Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

I have begun relying on AI and I don’t know how I feel about it.

846 replies

Tusktusk · 21/05/2025 22:16

So far this month I have used AI to:

Analyse my colours (thanks MN) and suggest outfits

Create a menu of packed lunches around my dietary requirements and preferences, complete with a shopping list

Plan a holiday itinerary

Save me hours and hours of work and stress by suggesting really useful ways to overcome very particular work difficulties, having been thrown into an out of my comfort zone situation. I have used AI for this on a daily basis this week

Tonight, instead of posting my current family dilemma on mumsnet I chatted about it with Claude. The responses were really good. Wise, thoughtful, non judgemental, practical, understanding… like the best mumsnetters.

Am I starting to rely on it too much?

What have you been using it for?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
72
taxguru · 10/06/2025 19:55

At the end of the day, lots of self employed people rely on "the bloke down the pub", who may know ask AI instead, so it's likely to be more reliable, but still prone to mistakes. But as everyone knows, you HAVE to check your facts and sources. AI is no different. You're a fool if you blindly rely on AI for important things, just like you'd be a fool if you relied on Fred down the Nag's Head or a random poster on Facebook. All these "sources" can give you ideas/options, etc but you really still have to check things out yourself. In fact AI is better because once it gives you answer, you can ask it for sources/citations to find out why it's given the answer it has. That means you can check the sources quickly and simply which is a lot quicker and more reliable than scratting around trying to find your own sources.

Swirlythingy2025 · 10/06/2025 17:53

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 13:07

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/10/billion-dollar-ai-puzzle-break-down

Also interesting. The zealots should read and absorb the very last line.

but thats like saying a person makes a mistake , then replace them etc, programs are not always fully accurate and neither are humans,

Swirlythingy2025 · 10/06/2025 17:51

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 16:18

Good lord, the Holicaust fabrication angle is terrifying. I'm beginning to think the concept of the Mandeka effect is a psy op of massive proportions. Yikes.

but humans have been writing books that challenge different views etc long before Ai

Swirlythingy2025 · 10/06/2025 17:50

doodahdayy · 10/06/2025 16:06

Seriously?

Show quote history

is no different than using a washing machine, vs a bowl and wash by hand etc why use older methods ?

Swirlythingy2025 · 10/06/2025 17:47

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 16:23

Just to clarify, I mean real stories are vitally important in history, especially in this area, because the real victims should be honoured and remembered, not overwritten by AI. And what's to stop agenda driven types getting AI to start going the route of denial, in an age where people already distrust official narratives and will spread disinformation in a heartbeat without verifying?

I really, really want to unplug myself.

but even without Ai people have always wrote history, then rewrote history etc Ai does not change that.

pelargoniums · 10/06/2025 17:03

@MistressoftheDarkSide It’s impossible, isn’t it? I don’t use it directly and actively avoid it, but it’s there on the periphery: colleagues editing their bits of a report with Grammarly AI, all the work tools popping up going “Do you want to use the AI assistant?”, someone else sends in data crunched with AI, you’re asked to farm the translation work out to AI, after a meeting about it up pops the AI transcript.

And none of it is actually reducing workloads; I’m not suddenly twiddling my thumbs or able to leave early and enjoy some life because other people have engaged AI (largely because I have to re-research and rewrite the shite other people have made with it) – it’s just making bosses go “Ooh, look how much more we can make them do in a day”.

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 16:23

Just to clarify, I mean real stories are vitally important in history, especially in this area, because the real victims should be honoured and remembered, not overwritten by AI. And what's to stop agenda driven types getting AI to start going the route of denial, in an age where people already distrust official narratives and will spread disinformation in a heartbeat without verifying?

I really, really want to unplug myself.

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 16:18

Good lord, the Holicaust fabrication angle is terrifying. I'm beginning to think the concept of the Mandeka effect is a psy op of massive proportions. Yikes.

MereNoelle · 10/06/2025 16:09

GetMeOutOfHere20 · 10/06/2025 13:57

ChatGPT is down it’s affecting my ability to get on today. I have one ND child, one going through other health issues and I have a million and one admin things to get done for our house/life but also work. And I can’t do it all without AI. I need its speed.

