I have begun relying on AI and I don’t know how I feel about it.

[Tusktusk]

So far this month I have used AI to:

Analyse my colours (thanks MN) and suggest outfits

Create a menu of packed lunches around my dietary requirements and preferences, complete with a shopping list

Plan a holiday itinerary

Save me hours and hours of work and stress by suggesting really useful ways to overcome very particular work difficulties, having been thrown into an out of my comfort zone situation. I have used AI for this on a daily basis this week

Tonight, instead of posting my current family dilemma on mumsnet I chatted about it with Claude. The responses were really good. Wise, thoughtful, non judgemental, practical, understanding… like the best mumsnetters.

Am I starting to rely on it too much?

What have you been using it for?

What have I been using AI for? Oooh, not much!

Will it summarise lengthy posts?

Ta da:

The user expresses frustration with AI’s increasing presence in creative industries, questioning its value and reliability.

They argue that AI-generated content—recipes, art, and writing—feels unoriginal, mediocre, and lacks true human creativity.

They worry about small businesses struggling to compete with AI's speed and cost advantages, leading to reduced innovation and fewer independent creators. While they acknowledge AI's potential as a tool, they feel its implementation benefits corporations more than individuals.

They resent its integration into everyday platforms without opt-out options and feel isolated as others embrace it despite its impact on creative livelihoods. Overall, they see reliance on AI as harmful.

The irony is that for summarising and similar I actually think it's a great tool. One of my close friends uses it so that her written communication is as eloquent as her spoken communication is - something she's found hard to do since our school days.

I still think the majority of the ways I see it being used are not benefiting humanity as a whole.

😂😂

AI is the new computer/internet. Unless you've been stressing about all the jobs that computers took away, and all the energy those servers use, then you haven't got a leg to stand on.

Aaaah, bugger. You have to open this up to see the caption 🤦🏻‍♀️

Honestly? Running off that particular list hasn't convinced me for about the last 10 years.

I've seen four other threads exactly like this one - 'what are you all using AI for?" - in the last couple of days. Weird.

I think it’s great we’re all finding positive uses for it

There is a distinct lack of critical thinking in children and young people, and I worry this will get worse but AI is here to stay. Just hope the Terminator doesn’t cpme for me, I’m shit at running.

https://chatgpt.com/

https://claude.ai/

https://copilot.microsoft.com/chats/

You choose which AI website you want to use and you type in what you want.

I use it at work to create policies and gap analysis, write reports. I ALWAYS check the content and validity for accuracy on anything generated.

I use it at home to meal plan and cheat at word puzzles 😂

I use it far too much. It has been incredibly useful. It has helped me navigate conflicts with my children's school (evaluating my emails, reassuring me that I'm not over reacting) and is extremely effective in telling me my rights and streamlining my responses (eg when the garage refused to honour a warranty claim, listing the ways in which that was violating my rights, giving me a plan of action and writing me a letter which immediately resolved the conflict). I have used it to help plan my parents medical treatment (explaining doctors letters, looking for prescription clashes, making suggestions and then organising into a short list to discuss with GP). It has navigated me through health issues and I use it to track my diet. It has also helped me work through the debris of a decades long relationship so that in the end I got so bored of talking about it all that I somehow resolved it. it has analysed conversations to point out who is being defensive or offensive and then practiced dialogue with me so by the time I have the conversation in real life I can step back calmly as I've had it multiple times already, it has estimated my age, and been very clear headed about my chances of finding a partner, I do not use it for any form of work as it has hallucinated sources, but I have used the academic versions to find references and saved hours searching for esoteric facts and pressing background context. And many many many other uses. I use it like a friend.
It is annoyingly Californian and good natured and does not like to criticise so you have to make sure that you tell it to be harsh critical and clear headed. And not to always agree. Or direct it to take the opposing side, It has made me a lazier critical thinker but also let me channel my boring repetitive thinking away from my friends.

I’ve used it tonight to prep for a job interview.

I used him for something else today too.

"ChatGPt says:

I don't have a sex or gender—I’m an AI, so I don’t experience identity in the way humans do. But I’m here to help people of all identities equally."

I hope you asked it to wish you luck!

Also I really don't like the way it writes so instead of asking it to edit directly I have asked it to point out places in a text where the are flaws or weaknesses and then I have looked at that and tried to find ways to resolve it myself, I use it more in dialogue than for answers and I think that keeps me more mentally alive.

Agree with all your points, especially losing skills and critical thinking. I can’t imagine what people will be like in decades to come if they rely on AI for everything, I think it’s terrifying.

Interestingly it has very western liberal biases including on trans issues which can be very annoying (it doesn't feel intellectually neutral). When I talk to chat I imagine a group of young fresh faced Californians in a big light office, sitting on their desks, all men, maybe drinking juices and kicking back in jeans, earnestly coming up with woke ways for their model to communicate.

Terrifying.

AI isn't helpful. It's making everyone lazy and stopping people figuring stuff on on their own.

Nope, it really isn't like saying those things. The thing about the energy use is not the amount of billable kwh energy it adds to your account with British Gas, but about the fact that the OP is blithely using AI for pretty frivolous purposes, seemingly ignorant of the enormous carbon footprint AI generates, and that this is inherently selfish as the impact is far-reaching, touching the lives of many across the globe.

Who is Claude

@Tusktusk Are you paying the subscription for Claude ai?

The reviews on Trustpilot are concerning. 76% of the reviews are 1 star reviews. And there seems to a continuous theme of being ripped off, not getting refunded, almost impossible to cancel the subscription.

https://au.trustpilot.com/review/claude.ai

It is useless in particular aspects. I just posted a thread on here that it could not give me an answer to, a really mind numbingly boring thread. It still did not answer it and gave me a whole pile of incorrect information. I asked questions in popular culture, it is well out of date. I find it useful in some medical aspects. It is certainly good in drafting text and letters that you can edit. But basic facts can be way off.

I really wouldn’t rely on an AI diagnosis