How are people using AI to help with everyday life?

I love this too. It taught me algebra because I could keep going back and asking "yeah but why?" and "I don't get it!)

Before AI ...

Dear SENCO,

That sounds great. It's good to know he's totally fine once in.

Thx.

And now...

Dear SENCO,

Thank you for your response. While I appreciate your reassurance that he appears "totally fine" once inside school, outward presentation should not be treated as reliable evidence that a child is not experiencing distress, particularly where masking may be a factor.

Please could you confirm, in writing, how the school intends to meet its duties under the Equality Act 2010, the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice, including what reasonable adjustments will be implemented to support his emotional regulation, transition into school and access to education.

I would also be grateful for copies of all relevant policies, the name of the person responsible for monitoring these measures, a proposed review date and the minutes of any meeting at which somebody has used the phrase "resilient young man."

Should an appropriate support plan not be forthcoming within five working days, I reserve the right to escalate the matter to the local authority, Ofsted, the Department for Education, the European Court of Human Rights and, depending on how the afternoon goes, the United Nations.

Kind Regards

Concerned Parent

Being too busy isn’t the same thing as not getting ‘joy’ from something. There’s so much day to day stuff that isn’t joyful but has to be done anyway.

But yes, if someone is much busier than the average person, I can see how AI can be useful.

We don't wonder at all. We know exactly what they are playing at.

It is a case of join in and keep your job for a little while before we all get replaced.

Or refuse it and lose your job now.

Yeah, humans are really wasteful @HelpMyBlackLabradorVotesReform . It’s not an either/or situation though, is it? The humans who frequently fly (which is by no means everybody) and create loads of waste will continue to do those things while also using AI and therefore using even more resources. Or are you saying that if we get AI to do everything, people will no longer fly to go on holiday or create waste? I don’t really understand your logic, but as an aside, who on earth is creating a whole bag of waste in a week just from their ‘lunch rubbish’? What rubbish?

I don't. It struggles to get a Google answer correct.
I can scribble my own schedules and write my own emails.

A person doing a task has a far greater environment impact than an AI. They both drink lots of water, the AI doesn't fly half the way around the world to sit on a beach on its holidays, the AI doesn't create a bag of waste a week with its lunch rubbish.

It's quite useful for deep company research, especially if it's complicated by lots of parent companies and especially if you are looking at ethical choices/issues (always check the source). And for pivot table assistance as I'm terrible at those. I never use it for anything personal. And as someone who sees a lot of job applications, well, my advice is don't use it for this although no one is listening.

Social media wasn't a problem in moderation either. At first, it was a great way to bring people together across distance and keep family and friends connected.

But it didn't stay that way, because the tech companies couldn't stop themselves seeking out profit. They designed algorithms to keep you on the app longer, and influence your mood and opinions. They turned a blind eye to cyber bullying and harmful content. We started out with Facebook and MySpace, and we've ended up with the normalisation of OnlyFans, and ten second TikTok reels frying our attention spans.

I do see that there are places where AI has valid uses. But I'm really suspicious of the hype, and I do think companies are trying to drum up demand and increase reliance, so they can recoup their own exorbitant R&D costs. They do not care about the impact it will have on society if we all learn to switch off our brains and let AI do our thinking for us. They welcome it, because it makes us good little sheep easier to advertise to. It's not being terrified of technology. It's looking at the lessons of the very recent past and being justifiably wary.

This thread - "how can I find even MORE uses for AI in my own home?" - doesn't seem at all genuine to me. It's screaming market research.

Yeah, fuck the environment, right? As long as it makes life a little bit easier for me

What a nasty post. Yes, I actually had a stroke after being on dialysis due to kidney failure and get mental fog and fatigue quite easily. And I find this reduces my stress in working out what goes with what.

I also use it to plan meals with what’s in my fridge. Another thing that I used to be able to do with ease and since struggle with.

AI has opened my world and made me feel like a normal person who can function better in life.

Depends what else you do doesn't it?

This month I'm at two conferences, one of which I'm presenting at, then in the States for a week, standing up a new onboarding process with the team, running two houses 300 miles apart and catching whatever urgent requests pop up in the middle of it. (And yes, I'm using AI to deliver all of that)

I enjoy these things. They give me challenge and purpose. Counting calories and meal planning when there's no need is unnecsseary context switching, and a waste of brain cycles that could be going on something I actually want to be doing!

