Has anyone actually found AI useful for everyday mum stuff?

[JennaMadeAU]

Feeling like I'm late to the party but I've been playing around with ChatGPT and some of it is genuinely useful. Not the weird sci-fi stuff, just practical things.

The meal planning one has been brilliant - told it what my kids will/won't eat, our budget, and it planned dinners with a shopping list. Saved us money.

Also used it to draft a politely assertive email to DS's school. Would have taken me an hour; solid first draft in 10 seconds.

Anyone else using it? Or am I going to get told I'm being replaced by a robot?

"Again, could (and have!) done it myself, but I’d rather save my brainpower and time!!*
What are you saving your brainpower for? 😀
I can see why it might save time but it's honestly a slippery slope. Surely we don't want to end up like the people in Wall-E, not physically or mentally!!

And remember that anything you put in there is now in the public sphere.

What's the judgment please?

I am an employment solicitor and I'm afraid that I see it used by unrepresented parties often to their great detriment. It will make stuff up and if they don't check each detail with a fine toothcomb they get inconsistencies which undermine their case, eg stuff in the witness statement (AI written) described in a way which undermines contemporaneous (real) documents, pleadings adding in bits of law but getting the test wrong so they can't make out a cause of action, and don't get me started on AI quoting fake judgments which conveniently perfectly support the person's case (until you read them and they say something quite different, or realise they don't even exist! I have seen this at least 5 times in the Tribunal now).
The false legal analysis not only often loses them their case at Tribunal, it also gives them false hope from the start that they have a claim!

PS - sorry to derail I understand that litigation is not typical "mum stuff"!

In my real life a lot of my friends and family are using ChatGPT. However threads on here always get so bashy that nobody likes to come on and admit it.

I use it a lot. Like a pp for coaching/therapy especially around my challenging DC.

I used it recently to help me submit my self-assessment tax return. I had all the figures but needed help re allowances from previous years and how to claim etc. It was really helpful. Then it helped me work out my pension contributions and what the optimum level of contribution would be to get the highest pension payment. It drafted a letter to DWP with all the pertinent facts and it's all sorted out now. I've just received my first full pension payment, so happy days.

I am speechless. I just want to get the fuck off this ride called the world today.

Actually out of all the stories shared here the bedtime stories one is haunting me. What the fuck kind of thing is that, what message does it send to your kids who’ll go to school and hopefully learn to write, create, argue. What is it doing to publishing and authoring and just it’s is so fucked up

When I was the secretary of my local football club, I got roped into running the 10 week intro programme for 3-5 year olds. I had never kicked a ball in my life. It was terrifying. AI wrote my run sheets for the whole 10 weeks, the kids and parents loved it and 2/3 of the kids signed up to our club. We usually got a 40% sign up rate.

It’s as good as the parameters you put in. My Aussie family have 7 days in London coming up. I have plugged in where we are staying, the 6 essential things we want to do, our ages and interests and that we want 3 free mornings or afternoons to chill. It’s come it with the most brilliant itinerary for us- all times, costs, tube transport.

I find grok significantly better than any other AI- it leaves biases behind.

I mainly use AI at work, not at home. I agree re the bedtime stories - is this replacing books or made up stories? I used to do both, a lot of actual books but also made up stories - mine were about a bunny family and the youngest bunny would do things like refuse to put his shoes on to go out and sadly miss out on the fun party - I'm sure AI would have done a way better job than me but my DC never minded.

This is just depressing…

That is one of the most depressing things I have ever read on MN.

Yes to create funny poems and stories for DC, it was hilarious 😂

Isn't Grok the nazi one?

There's nothing hilarious about this.

I find this quite sad.

That was after getting nothing but dinosaurs in my results when I just searched for Trex. I hoped that adding "fat" might clarify things 😂. To be fair, the ordinary search results gave me what I wanted but that's probably the funniest example of Google AI making shit up that I've had, yet.

I use it for party planning, i will put in the number of people, type of party, buffet or proper meal, times etc and ask it how much food and drink to buy. Its very helpful in stopping me over catering and reminding me to buy the condiments etc. It will also convert it into a shopping list and a prep list with suggested times

You trust it over Google to plan travel? That's quite something! At least with Google you can see if something is legitimate or not.

It must be learning quickly- I put 'trex fat' and got "Trex is a popular UK-based brand of 100% vegetable fat (shortening) made from a blend of palm and rapeseed oils". I'd never even heard of this trex spread as i'm not in the UK.

DC used to re word their CV. Got a job instantly after many cvs being ignored..

I use it for planning my day when I’ve got a million things to do, errands to run, children to pick up.

Agree this is a good use for AI - so many job applications are filtered using AI programs now it's well worth running the job ad/spec and the CV through AI to check if it will pass.

I hate AI. It's pushing people into unemployment, authors and artists for example. It's terrible for the planet, and is often totally wrong. Eg it recently told me that Anne Frank is the most famous Holocaust survivor.
I wish it was possible to disable the Google AI overview.

I’ve actually been using it as a bit of a sleep consultant, before I pay money! It’s come up with a 14 day plan for teaching my toddler to fall asleep independently (in the hopes of easier bedtimes and better nights!). It sounds very similar to what I’ve seen on sleep consultant’s Instagram. Will have to see how it goes though, but it can’t make things any worse! I also used it for potty training advise with specific issues and it worked. I think of it as just having so much information that it can’t hurt to try its suggestions!

I think you might be able to disable it somewhere in your settings. Also if you search then add -AI at the end it doesn’t include the stupid summary.

Grok is run by a fucking overt fascist