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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what you’ve used AI for today?

165 replies

BlackBean2023 · 27/06/2025 15:48

Just today.

I’ll go first:

a critical analysis of a report I’ve written for work
a shopping list for a bbq tomorrow
To suggest planting ideas in the garden

OP posts:
BusMumsHoliday · 27/06/2025 20:16

BoldGreenDreamer · 27/06/2025 19:47

It depends how its used.

E.g., for legal documents, there's a world of difference between "draft me a legal document" and "review this document I have drafted and list out (a) possible errors and inconsistencies, and (b) potential improvements" (then reviewing its comments and deciding which, if any, to implement).

As long as there's nothing confidential in that draft. Then you'd be in pretty big trouble.

CarrieonCarrieanne · 27/06/2025 20:29

I used it to help me improve a report I had to write for work, and I used it to make an exercise plan for the gym

Iloveyoubut · 27/06/2025 20:38

Dominoeffecter · 27/06/2025 16:22

Nothing, I’ve only ever used it once to see what my cats would look like as humans.

😂 I love you for that!

BoldGreenDreamer · 27/06/2025 20:57

BusMumsHoliday · 27/06/2025 20:16

As long as there's nothing confidential in that draft. Then you'd be in pretty big trouble.

Well, you probably wouldn't be in trouble, because it likely wouldn't ever be known, but you'd certainly be way offside of your professional obligations (putting you and your client at risk).

You should certainly take care to anonymize, though - you can use placeholder names and details from the outset, or parse them out retrospectively. You might also need to tweak a fact pattern if it remains potentially identifying even when anonymized.

Capillaryaction · 27/06/2025 21:00

To make multiple choice questions for plumbing students

Periodicnamechanger · 27/06/2025 21:02

I used it to create a presentation deck describing the function of my department. It’s for some work experience students so it wasn’t necessary to be specific. I then validated the content and used prompts to format it using certain branding. I was happy with the results and it saved a lot of time. I then asked for some interactive tasks to engage the students (so they don’t suffer death by PowerPoint) and it offered a few ideas, then picked one. AI is going to change the world, maybe not immediately but over time.

BoldGreenDreamer · 27/06/2025 21:43

MasterBeth · 27/06/2025 19:48

Well, it can't.

Devise:
to invent a plan, system, object, etc., usually using your intelligence or imagination:

AI can't invent anything and has no intelligence or imagination. It's just a regurgitation engine.

I don't think it's great that teacher (who presumably is passing on her knowledge on this to her kids) thinks it can.

Devise:

"plan or invent (a complex procedure, system, or mechanism) by careful thought."

Or

"to form in the mind by new combinations or applications of ideas or principles"

"Devising" doesn't have to include inventing something entirely unique, it can be formulating a plan by drawing on and applying existing principles to certain facts.

And no, artificial intelligence does not have its own mind, is not capable of true thought - that's the "articificial" part, but it can absolutely prepare a plan, based on a set of facts and prompts, without substantially replicating any particular pre-existing plan.

If this is truly, genuinely concerning you, just assume that "artifical" is implied "AI artificially devised a plan", but that isn't how most people speak.

If someone said "my GPS isn't working, it thinks I'm in a different country" would you have genuine concern that the speaker thought their GPS software was capable of thought?

RunningBlueFox · 27/06/2025 21:50

Seeing if i was a good fit for a job - i uploaded my cv and the job spec and AI compared the two. I now know what bits of my career to focus on in the application. I then used it to rewrite a short report I wrote as a stream of consciousness because I had an hour to do it. I wrote like i was thinking and then asked AI to rewrite it more professionally. I then went through what it churned out and edited it so it sounded like me.

MasterBeth · 27/06/2025 21:51

It is always substantially replicating existing ideas or thoughts. All it is doing is rearranging existing language patterns to find the most statistically likely combination of words.

It can't do careful thought. It has no mind. It is not devising. It it recombining.

It can generate a plan. It can't plan. There is a profound difference.

howcanistayhinged · 27/06/2025 21:57

MasterBeth · 27/06/2025 21:51

It is always substantially replicating existing ideas or thoughts. All it is doing is rearranging existing language patterns to find the most statistically likely combination of words.

It can't do careful thought. It has no mind. It is not devising. It it recombining.

It can generate a plan. It can't plan. There is a profound difference.

It does a fucking good job of it thought. I’ve used Claude for some informal therapy sessions and to help me process thoughts about things. It’s been extremely useful.

Schatzkiste · 27/06/2025 22:02

I uploaded a picture of my empty kitchen to Copilot and asked it to show me how it would look with different colour schemes and furniture combos. Was actually really impressed. Clearly a slow day at the office!

myturf · 27/06/2025 22:05

Find this thread genuinely, profoundly scary. I've not (intentionally - I assume some software I use has it baked in) used it for anything, nor would I. Nobody seen the research about how using ChatGPT and the like makes your brain less able to do stuff for itself?!

SamDeanCas · 27/06/2025 22:16

Writing an executive summary for a presentation pack I put together, for a customer meeting on Monday

MamaAndTheSofa · 27/06/2025 22:18

ArtTheClown · 27/06/2025 18:55

@MamaAndTheSofa what LLM are you using for your coding?