That’s quite an extreme reaction. Once upon a time people couldn’t see how an office would function without a fax machine. Then there were people who said computers would never take off.

Things have always changed in the workplace but I’m not worried about my job. The job I do now didn’t exist even 20 years ago. As jobs become extinct, others take their place.

There’s no need to feel terrified about technology. You’re using it all the time. Whenever you do any online banking, use your mobile phone or order your food shopping online, AI is involved. You don’t have to embrace it if you don’t want to, but there are plenty of us who do, and find it helpful and exciting.

I'm guessing OP is a marketer trying to come up with ways to increase reliance on AI. Companies have massively overinvested in it and are now desperately trying to push it on people. Once they've created a reliance, subscriptions will increase in an attempt to recoup costs. This is why you also see so many new phones and laptops come preloaded with "AI features" you can't easily turn off.

They have control over the tech companies. They can make AI the default on devices. They can pay off businesses to make it the default there too. (Many of you have reported that AI use has become company policy and you face penalties if you don't go along with it.)

But what they can't do is force you to use it in your own free time, in your own home. To do that, they have to convince you it's a necessity and a super fun time, by masquerading as one of your peers. There are quite a few responses in this thread that feel like plants to me.

If you're the kind of person who hates that the price of Netflix keeps going up, and worries about how much of your private data is being funnelled to Chinese and American tech companies, I would resist AI now. Leaving aside all the big picture issues with it: we've all seen how people get dumbed down and rely on AI to do their thinking for them, when they use it too much. Once that happens to you, the tech companies have you over a barrel, and can charge what they want. Which they will, because they sunk billions into developing this tech and are desperate to recoup costs. The cost of your subscription will skyrocket, and the alternative will be the cheaper model made in China, which sends all your data back to the CCP. If you don't want to find yourself in that boat, fight this creeping bullshit now.

I used to be face to face with people that would tell me the same about the internet. Then they would proceed to ask me to do various tasks on the internet they couldn't do as they didn't "believe in using it"

I wonder if people were the same about electricity and railways

On mn lots of people seemed to get overwhelmed and exhausted by basic everyday tasks.

I work FT and I’m a carer to a ND child.

it’s one task ontop of a whole host that is overwhelming and tiring. I outsource the some I do the rest myself. Meal planning isn’t something I get joy from so getting AI to do it suits me.

id rather put my limited energy into other tasks.

Depends what else the average person has to do that day, doesn't it?

Senior people on the big bucks buy in help (or marry it!) to take on everyday task and the cognitive load that goes with them so they have time to focus on doing their big bucks jobs.

AI lets people on lesser bucks offload some of the same stuff.

Working out what to have for dinner and counting calories aren’t really overwhelming or tiring tasks for the average person, unless perhaps the person is ND or has some MH problems, in which case I could see how they might benefit from some support, either from another human or from a computer.

AI gives me a bad feeling, I don’t use it.

I get a weekly veg box and meat.

i sometimes copy qnd paste the list and quantities into google AI and ask it for a meal plan for the week. And provide recipes.

im also in weight loss mode atm and im down 40lbs so i get the ai to modify meals for me so i dont go too much over my daily cals.

its taking a lot of the stress of it out and helping me to learn new recipes.

its what I think it should be for. The potentially overwhelming home tasks that can sap energy.

@SnapAndTap I'm currently using ChatGPT to help me complete an Attendance Allowance form for someone who's issued are mainly to do with cognition and mental health.
I fed in a general description and then it went through the form for me and suggested concise but comprehensive replies.
Flagged up details I needed to check .
Produced a clear summary in a PDF file for me to send to another relative to check .

Health advice
Creative ideas as I'm rubbish at that
Techical stuff as I'm also rubbish at that!
Ways of dealing with difficult conversations and situations, it gives me ideas.

I'm not using it instead of using my brain, I am pretty independent but sometimes get stuck. It helps me put things in perspective and has enhanced my way of thinking. I think I'm autistic and I often need help so it helps me stop putting my foot in it!

I'd never take anything it says as gospel though, just different ideas.

Nothing. I've managed to exist for 60+ years without it so don't need it now.

I agree - they are 100% using it to cut people and justify not filling roles.

There was one use case they assigned to an agent in the backlog to build and when I joined this year, I removed it and justified why we needed to buy the actual tool and secondly, hire a person to manage that and everything else needed for the outputs. I won that battle (recruitment started this week) - I have to pick the right battles!