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?

I work in a safety-critical industry. Human intelligence is very much needed at senior level. But ChatGPT is completely hollowing out the junior end so that in 15 years there will be no-one left with the senior skills to oversee the AI output.

Dear MaggieBsBoat

This sounds brilliant. Which AI software did you use to format Excel?

Did you strip out your work data before sharing/uploading?

yes you dont know what you dont know, but as an expert jn your field you can recognise different patterns, or make yourself validate a solution ie. Lets deconstruct chat gpt solution so you actually use your critical analysis and dont take what it says as gospel.

the same way that you would read an article even in the FT and check who wrote it, and you would understand the context and the agenda.

it s about seeing as the whole. So even though you dont know what you dont know you can analyse said solution / edit reports and whether it is right or not or flawed.

@Bubblesgun thats fine if you are an expert in your field, but people are using it to complete their studies, and at the start of their careers. How do you become a subject expert if you outsource your thinking?

So will humans be competing with AI for resources at some point in future ? Raises so many interesting (and some terrifying) scenarios.

This is what concerns me about AI. I know how to evaluate sources for avcuracy and legitimacy. How do you do that when its abstracted behind an AI answer and you're not used to spotting bullshit on the internet?

Similar tasks to you op, find it really good for holiday ideas and finding recommendations.
Also to quickly run things by instead of asking people, researching or forum boards
Environment impacts crosses my mind at times but not when I'm using need to be more aware of it

Not really an AI user and I am hugely concerned about the environmental impact.

I also have concerns about brain health - part of maintaining good brain health in life and reducing our risk of developing dementia is ensuring we keep challenging our brains. If we reduce our critical thinking skills, what impact does it have cognitively?

Touche.
very true.

but i wonder, here me out thinking out loud. I wonder if our parents were worrying the same as we grew up? I was born in 77. I remember my dad saying about my little sister born early 80s that she was born with “a mouse instead of a brain” as in using the PC all the time.

fast forward 40yrs and she is a the top of her game super successfull in everyway but especially in her field.

so I wonder if we are actually just going to recalibrate the brain, the jobs, the skills that are needed for the future? Providing that the next generation is still literate so they can program, ask questions and analyse answers?

I used it to write a humorous poem for a birthday card. But then I thought about how every detail (no full name or address) I put in will be saved in the ether somewhere, and AI being so clever and having access to the whole internet will be able to make connections, pull out contact lists and goodness knows what else. At the moment probably just used for selling us stuff, but who knows how it will be used in a few years time.

That's a good point about students and early careers folks, you need to learn those foundational skills to then build on, so if you outsource too much too early you won't be able to think and analyse properly to progress to a higher level. Deskilling ourselves, as someone further up said.

you have to be an engaged and intelligent user rather than a passive recipient of AI answers. And be alert that it hallucinates and bluffs. It's got quite a people pleasing persona at present.
AI had a brilliant scholarly answer to a research question that has been bothering me for two years and it was only on close reading that I thought to ask whether the source for the answer was my own question (it was).
Interestingly my kids (a level) refuse to use it as they say it's 'cheating' and they say they won't properly grasp ideas if they use AI to help them (I think they're wrong- I said they could use it to interrogate them about their ideas). They tell me that kids at school hand in AI essays and it's always obvious.

I've heard about AI/ChatGPT etc, but have never used it. To be honest, I didn't really know a huge amount about it, nor the more ethical issues surrounding it. Showing my age a bit, but I think I must have almost likened it to a souped up version of MS Encarta (anyone remember that?!).

Reading threads and links on here that explained about it, showed me more the pros, cons and the issues surrounding it. I've still not used it, but I can understand why it could be useful for some. I guess it's like having your own PA? For me (single mum of two, working FT), I certainly have items that make my life easier/reduce the mental load: Robovacs, Thermomix (even though I can cook!), dishwasher, tumble drier, etc. Just realised that didn't really give you a straight answer OP!!

Students using AI to write assignments is an increasing problem for universities I think flame I think usually the tutors can tell though and those students won't be learning anything if they're relying on AI too much.

AI is a cancer in society, it will destroy so many skills necessary to advance humanity. It’s terrible, it often gives incorrect information. Steer clear and avoid using it.

I can’t believe people can’t see the issues with it. We have become increasingly intellectually lazy. People can’t think for themselves, they rely on prepackaged thought systems. TBH the destruction of humanity is probably well over due.

You think that helping you choose some outfit colours and a few other bits that you could not be bothered to do yourself means the entire world should be forced into the environmental destruction that the power requirements of AI requires?

God help us for the onslaught of human stupidity and laziness that computers empower and now release fully.

They can probably tell because half of what is thrown up by AI is incorrect

My sister is a tutor and it has added to her workload immensely. It is not replacing labour, it is just shifting it to someone else's unpaid shoulders.

Tbh should have realised where it was going when someone used it to “get their colours done”

Google would do the same.

Here's what ChatGPT says about Google Searches and AI:

"Yes, Google searches do use AI in several ways. Google's search engine relies heavily on machine learning and AI algorithms to understand and rank search results. Here are a few examples of how AI is used:

1. *RankBrain*: This is an AI system that helps Google understand the meaning behind search queries, especially when they are vague or unusual. It helps interpret complex queries and match them with the most relevant results.

1. *BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)*: BERT helps Google understand the context of words in a search query, especially for conversational or long-tail queries. It allows the engine to grasp nuances like prepositions and word order to deliver more accurate search results.

1. *AI for Image Search*: Google’s image search uses AI to better understand the content of images and to match them with relevant queries, even if the query doesn’t include exact keywords in the image metadata.

1. *Voice Search*: AI powers Google’s voice search, helping the engine recognize spoken language, process natural language, and deliver the most relevant responses.

1. *Featured Snippets & Knowledge Graph*: Google uses AI to present answers directly at the top of search results in a featured snippet or the Knowledge Graph, pulling data from various sources and interpreting it for quick user understanding.

In short, AI is deeply embedded in how Google processes and ranks search results, constantly improving the user experience."

so to seperate the two and pretend doing a google search is somehwow more virtuous or less damaging environmentaly than asking a question on an AI tool is silly. I'm sure all search engines are the same. The difference is in the back end offsetting/sustainability initiative like eg the tree planting one.

Google also claim to be trying to address this, according to their own AI:

Google's Data Center Efficiency and Sustainability:
Google is focused on making its data centers more energy-efficient and sustainable.
Google is using renewable energy sources to power some of its data centers.
Google is aiming for zero waste in its data centers.

I received loads of blood test results and I pasted them in to Chat GPT and asked it for a summary. I gave them the date of my first period and my age.

It gave me really precise results and told me which ones were out of range, how I could be feeling and gave me information on what medication could be useful.

@teksquad it’s a fallacious argument worth of AI itself to say “the data centres are already built, we might as well keep them busy!”. It’s the growth in AI that is primarily driving the growth in data centres.

Israel have used it for targeting which individuals to kill in the Gaza conflict - called the "Gospel". It analyses vast amount of data to determine where potential suspects may be and then launches massive bombs to try and annihilate them. The most controversial one is nicknamed "Where's Daddy" - where they have calculated that Hamas terrorist will visit their kids from time to time and can traingulate various data to determine that and then they bomb them. Modern conflict may have automomnous AI kill drones that will be able to eliminate enemy combatants without any human intervention. Fire and forget. Human evolution doesn't always end up somewhere nice sadly.

Thats not what I am saying. I am saying they are already busy with all the things that use embedded AI that everyone on this thread is already using.