I want to use AI to build websites and useful tools. Before I get too far, I want to understand what I am giving those tools permission to do.
My background is in marketing and design. I am learning this part as I go, and I thought it might help to share the process with others and document it for myself.
I’m both a Mac and a Windows user. For this exercise, my setup is on Windows 11 Pro. Some of the steps will be specific to that computer, but the main questions apply to Mac, Linux, and browser-based tools too.
As I’ve undertaken some AI projects to learn, I’ve had some questions rummaging around in my head. Can this tool read my personal files? Can it change something outside the project? Can it use an account that spends money or publishes work? If something goes wrong, can I recover? Given these questions, and others, I decided I should dig into being sure the computer I am using for AI development work is setup based on best practices from professionals who know what they are doing (better than I do). I want to do the best I can to ensure my foundation is solid.
Those questions matter because an AI tool can do more than suggest an answer. Depending on the access we give it, it may edit files, run software, use connected services, or take actions on our behalf.
All of that can be useful. However, it also deserves a little preparation to ensure a secure and safe foundation to build upon.
In this series, I will work through protecting existing files, separating personal and project work, choosing a development workspace, saving changes, securing accounts, and limiting AI access. Then I will cover testing those limits, moving existing work, and preparing a small project for real use.
By AI development, I mean using AI to help build software, aid design work, and more as well as adding AI features to projects. This series also applies to AI work with documents and connected apps. Training large models has additional requirements beyond this setup. I do not plan to cover all aspects and am sure I will miss some things.
I am not presenting a perfect setup or claiming to be a security expert. I am sharing what I am learning, doing, and the questions I want to answer before the stakes get higher.
If you are starting too, choose one small practice project. Use made-up information and files you can afford to replace. We can learn the workflow there before involving customers or important records.
Let’s go, learn something new, and have fun.