AIBU to say AI will completely change how we parent and live?

[Ellis12]

I’ve been experimenting with AI tools recently (like ChatGPT and others), and it’s honestly been a game-changer for managing household stuff, helping with schoolwork, meal plans, even emotional support during tough days.

But it got me thinking are we at the start of something huge? Will AI end up changing how we raise our children, do our jobs, and even build relationships? AIBU to feel both excited and a bit nervous about how fast it's all happening?

Curious what others think, especially parents juggling a million things!

I've used ChatGPT to meal plan lunchbox meals I can take to work that fit with my very restrictive diet and budget, and it came up with a lot more suggestions than I found myself via Google.

I just asked it for a 1400 cal meal plane focused on protein and fibre and I got things like greek yoghurt, granola & berries, salmon with quinoa and veg, chicken breast with sweet potato & veg. Nothing groundbreaking there & pretty boring.

I can't see how it helps with anything other than when I am bored at work and asking it ridiculous questions

You won give them free access, the access will exist in the sense that WiFi and radio signals exist. The A.I tech will be in every device, cars, homes, wearable kit, it will be like air. In the 90s, porn was either a magazine or a video, now it's available on every phone, immediately, for free.

And don't kid yourself that parents these days are keeping their kids safe because they check their phones 🙄. Most couldn't spot a hidden app if they were paid. Burner phones are on sale in every school and park for a few quid. Back in the 90s, kids were hiding fag boxes from their parents, today it's phones.

Every 5 ChatGPT prompt (I.e. what you put in) uses 500ml of water. Asking ChatGPT to parent your children by helping with homework or planning meals could be using 10s of litres of water a day.

ChatGPT’s third model emitted 502 metric tons of co2 while being trained. ChatGPT produces 260,000kg of co2 monthly.

does it feel good? Killing the planet to save a little bit of time?

For now, that's the case, and yes, it is concerning, but the genie is out of the bottle now, and we can't put it back.

Not so long ago, computers were so big they required entire buildings to themselves, now we walk around with them strapped to our wrists. Technology advances, and as it does, it becomes cheaper and easier to run and more efficient.

Of course we can’t. But we can also refrain from using it when we don’t need to. It produces basic meal plans. It answers questions. What stops you from doing this yourself?

I see your point, and I do agree, but a parent using it to plan meals is a drop in the ocean compared to Google, Amazon, etc, use of it while training and developing it. Consumers not using it won't make a massive difference, and on the flip side, the more it is used, the more efficient it becomes and the less power it needs to use.

With respect, you're confusing language models with A.I.

They are completely different things.

Chat GPT isn't A.I

A.I agents, systems, whatever you want to call them are used to build language models, but that is just one small bit of work they can do.

A.I verses GPT is the difference between your brain and your thoughts.

Brain = A.I

GPT = Thoughts

A.I will analyse its own thoughts, humans won't play any part in this, because humans can't think 10,000 different thoughts a second.

Think of it like this. If ai were to type "list all the battles of WW2 in chronological order" into Google or chat Gpt, it would give me the answer in seconds. If I were to ask you the same question, how long would it take you to give me the answer without using the Internet?

So no, humans won't be assessing anything for accuracy.

AI is fuck all use in parenting a baby.

babies need feeding (can AI do that) nappy changing (ditto) and human love and attention. None of which AI is going to be able to do anytime soon.

children already have access to all the world’s knowledge via the internet. No parent in their right mind would give them access because virtually no child under say 7 is capable of sifting and looking at the information out there and learning what they need to independently.

the whole point of school is it is a carefully sequenced introduction to human knowledge that ideally ends with an adult capable of finding their own way within all of human knowledge.

the sequencing matters.

if you could just give a six month old a phone and they’d be a genius we’d be doing it already.

knowledge doesn’t work like that.

Bearing in mind that there are plenty of parents who don't parent, it can simply become another thing that parents don't do because a screen, a phone, or whatever does the parenting for them. Nobody has ever said that parenting has to be good parenting.

You won't be able to refrain from using it, because "it" will be everywhere, in every electronic device, try using your smartphone without Android or Apple running in the background.

So you think people simply must use ChatGPT to meal plan instead of doing it for themselves?

I think AI is the future and it is coming whether people shout it down aggressively or not. Progress always has that dark side, agricultural revolution/industrialisation/the World Wide Web this is no different and morally loaded comments from opposers to posters on a parenting site are not going to stop its progress. The same as nothing stopped the other social revolutions of the past.

AI-powered robots are currently performing surgical procedures (admittedly supervised and operated by humans), so their being able to change a nappy within the near future is not beyond the realms of possibility. I don't believe that they will, especially not in normal homes, but it is possible.

People are making the mistake of believing AI is tied to computers and the mobile devices we currently have access to. It's not, it can and is being used in conjunction with advanced robotics.

Yes. Isn’t that rather the point of it?

I can see it working in things to do with law, so rather than a lawyer reading through a ton of paper to find a precedent or caveat. It could save a lot of time, it could probably help on how to contrast a closing argument/defence etc based on what has been successful prior.

Marketing eg targeting the customer more accurately and effectively.

Will AI help us learn how to do all our own DIY?

Surgeons or we won't need so many?

You are underestimating how ubiquitous A.I will become.

7 year old children won't need a phone or any physical device to get access to knowledge. The applications will be embedded within most devices, in a passive sense.

There won't be a carefully sequenced introduction to knowledge, because knowledge will have no value. Knowledge will become redundant, why learn to write when your voice (or literal thoughts, yes, this has really been done, a Pink Floyd song has been sequenced from just monitoring thoughts) will do it for you.

We don't have words to understand the changes coming. Just like the Right Brothers didn't understand aerodynamics, even thought they invented the airplane.

I would be very happy with a robot chef/housekeeper

Is AI perfect though? Just thinking of that plane that was landed on the Hudson didn't the computer suggest going to the airport?

We’ve already had the first court case where a case was thrown out due to AI making up previous cases.

https://gunnercooke.com/ai-fake-cases-and-the-courts-a-cautionary-tale-for-the-legal-profession/

the current problem with AI is that it hallucinates (makes things up). So if lawyers use it to put together legal arguments it makes up old court cases.

a good way to lose your case.

Chat Gpt is just a tool, like a roadmap, so you think people should simply read a road atlas while driving instead of using Android Auto?

That's what I'm referring to. The tech will become so ubiquitous that not using it will become a burden.

Eventually, AI will be a useful support in my job but can't replace what I do so no concerns there. I wouldn't use it for many of the things listed here. It has a long way to go before being considered even remotely reliable though

I'm waiting for an AI/android gardener. Not the robot lawnmowers we have atm, although I also want one of those desperately if anyone has any recommendations, but I want one that will trim the shrubs, do the weeding, keep plants alive, and know when it needs doing without any interaction from me. Once they are available, I will rob a bank to be able to afford one