How are people using AI to help with everyday life?

Right, so you never outsource a task you're perfectly capable of doing yourself simply because it's tedious or time-consuming? 😂 Why not write everything by hand while you're at it? The whole point of technology is to make life easier. If I can explain my thoughts to AI and have it write an email in thirty seconds that would otherwise take me ten minutes to type out, why on earth wouldn't I? The thoughts are still mine, the message is still mine, and the recipient gets exactly the same information. I'm genuinely baffled by the idea that communication somehow becomes less authentic because I didn't personally type every word but congratulations on turning wasting your own time into some sort of moral virtue.

I write by hand @pinck , I much prefer it to typing. And it’s better for your brain (there are studies on it).

To be fair, my work doesn’t involve writing but I write a lot at home- shopping lists, to do lists, plans, ideas. I have a few notebooks on the go at any one time; one by my bed, one in my handbag, one in the car etc

I realise most people type everything and use AI, and that’s their business and no concern of mine. As long as no one takes the piss out of me for the way I do things, we’re all good.

I don’t.

I think deskilling ourselves like this will prove disastrous.

My lessons are far easier to plan! When you’re having to deliver over achieving, achieving, struggling, send, scaffolding for every lesson. It makes a massive difference.

Congratulations on your shopping lists and extensive notebook collection, I guess? 😂 Nobody is suggesting handwriting is a lost art or that you need to abandon your pen, but writing your grocery list by hand doesn't make you intellectually superior to someone who types theirs. And if you're that concerned about technology doing things for you, why not write out all your Mumsnet posts by hand, photograph them with a film camera, get the film developed, scan the pictures and upload them here? Surely that would be even better for your brain. Wouldn't want to take any technological shortcuts now, would we?

My handwritings terrible but I write shopping lists etc by hand because it helps me remember what I need to buy (when I inevitably forget the actual list). For revision etc rewriting notes by hand is a more effective way of learning them than just re-reading. For work I would always send emails/type things out though as I wouldn't inflict my writing on others.

I use ChatGPT for absolutely loads! 😂 It's become a bit of a personal assistant, researcher, sounding board and life coach all rolled into one.

I use it to research health concerns, compare products and cars before buying, plan days out and holidays, and analyse finances.

I also use it to challenge my thinking, explore my strengths and weaknesses, and understand myself better.

I'm naturally curious and love researching things, so it's like having someone available 24/7 who never gets bored of my endless questions! 😂

I don’t use it. 😐 Maybe I should learn for fear of being left behind!

I mostly use mine for menu planning and recipes.

I’m not. I like using my brain and it’s quicker and easier for me to do things myself than ask a computer to do it for me and then check it.
Nothing I do in my life can be improved by a computer doing it for me.

It’s people using it all the time who will be left behind, as their brains turn to mush.

I don’t know why my post upset you so much but I’m sorry for that. I was just joining in the conversation; didn’t really expect to be laughed at.

Hope you have a good day.

The generation of kids at school now will be popping themselves in care homes at 60 due to the early onset dementia as they aren’t using their brains properly anymore.

I can understand the despair from PPs who have to deal with long AI-generated emails all day, that must be maddening.

But AI can be used in so many ways, some of them extremely helpful, and it doesn't mean our brains are atrophying - just focused on different tasks. Watching telly is probably more damaging!

I do think it would be good if you popped back OP! Otherwise your thread does look a bit like a market research exercise 😜

What different tasks do you need to focus your attention on? Companies no longer need as many staff due to AI so it can’t be making many people more productive elsewhere, or using those optical thinking skills. Tv is something usually done in leisure so is pretty irrelevant

I try to use it as little as possible. It’s a great tool for time-saving for some mundane tasks, but I worry about the effect on problem solving ability and creativity.

Just as an example: in my work, it speeds up what would otherwise have taken multiple Google searches. And yes, I do double-check the facts, but it's an enormous timesaver.

Re telly, I just mean that it has a very homogenising effect on the way people think. Which is probably not such a bad thing - the quality of UK TV (compared with other countries) might explain why we don't have revolutions here 😁

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This. It's really sad how people are just outsourcing their brains and some becoming unable to think for themselves.
It's also making things like social media unusable, as everyone's using the exact same bloody text, identical looking flyers, identical posts it's blatantly obvious they haven't written themselves and some writing exactly the same thing!
Creativity is being thrown away as people are too lazy to think for themselves anymore, and don't seem to have an ounce of individuality in their bodies.

It's scary for many people use it for stuff that is totally not needed. I would really recommend rather than using a tool to just turn your own brain on- it can really achieve amazing things on its own.

Have you tried researching how AI impacts the planet? That's a good one for your "curious" brain.

It's a pretty important skill to have - being able to formulate your own thoughts instead of having a computer "form them for you!"
Then writing something down like an email and pretending to be you.
Like you're trying to validate yourself, and not trusting your own judgement and need somebody else to think for you.
Your post is so depressing, people really are losing the ability or confidence to think for themselves without being "told" what to think, or being able to compose something by themselves, aren't they?!

This. Studying for a degree should help you learn how to check and improve your work and critical thinking yourself. You are missing out on acquiring essential skills by using AI.

Many industries don't have a fixed output. They will get competetive advantage by delivering more for the same cost. In companies like that there is a huge backlog of "things that would give us an edge but we don't have time or people to do it" and they will use AI to move much more of those ideas into reality. It's happening already.

Yes they may reduce headcount and certainly people whose entire work purpose can be replaced by an AI will go, but mostly I think people in those type of industries will become mangers/directors of AI workers.

You treat the AI like an assistant. You tell it the gist and shape you want to communicate and it does the typing and language. You don't outsource your thinking, you outsource manufacturing the final product. No different to C-suite using their EA.