Welcome to Critical Thinking with AI

The Decision You Almost Got Wrong

You read a headline: “Study Shows Coffee Reduces Cancer Risk by 40%.” You love coffee. You shared the article. You felt validated.

But if you’d looked closer: the study was funded by a coffee industry group, included only 47 participants, showed correlation rather than causation, and the 40% figure was relative risk reduction from a tiny baseline. The actual risk difference was negligible.

This isn’t about coffee. It’s about how easily we accept information that confirms what we already believe. And how rarely we have the tools to evaluate it properly.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

Evaluate claims by examining evidence quality, source credibility, and logical structure
Identify common cognitive biases in your own thinking and in arguments you encounter
Distinguish valid reasoning from logical fallacies in everyday situations
Apply structured decision frameworks to complex problems
Use AI as a reasoning partner to stress-test assumptions
Construct well-reasoned arguments supported by evidence and sound logic

What to Expect

This course has 8 lessons that build your critical thinking toolkit progressively. Each lesson introduces a concept, shows real-world examples, and gives you practice tools with AI.

Lesson	Topic	Duration
1	Welcome (you are here)	10 min
2	Evaluating Claims and Evidence	12 min
3	Cognitive Biases That Distort Thinking	15 min
4	Logical Fallacies in Everyday Arguments	15 min
5	Assessing Evidence and Source Credibility	15 min
6	Decision Frameworks for Complex Problems	15 min
7	Constructing Strong Arguments	15 min
8	Capstone: Analyze a Real-World Claim	20 min

Why Critical Thinking Matters Now

We live in an information environment that’s fundamentally different from any previous generation. Consider what your brain processes daily:

Social media algorithms optimize for engagement, not accuracy
AI-generated content can produce convincing text, images, and videos that never happened
Marketing uses psychological techniques designed to bypass rational evaluation
News cycles reward speed over accuracy and outrage over nuance

The volume of information has exploded. The tools for evaluating it haven’t kept pace—until now. AI can help you process, evaluate, and challenge information at a scale your brain alone cannot.

The Critical Thinking Toolkit

Think of critical thinking as a toolkit with specific instruments for specific tasks:

Tool	Purpose	You’ll Learn In
Claim evaluation	Assess whether a statement is supported by evidence	Lesson 2
Bias detection	Recognize when mental shortcuts distort your judgment	Lesson 3
Fallacy identification	Spot flawed reasoning in arguments	Lesson 4
Source assessment	Evaluate who’s making a claim and why	Lesson 5
Decision frameworks	Structure complex decisions with multiple variables	Lesson 6
Argument construction	Build persuasive, logically sound arguments	Lesson 7

Each tool has specific steps you can follow. Critical thinking isn’t vague—it’s procedural.

AI as Your Thinking Partner

Here’s how AI transforms each aspect of critical thinking:

I want to evaluate this claim: [paste a claim]

Help me think critically about it:
1. What evidence would I need to accept this claim?
2. What alternative explanations exist?
3. What cognitive biases might make me accept or
   reject this too quickly?
4. Who benefits from me believing this?
5. What would change my mind?

This single prompt exercises multiple critical thinking skills simultaneously. Throughout this course, you’ll build a library of prompts for different thinking challenges.

Your First Quick Win

Think of a belief you hold strongly—about work, health, politics, or anything else. Now ask yourself honestly: “When was the last time I actively looked for evidence against this belief?”

If the answer is “never” or “I can’t remember,” you’ve just identified a blind spot. Try this:

I believe [your strong belief].
Play devil's advocate. Give me the 3 strongest
arguments against this belief, using evidence and
logic. Don't be gentle—challenge me genuinely.
Then help me evaluate whether my belief should
change, strengthen, or become more nuanced.

This exercise—deliberately seeking evidence against what you believe—is the single most important critical thinking habit you can develop.

Key Takeaways

Critical thinking is a learnable set of skills, not an innate trait—it improves with practice
The modern information environment makes critical thinking more important than ever
AI serves as a reasoning partner: bias checker, devil’s advocate, and logic evaluator
The toolkit includes claim evaluation, bias detection, fallacy identification, and decision frameworks
Deliberately seeking evidence against your own beliefs is the foundation of good thinking

Up Next

In Lesson 2: Evaluating Claims and Evidence, we’ll learn the specific steps for assessing any claim—from news headlines to business proposals—using a structured evaluation framework.