How are people using AI to help with everyday life?

This is one of the reasons people think AI companies are overvalued. People don’t need to use LLMs for 95% of tasks- they could as easily use SLMs more cheaply and with less waste of resources.

But I think your distinction between using AI and using the internet misses something. When you do a google search, Google uses AI to interpret your question, rank the results etc. I’m not talking here about the annoying AI answer at the top- basic search results are provided to you with use of AI. Everyone who uses the internet uses AI whether they know it or not.

I use it to help with treatment options at the doctors having been fobbed off for years. I put all my symptoms and variables in and it gives me options to discuss with my doctor that I wouldn’t have known were available.

Yes, I have tried many different AI models that are we are encouraged to use at work.

The most impressive thing they do is transcribe meetings and calls with... 95%? accuracy.Their summaries are OK but they will sometimes hallucinate The moment they try and conclude anything about what's going on, they take the most route one, generic interpretation, although if you prompt them with alternative ideas, they are happy to pretend they had also thought of that, and that it is the best choice.

They don't count or understand time very well, or make maps.

Image and moving image generation is usually good, as long as you start with quality original inputs . (i.e. not those terrible AI-slop charity event posters you see everywhere.)

They are really quick to churn out variants of a thing - remixing things you've done before. So you can get them to sing bad power ballards or make boring podcasts or create generic lesson plans about the Vikings.

But actually getting them to create or critique something new and you get something that looks OK at first glance but either falls apart under scrutiny or is the most basic generic take pumped up with fancy language.

Quote " I think a lot of people dunt know how to use it and are scared of it."

I don't think it's a matter of not knowing how to use it, I think going by your list above, that people don't need to use it.

Genuine question. And also, the same question to so many here. Do you know how to use the normal internet ? I am sure you do, because you are here.

Take a UK trip for example. Say you fancied a weekend in Whitby. Would you not just search for Whitby on the web ? Maybe use Tripadvisor etc ? Maybe look at a paper map to find the best route ?

I just don't see anything on your list that I would need to use AI for. Indeed, I would not want to use AI for some of those things because AI is not 100% accurate.

It’s absolutely standard across many industries, not specific to my employer. You’re right about the job cutting, of course.

That depends on what you are using and what settings you have chosen. Copilot is governed by the Microsoft data protection policy and cannot use your input for machine learning.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy

Why are you so emotional about the uses other people find for AI?

Because all technology is equal, right?

"I take it none of you use sarin gas, pervert glasses or assault rifles, either?

Great - and by inputting your unique personal thoughts into the LLM you've made them available for anyone who asks the LLM for answers next time!

I take it none of you drive cars, go on aeroplanes, have a mobile phone or DC either?

Have you tried it? It was considerably more useful to me than a couple of professional editorial assessments.

No I haven't.
I have inputted my unique personal statement written by me and about me which included specific clinical scenerios that I have experienced of decades of clinical practice across several specialities, followed my multiple verbal answers inputted by me in every attempt.
All it does is put those thoughts in order, gives both positive and negative feedback and help me get me to 'regurgitate' my OWN personal epxeriences, thoughts and feelings using a recognised STAR format expected in interview.
It's then helped me practice them over and over in a reasonable mock up of an interview rather than feeling like an idiot stood in front of a mirror, which has only ever made my crippling interview anxiety (paranoia) a million times worse in the past, or in writting which never worked, i've never struggled with getting my thoughts down coherently on paper, it is turning them into a coherant sentence under pressure of a full interview panel that is my problem.

Exactly, it is a probability machine. It has no original insight or creativity.

I sometimes use it to do more complex searches or tidy up or shorten a document I habe writen. I have also found it quite good at making dull, wordy powerpoint slides a bit cleaner or better presented.

Using a robot to critique your human creativity is possibly the dumbest thing I've read so far on this thread.

It has no insights. It has no sensitivity. LLMs are literally "the kind of things people might say next in this kind of situation" machines.

I use DuckDuckGo purely because you can configure it to be very stripped down and omit distracting things like AI summaries. That's more of an accessibility thing for me though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_AI

I'm personally irritated that the growth of data centres has led to memory cards being three times the price they were last year. Thankfully I don't need a new phone or computer any time soon.

But Google gives AI as the first reply now.
Do you still use Google?

How is it terrible for the environment?

I have this irrational fear if I leap down the AI rabbit hole my brain will not function as it does now.
I can research my own information perfectly easily , why is there a need?
It’s the same way I don’t want to forget important phone numbers just because my iPhone remembers them for me…
Agree wholeheartedly at the poorly written messages being so easy to identify too…

If you search and put -AI at the end it turns it off but you need to do it for every search

Yes. It's wasting a huge amount of public sector time now I understand. And you will end up with the public sector deciding to get AI to write the response and then really what is the point any more ?

I avoid it whenever possible. When I use Google search it is the top of the list and is often obviously incomplete and sometimes wrong - but you can't turn it off.

As someone who has to read and answer some of those emails and letters people get AI to wrote to organisations.... I really wish peope wouldn't.

Everyone has seen massive increase in verbose, badly written and often down right wrong letters nd emails. It's really tedious having to try and extract the relevant detail from the acres of badly written robot wank. And oh my god tbe bullet points. Make it stop!

AI is incredibly useful. I use Copilot to

Troubleshoot software glitches that would previously have had me trawling through pages of Microsoft/Reddit suggested answers in search of an effective solution

Identify emotional patterns in tricky situations

Offer sensitive feedback on creative writing - it's very good for this, with insightful comments on revisions

Refine my training plan (running etc) and measure progress in detail

Also other random stuff like identifying an unusual pebble found on a beach!

I think it’s a real risk in lots of industries, but we’ve been through plenty of these events before where automation replaces workers, it’s just life. Employment has (thus far) adapted to new conditions. Think of how different the working world is now compared to 40years ago.

I think there’s plenty to be concerned about with AI, but it’s part of a bigger picture where technology comes in, is adopted and changes how we do things. It’s not an anomaly in that sense.

In a general sense, yes, we have to accept that technology develops and our lives change. But in a specific-to-me sense, no. If I was sacked and replaced at work by an AI agent, I wouldn't be so breezy about it! And in my industry that's a real risk.