I don’t really know what this means… I just fired it into ChatGPT, to be honest!

I do also use it sometimes for my reviews in work. They ask things like “How do you demonstrate that you’re a team player?” and it’s handy as a springboard for answering. I don’t just copy and paste, but the response is usually full of decent “office jargon”

ArtTheClown · 27/06/2025 22:22

I don’t really know what this means… I just fired it into ChatGPT, to be honest!

Give Claude a try, I find it really really good for coding with the way it uses artifacts.
There is also Claude Code that actually at terminal level.

BoldGreenDreamer · 28/06/2025 05:54

MasterBeth · 27/06/2025 21:51

It is always substantially replicating existing ideas or thoughts. All it is doing is rearranging existing language patterns to find the most statistically likely combination of words.

It can't do careful thought. It has no mind. It is not devising. It it recombining.

It can generate a plan. It can't plan. There is a profound difference.

Sorry but no, you're quite wrong.

You're broadly describing very early LLMs, not modern commercially-available ones.

Modern ones cannot "plan" in every sense of the word - they cannot have intent to do something and they cannot set goals.

They can, though, engage in the act of planning, based on a prompt, and to a specified end goal.

E.g., in terms of something like planning a classroom activity, if you gave a prompt to an early LLM then yes, it would merely generate a plan (or at least, something that resembles one). It would analyze language patterns and predict an appropriate response on that basis alone.

If you gave the same input to a modern LLM, though, it would engage in the functional act of "planning", using a multi-step process.

Instead of simpy analyzing language patterns of the prompt, it would analyze the actual content of it, differentiating between context, specifications and goals to determine the actual task it is required to perform, and to what parameters.

It will then determine the steps required to solve the "problem" (how to develop the lesson plan).

For example, it may determine that it has insufficient information about the topic of the planned activity, and (without further prompt) engage in research by retrieval from available data sources. E.g., it identifies information "gaps" in the initial prompt it was given, then takes steps to fill them.

It then, through application of logic to the data (the initial input and additional data known or retrieved), constructs a plan that is tailored to the initial prompt in a meaningful way.

If you don't believe me, ask something like Microsoft Copilot (which doesnt need to be downloaded) to plan a week-long holiday for you, where you want to visit multiple points of interest across a country or region (you can specify places, and/or ask for recommendations, and/or tell it your likes and limitations).

Once it gives you a suggested itinerary, ask it to provide any particular sources it drew upon or, if it didnt scrape from similar sources, what data and methodologies it employed.

LLMs don't "think" and do not "understand" in a human sense, but they do analyze and problem solve and, in a real but non-human sense, "reason". You are also wrong to say that they don't "invent" - they do (but based on executing a command, not with intent).

dEdiCatEdFeliNeEntHusiAst · 28/06/2025 06:04

Nothing exciting I'm afraid, just to do a spreadsheet for Maintenance Schedule at work because my brain was tired & I couldn't be bothered 😀

AgentJohnson · 28/06/2025 06:23

Inadvertently, Google generates an AI response and pins it to the top of searches but I don’t use AI for research.

Jc2001 · 28/06/2025 07:28

ninjahamster · 27/06/2025 15:49

I’ve never yet used AI in my life!

I bet you have, even if you didn't realise it. It's everywhere, not just when people ask chatGPT questions.

RaraRachael · 28/06/2025 07:38

Nothing
Why on earth do people need AI to write a shopping list. What's wrong with a pen and paper?

WingBingo · 28/06/2025 07:52

@RaraRachael because I can do the following:

Create a meal plan for 3 people for 5 days. I have £80 and I want to eat UPF as much as possible, and I am going to Morrisons.

I think that’s fairly useful.

BeamMeUpCountMeIn · 28/06/2025 08:04

Nothing, ever. I don't even read the first AI result on Google as it's usually wrong.

AI seems like more hassle than it's worth and it doesn't sense check anything.

AliTheMinx · 28/06/2025 08:34

I asked Alexa the time and set an alarm
I asked Copilot to analyse some data sets and produce thematic summaries
I also asked Copilot to check some text I had written and make suggestions

rosecoloured · 28/06/2025 09:30

RaraRachael · 28/06/2025 07:38

Nothing
Why on earth do people need AI to write a shopping list. What's wrong with a pen and paper?

I don’t but I did try it and it was fantastic. I wrote down what I had in the fridge, what allergies we have and it came up with 10 different recipes instantly.

Oven baked risotto was one and I could even ask to tweak it a bit and how exactly to use one (spicy) ingredient and how much of it, and got a description of what to do. I am good at cooking, but this recipe turned out absolutely delicious.

MrsPinkCock · 28/06/2025 09:33

I have been known to write semi garbled emails and tell ChatGPT to make them sound more concise. It works really well, as long as you then tweak it to sound more human and less AI.

It saves me hours at work, I can spend 5 minutes redacting documents and it’ll prepare the new document I need based on the content which I then just fine tune. It’s never managed to do anything 100% though which is why human input is always needed…