What have you used ChatGPT for lately?

[ErrPods]

I’ve used it to-

Do a colour analysis based on a selfie. I’m a cool winter, apparently.

Calculated my BMI, TDEE, and create a diet plan to help me lose 8kgs.

Calculate the calories I burned on a walk based on the distance, speed, and the terrain (I don’t have a smart watch).

I constantly use it to look for discount codes if I’m shopping online. So far, it’s been 100% successful for everything from clothing to car rental sites abroad.

I’ve also been playing around a bit with the new photo generation capability but haven’t found it great. I asked it to create a headshot I could use for LinkedIn and it made me look like a much older woman of a different race.

Any recommendations for thing you get it to do?

@recipientofraspberriesso I take it you only use rain water and solar? Grow all your food ?

I recently used it to plan a weekend break to Madrid including restaurant recommendations, public transport and museums to make the most out of my time there. It also came up with lists of the top art works to see in each gallery.
That worked very well.
It also did a pretty good job helping me to plan the activities on my trip to Canada last year.

I messed around turning my cats into Pixar and Disney style cats and also turning them into humans.

I work with some members of a religious order and they were asking it things like "Is God real?" "Is Jesus alive?"

I asked it to plan hikes for me to do in the local area over Easter but it came up with absolute bollocks and I wasted a lot of time training it and telling it that destination X was nowhere near destination Y and they couldn't be combined on the same hike.

This week I asked it to tell me all about fjell skis and backcountry skiing in Norway but it was pretty useless at that.

The children I tutor in Maths and English use it to do their homework for school and complain bitterly when I refuse to let them have access to a phone or laptop during their lesson with me because they are not allowed access to those devices during exams so they have to learn to be able to do the work without ChatGPT.

Turned my baby into a cat 🤣

I use it as a therapist a lot lol.
I'm a single mum and struggling with my teenage son, I must say I find it kind, empathetic and really helpful. I've got emosh at some of the replies before which I know sounds crazy.

I just used it to compare 2 different hair wands, I've used it for help with job applications. Everything really, its like a knowledgeable, kind friend in my phone.

I’ve used it for some assignment questions but the answers are mostly crap and generic and utterly bullshitty

You are just disappointed it didn’t write your assignment for you instead of doing it yourself

I don’t understand some of these. There’s a word limit in what you can paste in text to inform it with something, and also I don’t understand how to use it for images?

There isn’t a word limit on chat gpt. If you don’t have a subscription there’s a limit on what it can provide

I’ve tried to stay away, so started basic and even felt guilty doing this one thing: a packing list for our recent ski holiday. It was very good, I have to say.

Definitely going to use it for meal planning!

I actually laughed at this, sorry.

Using chatgpt to turn a picture of your baby into a cat (sorry to pinch an example someone said in here) is clearly, CLEARLY not the same as having to buy food from a supermarket and use a standard energy supplier (FWIW I use ecotricity).

PLEASE do some basic research into the environmental cost of AI. It isn't just like using the internet or a search engine or any other standard existing equivalent. For example, one study found that one single image generated by AI on chatgpt was the energetic cost of charging a smartphone from 0 to 100% battery. It's gigantic, and the worst part is when all that water and all that energy is used to generate frivolous, completely objectively unnecessary things like many on this thread.

Never used it but seeing a lot more about the environmental impact. news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

Sorry to quote you again but caring about the environment (or any cause) doesn't automatically mean someone's on a high horse. It's actually really depressing that you think it does. Caring about the only planet we all have to live on isn't a bad thing, it really isn't.

@recipientofraspberrieswill I take that as a no then?

Turning pictures of my family into pandas 🤣

Nothing. I'm old school so I just Google stuff and save some water and carbon in the process.

Another one here who has no clue

I use it for work. This week it had drafted me some great emails and given me a really good skeleton comms plan

@recipientofraspberriesquote me all you want. I just can’t stand sanctimonious “green” people.

I've been using gemini to make food recipes off YouTube and to retype my hand written recipes. It's not always accurate and sometimes, needs tweaking. But I copy the transcript off the youtube video and ask gemini to turn it into a recipe. I can't stand having to stop start videos and it cuts out the waffle. I also taken my hand written recipes that ive written in my cook book file and taken pictures and asked it to rewrite the recipes, ai then explains bits that I have missed. My daughter easily follows my recipes.

Do you have children?

I used it to summarise a huge policy document which enabled me to read easily and write my response, saving me hours.

I also used it to create a funny photo of a ridiculous person I know which gave me and a friend convulsions.

It’s great. If you know and understand its limitations.

Yes, you can take that as a no.

No, I don't grow my own food.

No, I don't use exclusively solar and wind energy.

I am a normal person working on minimum wage as a carer who cares very deeply about the environment because it's the single solitary place in the universe that we and our children have to exist.

You can't catch me out because I have no hidden agenda and no high horse to be knocked off.

I spend vast amounts of my free time as a climate and community activist and volunteer - I don't judge anyone, because I don't know peoples' lives and backgrounds, and thru my own life experience and in my job as a carer I have seen a lot.

I get exasperated and worried when I see that so many people use ChatGPT for so many unnecessary things because they don't know the massive environmental impact it has.

Is all of that ok with you?

https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117

I use it for work - for advice on content, social media strategies, rationales, for tweaking written info, for ideas on how to write emails communicating something awkward. It's also good for problem solving, analysis and providing explanations of technical/specialist topics. Most of all it saves time. All of this with the caveat that cross-referencing and sense-checking answers IS essential because it's not infallible.

I've also used it for planning travel but you do have to watch it - it's suggested non-existent transport services to me before. It might have got better at that though, it does learn.

I used it to suggest an itinerary for a recent couple of days away in this country.

I used it to ask about suggested accommodation in a particular area.

I have also asked it how to respond to a message about X in my personal life and also asked it how to message an annoying work colleague in a particular situation.

I have also asked it about certain symptoms and what it could be etc.

I think my son at Uni asks it what can I make for dinner if I have this that and the other in.

I hate meal planning I am wondering if I could ask it to do me a meal plan and suggest a shopping list for next week if I give it some likes and dislikes etc.

I’ve just given it my stops on an upcoming trip to Iceland. It’s created a detailed itinerary with a packing checklist and a custom cover page

I really admire you. I wish everyone felt and thought like you do. I care very much about the environment too. It’s a pity so few people are actively trying to change the way they live in view of an emergency that is already impacting us and things will only get worse: