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?

You can disable it in your settings, I've done it 😊 Also if you're looking for a better search engine, Startpage is AI-free and great for privacy.

As much as I don't like usage where its unnecessary, I disagree with this to be fair. I've worked with women who have very poor literacy/dyslexia and they don't feel able to read bedtime stories so in the past I've sourced audio books they can listen to with their child. This isn't really that different. There's absolutely a place for it. Sometimes my son will ask me to tell him stories about things we've done rather than read an actual book and sometimes that helps him wind down even better for sleep. It's just a different way of connecting and there's nothing to say that they haven't read 50 actual books already that day. The bedtime one isn't going to break the bank.

I'm smiling at some of the reponses. It reminds me of my MIL who refused to use the internet because she didn't think it was necessary. It was unnecessary until it wasn't.....
We are well past the era of researching a dozen websites and reading dozens of reviews to find information we want quickly.
Some AI is shit and we know its regurgitated. However it saves a lot of time as it summarises whats already there.
Its getting better all the time. Its vastly better now than it was even three months ago. Like it or not its here to stay and will continue to have an ever increasing effect on our lives, our jobs, and our kid's lives.

Jesus Christ what have we become 😫

The PP didn't say they don't read books , but she uses AI to make up stories as well. My DC had so many books we'd read together, and now as teens they ride to the local library regularly to borrow books. But we still had plenty of other non book related story telling - and well if AI was around then I may well have used it when I was tired and struggling to come up with the latest instalment of whatever adventure we were on.

Ffs

Any tips on where in the settings? Google says its not possible

I wonder how many people on this thread who use AI for life admin profess to care about the environment…AI is SO bad for the environment.

Bunch of lazy dum dums

AI as a tool is a very good thing, and can do many things. LLM usage by the public is also a tiny amount of modern AI, so are the gimmicks some companies try and sell. AI is being used by very intelligent people, to do great things.

People incapable of using the tools competently, tend to be very upset at the idea anyone can do anything with it. Also tend to be people who vastly over estimate how intelligent they are. AI can teach kids things the parents can barely comprehend at all let alone teach anyone especially a kid, in countless different ways, to different levels, dynamically and answering question in a back and forth conversation. It's not perfect, but the actual incidence of "making stuff up" is much rarer on well documented and extensively trained information, which you are accessing when learning from them.

The next generation will just be able to use these tools even more effectively and learn how to mitigate and check information better for the occasional mistakes or issues. Something people who can use them now well can already do well.

The environmental impact of AI is of course a concern because it uses huge amounts of energy to run the data centres. The water issue is overstated, since water used in cooling is reused and whilst some does evaporate, it is not poured away once used but cools and circulates.
The power usage of an AI search is greater than a google search, but can return the equivalent of 10-20 google searches worth of information if used correctly.
In any case, if you use the internet for anything vaguely energy intensive such as streaming video then you're already wrecking the environment. One AI query is roughly equivalent to one minute of watching Netflix/disney plus/Iplayer etc

I love using Chat GPT and would say I use it daily - everything from meal planning to homework help when I’m stuck. I’ve used it to help me plan travel itineraries, to explain medical things to me simply and to reassure when I have a question about something worrying me.

I consider it an extra source of info in addition to Google and my circle of friends and family. I don’t rely on it by any means but where I can make my life easier or better then I will.

and I like the idea of using it for a personalised story for bedtime. We read books and always will but even school books at our school are done online now with books being assigned and read fully on electronic devices followed by a qui to check understanding.

it’s a changing world and our children are growing up with this as their normal whether we like it or not it I suspect.

I think that is an overly simplistic way of looking at it. Yes AI uses lots of electricity but it also has massive potential to improve the environmental impact of many industries- including energy itself, agriculture, mining etc. Its also being used to protect the environment via monitoring of illegal logging and tracking wildlife populations.

I found it fantastic for helping me find a summer holiday destination based on the activities that the kids in our party enjoy

Of course it is. But the 'AI is bad' contingent don't care about facts or the potential benefits of AI - and are not willing to accept that it's here now and not going anywhere and if they don't keep up they will be left behind. It really is like the early days of the internet. I remember being offered a phone that could access MSN messenger when I was out! I declined on the basis that why would I want to check my MSN messages while I was out of the house?! And here we are having this conversation at 4am on mumsnet. Early adopters are ahead of the curve. My DH is making a living using AI in his engineering work and he can see that everything he is doing whilst innovating constantly also has a shelf life as AI gets more capable so he's constantly pushing himself and what it can do for him. Most people have no idea what AI can do/is doing.

I am also quite late to using it, but it is useful for certain things.

I resell clothing and find things sell much better with a modelled photo added in. Some of the things don't fit anyone in the house to take a pic of on, so I ask AI to model the item. There have been a few really bad ones, but generally they are great.

I did ask about exercise and a health issue I have, just out of curiosity really, and it was way off. So I would never rely on very important info, but recipe suggestions and light topics are just fine.

My dd asked for information on her skin, and it kept coming back with suggestions to use products from one particular brand over and over.

The bedtime stories …

childrens stories do so much more than just fill a few minutes with fluffy characters and a moral ending.

the authors and illustrators think about everything; the.mete/rhythm, the use of colour and visual style, the language style vocabulary etc

to outsource to so with a tiny prompt ignores all of that

sure there’s variable quality but some are incredible - Rachel bright is amazing - and they don’t deserve to have their work so disregarded

Oh and everyone using it for coaching and therapy should understand how it plays to your information; there’s no gentle challenge, professional oversight or standards. Look up the cases where it’s assisted death by suicide for example.

I find it really good for talking my son down from a meltdown. He’s 7 and autistic.
I find these moments get my emotions very heightened and I struggle to regulate myself. But AI gives me a script to follow, keeping my emotions out of it and it helps bring him out of it quicker than I ever can.

I am always amazed by how well it does it. But also sad that I don’t seem to be able to manage it alone.

🤣 definitely AI

Personally I’ve just used it as a therapist. It’s made more sense than any of the councillors I’ve ever seen and really given me stuff to think about.

and before people say how sad I am and how sad it is then just think.

I don’t have a support network or village. They’re all dead or just never existed in the first place.
my few friends are either self absorbed or have their own lives and I’m living with 2 traumatised teens one with ND

ChatGPT has always given me disclaimers and warnings and links to helplines etc and I’m well aware I’m basically speaking to a robot.

I don’t use it much for anything else although I did once ask it to work out the maths for a pattern I’d made of a jumper I was crocheting. It was correct

Alternatively, Mother Nature created these things called Fathers,,,,,,,

This is both sad and really scary. AI has caused people to take their own lives. It is not a person replacement. It is not e
wmotionallt intelligent. It is just a higher level of predictive text.

Sometimes my son will ask me to tell him stories about things we've done rather than read an actual book and sometimes that helps him wind down even better for sleep.

As you were there, and the AI wasn’t, and you’re reading it to him anyway, why have a middle-bot at all?

Trouble is, most people seem incapable of identifying the shit-AI and think it’s good at everything……..