Ask AI to explain anything in plain English

You ask what something means and the answer arrives full of words that need explaining themselves. That's not you missing something. The AI has no idea how much you already know, so it aims somewhere down the middle. Half technical, written for nobody in particular. Naming the person the explanation is for is what moves it.

What a thin request looks like

Most people start here:

explain machine learning

The built version names who it's for, asks for the answer in one sentence before the detail, sets a length, and tells the AI to define any term it can't avoid.

Build your prompt

Role Act as a patient teacher.

Task Explain the topic below to someone with no background in it.

Context I haven't said what I want explained yet. Ask me for the topic first.

Format Start with one plain sentence that answers it, then explain the rest underneath.

Constraint Keep it under 250 words. Keep the tone friendly.

Guardrail Do not use jargon. If you must use a term, define it in the same sentence.

Show as plain text 
Act as a patient teacher.
Explain the topic below to someone with no background in it.
I haven't said what I want explained yet. Ask me for the topic first.
Start with one plain sentence that answers it, then explain the rest underneath.
Keep it under 250 words. Keep the tone friendly.
Do not use jargon. If you must use a term, define it in the same sentence.

Why this prompt works

Role
Telling the AI who to be aims the voice before it writes a word. Skip this line and the draft tends to drift toward the flat, committee-written tone everyone recognizes on sight.
Task
One clear instruction, with one verb. A vague ask gets a vague answer, and most disappointing results start right here.
Context
The AI knows nothing about your situation. Anything you leave out, it fills in with a guess, and that guess is why so many drafts come back sounding like they were written for somebody else.
Format
This is the line that asks for bullets, or a subject line on top, or one idea per row. Leave it out and the answer usually arrives as a block of paragraphs you have to chop apart by hand before you can use any of it.
Constraint
Left to itself, the AI writes long and formal, so name the length and the tone you actually want.
Guardrail
This line names the two habits that waste the most of your time and asks the AI to skip them: inventing facts that sound right, and padding the answer to feel thorough. It will not always listen, but the asking costs you nothing.

Frequently asked questions

What if the explanation is still too hard?

Pick a simpler reader and build it again. Asking for "a ten-year-old" aims the prompt somewhere very different from "someone with no background". You can also paste the sentence that lost you back into the chat and ask for that part on its own.

Is asking for the ten-year-old version a bad idea?

Not for a first pass. It asks for short sentences and everyday words, which is what you want when nothing has clicked yet. Once the shape makes sense, ask the same question again for a reader who knows a little more.

Can I trust the explanation?

Treat it as a way in rather than a source. A clear explanation can still be wrong, and a confident tone isn't evidence of anything. If you plan to rely on a particular part of it, check that part somewhere else.

More on this: How does AI actually work, or pick another job on the prompt builder page.