What are you using it for?

ColourlessGreenIdeasSleepFuriously · 10/06/2025 16:06

ObliviousCoalmine · 10/06/2025 15:59

This is ridiculous.

Show quote history

I feel bad for this poster who clearly has a lot on her plate, but the answer cannot be using AI to keep running faster and faster on the treadmill instead of fixing the social safety net.

doodahdayy · 10/06/2025 16:06

GetMeOutOfHere20 · 10/06/2025 13:57

ChatGPT is down it’s affecting my ability to get on today. I have one ND child, one going through other health issues and I have a million and one admin things to get done for our house/life but also work. And I can’t do it all without AI. I need its speed.

Seriously?

ObliviousCoalmine · 10/06/2025 15:59

GetMeOutOfHere20 · 10/06/2025 13:57

ChatGPT is down it’s affecting my ability to get on today. I have one ND child, one going through other health issues and I have a million and one admin things to get done for our house/life but also work. And I can’t do it all without AI. I need its speed.

This is ridiculous.

GetMeOutOfHere20 · 10/06/2025 13:57

ChatGPT is down it’s affecting my ability to get on today. I have one ND child, one going through other health issues and I have a million and one admin things to get done for our house/life but also work. And I can’t do it all without AI. I need its speed.

MistressoftheDarkSide · 10/06/2025 11:52

https://bigthink.com/the-future/what-happens-the-day-after-humans-create-agi/

A thoughtful piece.

Goes back to my belief that we are engineering our own obsolescence far more totally than we want to think.

I'm absolutely not going to touch the damn thing with a barge pole, at least not consciously. And there's the rub. I may have no choice because everything online will have a flavour of it, and one cannot avoid being online entirely.

Now if they could perfect time travel, that might actually be useful.

What happens the day after humanity creates AGI?

"We are racing towards a new era in which we outsource cognitive abilities that are central to our identity as thinking beings."

https://bigthink.com/the-future/what-happens-the-day-after-humans-create-agi/

ColourlessGreenIdeasSleepFuriously · 10/06/2025 08:30

https://bsrlm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BSRLM-CP-45-1-10.pdf

'All sizzle, no steak: AI tools are not able to act as credible knowledge brokers by summarising evidence in mathematics education'

https://bsrlm.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BSRLM-CP-45-1-10.pdf

chaosmaker · 09/06/2025 22:35

How did they need to do a study to figure that out - or was it cos they'd already killed their critical thinking skills?

RichardMarxisinnocent · 07/06/2025 14:00

I have tried it out every so often and found the results to be pretty rubbish. The emails it writes are far too verbose, and full of unnecessary extra words, phrase and sentences. They also don't read anything like something I'd write, so the recipient would likely think I had lost my mind and was being really pretentious.

I've just asked it for suggestions for venues for a casual date night - it suggested 2 cinemas in my city which no longer exist and haven't done for at least 4 years. It didn't suggest the cinemas which do exist. I would never trust it to give me accurate information.

ColourlessGreenIdeasSleepFuriously · 07/06/2025 11:55

😑

I have begun relying on AI and I don’t know how I feel about it.
doodahdayy · 07/06/2025 08:55

DrBlackbird · 07/06/2025 08:44

Therapy chatbot tells recovering addict to have a little meth 🙄😑

My DN’s uni friends all use it for therapy. Fuelling even more a therapy as the answer mindset (sometimes it helps, often it doesn’t) and sharing the most intimate details with Open AI in the process.

Show quote history

I find it so sad that anyone would trust it for therapy and tell it their darkest secrets. I know Theres are massive waiting lists on the nhs though

DrBlackbird · 07/06/2025 08:44

ColourlessGreenIdeasSleepFuriously · 05/06/2025 06:58

😐

Therapy chatbot tells recovering addict to have a little meth 🙄😑

My DN’s uni friends all use it for therapy. Fuelling even more a therapy as the answer mindset (sometimes it helps, often it doesn’t) and sharing the most intimate details with Open AI in the process.