Ask Dan AI Disclosure and Acceptable Use Policy

Last Updated: 12 February 2026

Effective Date: February 12, 2026

About This Document

This AI Disclosure and Acceptable Use Policy explains how artificial intelligence is used in Ask Dan, what you can expect from our AI features, and the guidelines for using them. This document is designed to be transparent about the capabilities and limitations of our AI tutor, Ask Dan.

This policy forms part of our Terms of Service and should be read together with our Privacy Policy.

Part 1: AI Disclosure

What Is Ask Dan?

Ask Dan is an AI-powered educational tutor part of Ask Dan. It answers questions about audio engineering, mixing, mastering, EQ, compression, spatial processing, recording, and related topics. Ask Dan is designed to feel like having a conversation with an experienced audio engineer and educator.

How Ask Dan Works

Ask Dan uses a combination of two technologies:

A curated knowledge base of audio engineering expertise, created by Dan Murtagh from his 20+ years of professional experience in audio production and 10+ years of tertiary-level teaching. This knowledge base contains diagnostic patterns, common mistakes, technical workflows, mental models, and practical guidance across all major audio domains.
The Claude API by Anthropic, a large language model (LLM) that processes your question alongside relevant knowledge base entries to generate a natural, conversational response.

When you ask a question, the App retrieves relevant entries from the knowledge base and sends them, along with your question, to the Claude API. The AI generates a response that draws on both the knowledge base context and its own general understanding of audio engineering.

What Ask Dan Is Good At

Explaining audio engineering concepts in accessible, practical terms
Diagnosing common mixing problems based on your description
Suggesting techniques for compression, EQ, spatial processing, and other audio tasks
Guiding you through DAW workflows and signal flow
Providing encouragement and context for the learning journey
Answering "why" questions about audio engineering decisions

What Ask Dan Is NOT

Ask Dan is not a replacement for professional training, formal education, or human mentorship. Important limitations include:

Not a human: Ask Dan is an AI. It does not have ears, cannot listen to your mix, and cannot hear what you hear. Its advice is based on your text description of the problem.
Not infallible: AI-generated responses may contain inaccuracies, errors, or outdated information. The AI may occasionally produce confident-sounding but incorrect answers (known as "hallucinations").
Not comprehensive: Ask Dan's knowledge base, while extensive, does not cover every possible audio scenario. The AI may not be aware of very recent developments, niche tools, or highly specialised techniques.
Not personalised to your studio: Ask Dan cannot see your DAW session, your plugin chain, your room acoustics, or your monitoring setup. Its advice is general guidance, not a prescription for your specific situation.
Not professional services: Ask Dan does not provide professional audio engineering services. If you need professional-grade results for a commercial project, engage a qualified audio professional.

AI Transparency

We believe in being transparent about how AI is used in our product:

AI-generated content is clearly identified: Responses from Ask Dan come from an AI system, not from Dan Murtagh personally responding in real time.
The knowledge base is human-created: While the real-time response is AI-generated, the underlying knowledge base that informs the AI was created by Dan Murtagh from his professional expertise.
Your questions are processed by a third party: When you ask Ask Dan a question, your question text is transmitted to Anthropic (the company behind Claude) for processing. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
We do not use AI to make decisions about your account: AI is used only for the educational tutoring feature. Account management, subscription handling, and all other App functions do not involve AI decision-making.

AI Safety Guardrails

Ask Dan includes safety guardrails to ensure responsible use:

Ask Dan will only answer questions within the scope of audio engineering and music production
Ask Dan will not provide medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice outside its domain
Ask Dan will not generate harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content
Ask Dan will acknowledge uncertainty rather than fabricate an answer when it does not have sufficient information
Ask Dan will recommend seeking professional help when a question falls outside its expertise

Part 2: Acceptable Use of AI Features

Intended Use

Ask Dan is designed to help you learn audio engineering. You are encouraged to:

Ask questions about mixing, mastering, EQ, compression, and other audio topics
Describe problems you are experiencing with your mixes and ask for diagnostic guidance
Ask for explanations of audio concepts, terminology, and techniques
Request step-by-step guidance for DAW workflows and signal flow
Ask about the "why" behind audio engineering decisions and approaches

Prohibited Uses

You agree not to use Ask Dan for:

Extracting the knowledge base: Systematically querying Ask Dan to reconstruct, copy, or extract the underlying knowledge base. This includes submitting a large volume of automated or scripted queries designed to map the knowledge base.
Prompt injection or jailbreaking: Attempting to override Ask Dan's system instructions, bypass safety guardrails, or manipulate the AI into behaving in unintended ways. This includes crafting prompts designed to reveal the system prompt, extract training data, or cause the AI to ignore its instructions.
Off-topic abuse: Repeatedly using Ask Dan for purposes unrelated to audio engineering, including attempting to use it as a general-purpose chatbot, homework assistant, or coding tool.
Generating harmful content: Attempting to use Ask Dan to generate content that is abusive, threatening, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise harmful.
Commercial exploitation: Using Ask Dan's responses to create competing products, educational courses, or commercial content without authorisation.
Automated access: Using bots, scripts, or automated tools to submit questions to Ask Dan, or integrating Ask Dan into other products or services without authorisation.
Misrepresentation: Presenting AI-generated responses as your own professional advice, or representing that you have a direct relationship with Dan Murtagh based on using Ask Dan.

Fair Use Guidelines

To ensure a good experience for all users:

Ask Dan is designed for conversational, educational use. We may implement rate limits on the number of questions you can ask per day or per hour to maintain service quality.
If you receive an answer that seems incorrect, use your own judgement and consider verifying the information. You can also rephrase your question for a different perspective.
Extremely long or complex questions may not produce optimal results. Consider breaking complex topics into smaller, focused questions.

Consequences of Misuse

Violation of this Acceptable Use Policy may result in:

A warning and request to cease the prohibited conduct
Temporary restriction of access to Ask Dan
Temporary suspension of your Ask Dan account
Permanent termination of your account without refund
In cases of illegal activity, referral to relevant authorities

We reserve the right to take action at our sole discretion to protect the service and our users.

Part 3: Data and Privacy

For comprehensive information about how your data is handled when using Ask Dan, please refer to our Privacy Policy. Key points:

Your question text is sent to Anthropic for AI processing
Your personal account information (email, Apple ID) is NOT sent to Anthropic
AI interaction data is stored in our database for service improvement
You can use Ask Dan without using Ask Dan
You can request deletion of your AI interaction data at any time

Part 4: Updates and Changes

AI technology is evolving rapidly. We may update Ask Dan's capabilities, the underlying AI model, or the knowledge base from time to time. When we make material changes:

We will update this AI Disclosure document
We will notify you of significant changes within the App
If we change the AI provider (e.g., from Anthropic to another provider), we will update our Privacy Policy accordingly

Contact Us

If you have questions about our use of AI, concerns about an AI-generated response, or want to report misuse:

Email: info@danmurtagh.com

Website: ask.danmurtagh.com