Do you use AI?

[HolidayHappy123]

Thought it might be interesting to chat about how people are using AI….

I am encouraged to use a specific AI programme at work that is specific to my sector, but I find it to be quite inaccurate and I haven’t found a way to use it that I am confident with.

I used Chat GPE to make our holiday itinerary into quite a cool poster and I’ve just asked Claude to build an itinerary for our Xmas holiday - the first attempt is pretty much the same as the itinerary it took me about 2 weeks to come up with.

Interested to know how others are using AI and what works/doesn’t work?

I use it all the time. I use it instead of google as it can check every website within seconds where as it would take me hours. I use it for the design features as well.

Yes. It's a great resource to get things started and get a refined internet search for answers

No. Not intentionally anyway. I use -AI when googling something.

One of my games has an AI director though which keeps the game interesting.

Yes it built a perfect itinerary for us for a city break. I also use it at work when I can’t work out an excel formula, or to rewrite something if I just can’t get my words out correctly. I end up tweaking it so it sounds like me, but it helps get me going.

No, it's trashing the planet and our brains.

I use it instead of Google it’s much quicker saves time. Also use it for work as it saves time. it was a bit hit and miss with work at first but it’s learning

Rarely but I have used it occasionally.

Yes, I started last autumn and it's been a great time for me as it helps me to be creative. It's been good with my health and exercise routines. I have written a few Essays with it. I tend to use Gemini, but I am sure that they are all similar. You can't say one is brighter than the other. Never used Claude. Gemini is currently teaching me German.

This.

It’s pretty depressing how many people jump straight into wanting something artificial to think for them rather than think for themselves. Good luck keeping your brain active when you’re older.

Yep all the time. It's better than straight Googling (I know it's the same company) as it gives different insights and pulls everything together in a way Google doesn't.

I use it for deeper diving into my health issues, without relying on it 100%, and it's never been wrong.

I've used it to help redesign my house (nothing major, mostly how to declutter and rearrange, which is SO helpful). I take a pic of the room and it tells me where to move what, and it mocks up ideas. Google can't do that.

It's given me a fab set of back and stretching exercises.

When at restaurants, I take a photo of the menu and ask Ai which is the lowest fat option.

I always seem to have laptop and TV connection / other error issues, and showing Ai a photo, it's always able to tell me what to do. When my partner isn't home, this is absolute gold for me.

More randomly..

Some fighter jets flew over the Bon Jovi gig I was at last night, and Ai told me why this was.

When selling a day bed recently, I didn't have time to clear the area around the bed (it's a spare bedroom), nor make the bed, and Ai completely cleared it all.

I want to sell again on ebay, and asked Ai the best ways to go about it, what sells well, etc. I even asked how hard it is to get a pop up shop. Explained it all for me.

See my example about IT issues, and Ai sorting those. Good luck fixing those on your own! Surely you can separate the necessary from the frivolous?

My DDs do quite often. I haven't got into it yet.

I do find though that whenever I google something it is AI that comes up with the first answers. So I guess I do end up using it a little but it isn't my go-to.

AI came in very useful to me this summer, when a gull fledgling fell off my roof. I was able to give it the correct care at my home until a suitable rescue space became available.
I am concerned at how easy it is to outsource all of our thinking though.

Never intentionally but I can't avoid it when it's built into something I am using.

I've used it to help create some pretty complicated databases and spreadsheets.

I've tried using it for law (i.e. relevant case law for a specific set of circumstances) which I'd thought it would be good for, but it usually gets it wrong, i.e. doesn't refer to very important/authoritative cases or misunderstands a particular section in a statute. Very worrying as some people will be relying on it when they want legal matters clarified etc.

It's also very poor if you just give it some numbers and ask it to perform calculations, i.e. tell it your income sources and amounts or capital gains, or house value for stamp duty, etc and ask it to tell you how much tax is due, and payments date - nearly always very wrong, but wrongly gives you confidence it's right by telling you how it's got to its calculations, so again, easy for an "amateur" to place too much reliance on it.

It's counter-intuitive that it is so good for databases and spreadsheets, i.e. basically an exceptional "coding" assistant, yet really poor if you use it, say, to ask it to calculate income tax on a total of several different income types!

No. I think the overuse of AI will destroy our culture. It will do wonders in fields like medical research but there’s no way we should be using ChatGPT etc to write emails for us.

occasionally I see the AI search results pop up at the top of Google and have a look but I’ve seen them be very wrong on things I know a lot about so I don’t trust them.

I use it for some things but am aware it’s not always correct. I used it to help plan a trip with a friend in Australia and it recommended a restaurant that closed in 2017!

I use it for home decor help and am about to use it to help sort my wardrobe.

No because of the environmental thing, I feel like if as many of us as possible hold back we’re at least conserving something, also I think it’s stopping us from figuring things out ourselves and turning us into dimwits (technology has definitely done this to me anyway!) . But I am going to have to ask it for help to upskill soon

I use it to write reports at work summarising info using raw data with clear prompts. It’s really handy and quick. I read through and make tweaks but often it’s perfect. Not rotting my brain, just enabling me to do additional tasks - thinking, planning, leading meetings. We’ve lost 3 people in the team and are told we won’t be recruiting so it’s become unavoidable.

Yes, of course - I’m living in 2026 so could hardly avoid doing so. I have found it, by turns, in both personal and professional life, strengthening, comforting, encouraging, entertaining, therapeutic, analytical, hilarious and generally rather useful.

But I am very sincerely hoping it might come up with a better plan than having 80% of the planet covered in data centres …

The IT issues in your post, yes I would/have fixed things like that myself, or if I’m not able I find a real person who can help.

Judging by the rest of your post it seem you yourself are unable to separate the necessary from frivolous!

Occasionally but only for leisure type stuff, I'm retired so never used it at work

Yeah i used it to decorate my home, I used it to pick our holiday, I use it loosely for medical advice, I used it for deciding what colour to dye my hair, product recommendations, I use it as my therapist, I use it to fix things. Everything really

I use it a little. I use Copilot to reword emails sometimes or will use the Google one to identify crystals or just get a quick overview of something.

I use it at work and at home. For example, it acts as a foil for brainstorming strategies. It’s also helped me write job descriptions for my team and a whole approach to interviewing candidates including questions. V helpful as I’m not an experienced interviewer. I am, however, shit hot at being strategic (I’m board level) and it’s saved me loads of time and improved my outputs.

On a personal level it’s be great at enhancing my skin care routine, suggesting products to try for my skin type and based on my preferences for vegan products. I uploaded screen grabs of my NHS blood tests and it helped me come up with some things to ask the doctor about.

In short, I find it v helpful for all kinds of uses.