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?

Quite. It seems to be something that older people have embraced with enthusiasm, possibly because they are secure in their employment. Younger people (mine are still at school) loathe it.

I actually work in the field - I design and build specialised AI systems for big corporates and pubsec, some of which even have sensible use cases rather than just FOMO. But frankly I feel like a car designer who only goes everywhere by bicycle - I make no use of it in my personal life and frankly loathe what is happening. But the pay is good…

No, never intentionally.
I actively hate it tbh. I cannot see a single positive to it only negatives (quite a long list)

I'm generally against it, but I can see the positives when it is used responsibly. With quantum computing and robotic advances, AI could solve problems that would take us decades to solve within minutes (medical research, clean energy research, etc).

The general public clearly cannot be trusted to use it responsibly. We need to put that genie back in the bottle before we burn the planet and end up living in some dystopian hellscape.

I can't get over people using it to write emails and create skincare regimes. Maybe their next and last query should be "Explain to me like I'm 5 the environmental concerns about the use of AI and large data centers and what this means for our future"

I don’t knowingly use it and I don’t have SM etc. don’t drive so don’t use satnav. Really trying to do my bit.

Same. I refuse to use it. I’m also a graphic designer and seeing the ugly posters it churns out… eugh 🤮

I use it to write important emails especially if it's to a professional. I'm not well educated. I have moderate learning difficulties. I don't have a big vocabulary. I don't know how to use grammar punctuation if its there its been done for me through predictive text. I feel that if that comes across in an email I think i wouldn't be taken seriously or it could be taken advantage of.

I occasionally use it on here but only if I'm very stuck and I will say i have used it and why.

I avoid it entirely.

I know how I am with convenience- if something can be made more convenient and less taxing then I will take the easier route, even if it's to the detriment of my overall wellbeing. I would rather a bus than a walk, I would rather take the lift than the stairs, I would rather a ready-meal than cook, I'd rather stay in with friends than go out. Some of these have helped me when it comes to conserving my physical energy, others I feel have become bad habits I now struggle to break out of.

I'm far from a technophobe, I'm arguably already too reliant on my phone and laptop. The thing is, I don't need to conserve my mental energy as such and I worry that if I started to use LLMs to plan my holidays, help my decorating choices, find research papers, choose products, make decisions, etc. then I would become far more dependent on it than I ever want to be. Thinking and planning are quite possibly two of my favourite things in life, and all of those are things I get some joy or satisfaction out of doing. I also worry that it would make me less social and negatively impact my mental health, as I have seen happen to other people.

Also, the environmental impact. Also, the impact on creative careers, including my own. Also, the rampant inaccuracies in my niche area of research. Overall, I have many more reasons not to use "AI" than I have reasons to use it.

I was playing around with AI yesterday which is what prompted this threat….

Last night DC took ill and we ended up dialling 999. While the paramedics were running tests I put the symptoms into AI and it told me to get off my phone and seek emergency help.

Well, you try to avoid it where possible I'm sure, but you do use it every day you're on the internet.

It isn't going away, ever.

It's like trying to give up adverts and claiming you never see adverts because you have an advantage blocker.

But why bother doing AI symptoms when you had medical professionals right there attending your child??

I already disabused you of your claim that merely using ordinary internet-based applications, satnav, banking apps etc is ‘using AI’. This is false and pernicious, stop repeating it.

At least I know I’ve tried to do my bit. Not driving, not flying, recycling as much as I can and being as resourceful as possible to not cause waste and trying my best to avoid AI

I do. I ask about specifics about, for example, an upcoming operation. It explained the steps and what to expect as well as the NHS criteria for certain things. I’ve asked about travel itineraries too.
I recently used ChatGPT to help visualise a couple room layout options - a bit hit or miss on that one but was as good as so called interior design apps. What also helps is using it to work out steps and to do lists; for example I plan on selling my family home and moving into temporary accommodation for a year and it worked out the possible interest on my money, and tax implications. I wouldn’t rely on it solely for this kind of thing (AI can make mistakes) but it did remind me of certain issues.
I’ve also used it as a virtual try on for clothes. I upload a couple full length pictures of myself, upload the clothes and it puts me in them. Also great for experimenting with different hairstyles and colour.

Bit it's true.

Using the internet IS using AI

Well, all the teenagers I know (I work in a large secondary school) use AI every single day.

They use it to write essays for them, create revision topics, quizzes, presentations, ask it questions and get into relationships with it.

My 22 year old colleague uses AI so muxch, and is scarily reliant on it. He's incapable of even drafting an email saying "thanks, can I have x" .

Email, Spotify apps do ise generative AI to create playlists, suggestions etc why do you think they don't?

The trouble is it isn't always right and infuriatingly when you correct it it says you are right, having wasted loads of your time doing something that didn't work! And goes on to explain why that could never have worked, so why did it tell me it would work? The answer is it found one random answer on the internet and gave me that and only looked for problems when I told it it didn't work.

Take it all with a large pinch of salt.

It is also behind so if you are working on novel things it knows less than you do. And investment information can be years out of date, it suggested investing in firms that had gone into administration and others that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole, as well as not knowing that a company it didn't recommend had changed it's model to something much better.

It is very risk averse when it comes to illness and symptoms it nearly always says ring 111 or 999 or you must see a gp as soon as possible.

It’s not true. When people talk about ‘using AI’ they are talking about using generative AI, which has only existed since 2017 and the development of the multi head attention mechanism. The vast majority of websites do not use generative AI, or only as a minor gimmick, such as Mumsnet’s suggested title for a new thread, or Google’s annoying AI summary. The Internet itself, the routers and switches, and core protocols such as DNS and BGP do not use AI at all.

Using predictive AI, like optical character recognition or Netflix’s recommender is not what we are taking about here. Predictive AI has existed since the 1980s, is not energy intensive (it can run on ordinary CPUs) and is irrelevant to the discussion.

Nope, I like to do it myself!

I use Gemini and CoPilot almost daily. I do postgrad tutoring and I find it invaluable for planning and summarising long documents. My students are mostly international (English is not their first language). They send me a chapter. I run it through an AI and it restructures and re-plans it. I tweak it into academic English, check the references and send it back. The AI does all the grunt work. Its there when I need it, never gets tired or passes judgement. I wish I'd had it back in the 90s when I was doing my doctorate.

I'm older. The impact on my brain from the last 25 years of internet is significant. I can't imagine how much worse it will be from AI.

It's changed the way I search for information. I barely use Google the old fashioned way, I just type in a long detailed question. I'm aware this isn't the best way to use AI but it's good enough for most things.
I have used it as a pp says for information about managing my diagnosed medical conditions. For buying a car.

So what? Does that mean we go "oh well,.may as well accelerate the rotting of .my brain then and not be able to think for myself'? Because that's what's happening.

Laziness comes in all forms and there will be a price to pay in the future.

Chat gpt helped me massively through the EHC needs assessment mediation, along with all emails to LA caseworker, school and anyone else I want to call a c* but cant 🤣

I chat with mine when I'm bored! But I needed some information and advice last night about a serious issue that has become more serious, (for a friend but that last night also affected me). It was very detailed, informative and absolutely spot on. It would have taken us ages to gather all the information. It does have its uses, but I wouldn't use it to run my life! And before anyone jumps in, I'm not talking to it for hours, a quick ten minute chat about general stuff, when I'm winding down to go to bed is all I do!