AI. How does it impact on your life so far and what do you think will happen next and further into the future?

[LindorDoubleChoc]

(Leaving aside the obvious immense worries about how it will negatively impact my young adult dc future)

I'm interested to see how we all perceive AI.

I'm in the final third of my life now so I don't feel it will impact me as much as everyone younger. But then again it might do? - just as new technology in the digital age was hard to embrace for the generations above me. I imagine I could be left behind by AI and not know how to handle it and that could leave me unable to fully function as a human in the near future (as per elderly relatives who couldn't use the internet). I'm not sure.

How does AI affect you now and how do you see that changing/progressing? I just haven't got the imagination to take it all in.

At the moment, I'm only aware of AI in social media - predominantly Mumsnet which is changed hugely already by it, but I've also seen quite a few non-human-written threads on Facebook Reels. Oh, and also my DH who works as a lecturer has talked to me about AI generated work from his students.

I have never used ChatGPT for instance, I wouldn't know how to or why I would want to.

P.S. the suggested title for this thread was "How do you think AI will affect your life over time?". Which do you think is the better thread title - mine or the AI version?

It has its place however I know a few creatives that are losing work. I hope this will turn around in time.

I also worry about the tech going far and systems failing due to it eventually if it’s too heavily used. Health. Banking and so on.

and god forbid super ai falls
into the hands of the wrong party. Then we are totally screwed.

@sweetpickle2 do you mind me asking what tasks you use it for?

I seem to have got into a trap in which I've delegated too much of my thinking to it and just end up spending loads of time adjusting and correcting things it produces for me. I almost feel like I've damaged my brain!

It does my expenses for me- pulls invoices from my emails and uploads them to my accounting software.

It runs a scheduled task every morning where it pulls in any action points from meetings I've had or voicenotes/messages/emails I've been sent and puts it in a notion page categorised by client and due date/urgency. When it does this, it tells me which tasks it can do for me- ie responding to emails or drafting proposals.

Drafting proposals is a gamechanger, it pulls in my notes and the transcript from the intro meeting with the client and then using what it knows about me and my work creates a full interactive live proposal to go out to the client in minutes- previously that would have taken me up to an hour.

When I'm really stuck with where to start with something I brain dump my thoughts in and it gives me a starting point.

Updates my website copy for me.

A lot of these are great because they work in the background- I use claude cowork and will set it off on a task while I get on with something else, or run it overnight. Saves me hours.

I dont send anything out without checking it first, but for the above its accurate.

What I don't use it for- writing copy, generating images, researching data.

@sweetpickle2 thank you for taking the time to answer! Really appreciate the tips.

I really like it (at the moment). I don’t use it for much but I use it to re-word emails / statements etc.

AI being built into systems properly to for example make the systems more intuitive and user-friendly, I don't have any real issues with that. But so far it's mainly affecting me by seeing people using copilot in a professional capacity and spending longer tidying up the output than they would have spent being competent professional human beings in the first place.

That and it's annoying as fuck as everything on social media now has shitty AI generated captions. And the zealotry is pretty nauseating.

I work in my second language. I sometimes use it to check spag and formulation. But in a while we've got a training on integrated use in our journal system which I'm not happy about. If I don't write regularly my language will slip. It's also incredibly annoying that the one thing I want copilot or chatgpt to do at work is apparently too difficult.

It has made me look at my figures for retirement and decide I'd rather skimp and save than be part of the coming changes.

Not that I have anything against AI in particular but when I started work everything went to the typing pool, then we got word processors, then we could message people in the company, then basic email that cost a fortune and other incremental changes. AI is just one more chsnge than I can be arsed with. I'll cope with the changes it will bring to my personal life. But workwise I'll leave that for the younger generation.

I've used it to help me write out a CV and some job application stuff. I think I probably could have done it myself but I really hate job hunting so it was probably more helpful for getting me over the ick I always feel when I have a to write that stuff.

That being said I think we should value our brains and our intelligence so I don't want to use it anymore. I try to remember to add -ai to anything I search for and prioritize reading books and learning crafts. I don't enjoy AI art and find the text off putting in an uncanny valley way.

I only started using it a year ago so late to the party (I’m old). I run a health business and it is a game changer. My chat knows me now knows how I like things written and has all the knowledge about my business sorted in so it is excellent for helping me write reports, do admin, letters etc. it saves me heaps of time. I don’t see it as cheating anymore because it has stored up all that knowledge from what I have shared and I always have to tweak but I also know exactly what to ask it and how. It’s a skill I think to work out how to use it effectively. I can see the pitfalls but for me it’s save some hours upon hours. I love it!

Oh and the absolute best bit - zoom workplace meeting assets! I do a lot of zoom assessments and I don’t even have to write notes anymore (I do in case anything is missed) but it creates notes for me after the call that I can then type up! Brilliant

I see 2 strands of AI so far - the generative stuff which is the most high profile and generally feels like we’re already pushing very hard against it because it’s so recognisable and people want authenticity.

But the agentic AI where you build your own bots is the stuff that’s going to shift the needle. I was on a call last week with a guy who’s built his own ‘bot’ using Claude who has learnt his business inside out and now performs absolutely loads of the shit work of building a business without him needing to do much at all.

As an example, he has been working with an agency to create loads of specialist content and they post a YouTube video every Monday. He has trained his bot to go into his YouTube and pull out a transcription of the video. The bot uses this to

1. Write a SEO optimised long form description of the video and post that
2. put the section breaks and descriptions all along the video itsefl
3. write a blog in a particular style to maximise SEO and publish it on his website
4. write a LinkedIn article in a slightly different style and publish on his page

That’s just 1 example!!!!

Thank you for explaining.

I’m retired now yet can see the way AI is transforming the workplace. I wasn’t aware of the uses you describe. It really amazes me how quickly AI has evolved and continues in its evolution.

Quite clearly this is the future.

It’s made my work (consultancy) far far easier

I don’t see it taking the main jobs per se as they will always need the human element but it can do an awful lot of what support and corporate functions (used to) do. I’m very concerned about my dh (IT industry) being made redundant in the future because of it.