Clear your browser data and they're gone.
• Hosting (Cloudflare Pages) may give us aggregate page-counts, like which lessons get visited. We don't track individual readers.
• No third-party trackers. No Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, nothing of that shape.

How this is funded

It isn't. There's no business behind this site. The hosting costs are pocket money. The work is hours that would otherwise be Netflix.

The aim isn't growth. The aim is: someone reading this should leave understanding more, with less anxiety, faster — and never feel like the page wanted something from them in return.

How this is made

This site is made by Sush, with help from AI tools — drafting text, sketching diagrams, suggesting examples. Everything that sounds like Plain AI was passed through a voice gate (mum, dinner-table, 12-year-old, honesty) and edited by hand before it shipped. Where AI made an illustration, the page says so.

We're honest about using AI to make a site about AI. Refusing to would be precious, not principled.

How accuracy is checked

Claims with dates, numbers, named studies, or named cases are checked against primary or named sources before publishing. Sources are linked at the bottom of every lesson and topic. If something is uncertain, the page should say so. If you spot something wrong, email hello@aguidetocloud.com and the correction goes in fast.

Independence

Sush works at Microsoft NZ as a Copilot solutions engineer in his day job. Microsoft does not sponsor, review, or approve Plain AI. This is personal volunteer work, written outside work hours, on personal hosting.

Why CC BY-SA 4.0, not CC BY-NC

Some "free" projects use a non-commercial licence. That sounds protective but it actually blocks good actors — school textbook publishers, libraries running paid programmes, NGOs that charge participants for printing. They're the ones who'd take this content furthest.

CC BY-SA 4.0 lets anyone use it, including commercially, on the condition that derivatives stay open under the same licence. The commons grows; it doesn't get locked back up.

If you spot something wrong

Use the feedback page on the main site, or email hello@aguidetocloud.com. Corrections matter. They get acted on.

— Plain AI