Wondering why people run every aspect of life through ChatGPT

[MiddleChildX]

Seriously. There seem to be swathes of adults who cannot function without running every single thing through an AI assistant. What should I feed my cat? Why did the postman look at me funny? How do I tell my neighbour I’m moving?
How have so many folk lost the cognitive ability and emotional resilience to deal with life? There’s something very wrong if you cannot make simple decisions or be confident in the most mundane social interactions without a computer telling you what to do. At this rate the machines will take over way before we ever thought. And that has not even touched on the horrors of the human and environmental cost of it all!!
I despair of humanity.

Yes you can't put personal or sensitive data in it, but anything else - save yourself some time and learn something in the process ! I work for a tech firm and we are actively encouraged to use it daily. I cycle between Gemini, Notebook LM and ChatGPT which I prefer.
I think anyone that isn't at least playing with it and knows how to prompt in future will struggle moving jobs in some sectors. Work wise basic examples include: design me a comms approach for xyz, build a project plan with milestones, define roles and responsibilities for xyz, write a job description, reply to this email..., presentation key points , the possibilities are endless. You have to of course sense check and know your stuff / work so you don't push out bullshit 😛
Personal examples- I'm going to Lisbon gor a 3 day trip - design 2 itineraries for me - here's what I usually like to do. Recommendations for restaurants in an area never visited before. This is my current pension pot - my salary is X, I want to earn Y when retired. Work out a financial plan for me. I've got these tops and trousers I never wear - suggest outfit combinations and key items to add for a new look. Here's a picture of my living room- any tips to update it quickly and show me what it could look like. I've done ALL of these in the past week !!

I'm single. My friends are all busy and fully loaded with thei kids, husbands, abusive husband in one case and I don't want to take up their time with my problems because I don't have a DP to discuss with.

They're very busy (as I can see from mums on here) and I would hate to be a nuisance.

ChatGPT helps me order my thoughts so that I feel more settled, in control and like I have "digested" a problem with someone.

One poster used it to write a note for someone at uni 🤦🏽‍♀️if you can't manage to write a simple note without AI you're really in trouble!

Is this because of the thread tonight from the OP with a son in uni halls, where she had ran a draft note response through Chat?

I haven't seen it much on here apart from that.

It's really useful to help some people word things effectively - especially if that's not their natural ability.

It's saving time, increasing productivity, helps me do things I wouldn't otherwise have done. But yes, I guess some people are using it for things their brain used to do perfectly well.

I see it a lot in threads here, mostly for inane posts, and I despair over the environmental costs and lack of human intelligence.

I use AI primarily for language learning. Its excellent for checking/explaining grammar and suggesting different ways to say the same thing depending on the scenario.

I occasionally use it for everyday stuff to save time. Eg. I asked for some obscure book suggestions based on authors I like and it came back with some really good options, ideas for toddler activities etc. It saves me time I don't have researching everyday stuff.

I found it very helpful for writing a letter of complaint (ie. A letter that should be factual and devoid of human emotions). I bashed out my angry response that I could never send and it turned it into something that was acceptable.

I very very rarely use AI when studying - it is too unreliable. Also, I find it's "supportive" language to be so l condescending it makes me angry!

That’s so strange, I’m one of those barely functioning adults who finds coping exhausting and setbacks almost physically painful, but I never do this, seems silly?

It’s given me my work life balance back it does a huge amount of my admin. Having said that I rarely use it for anything other than work although I did get it to do my colours though!

I know what you mean OP, I've seen lots of examples too and it's always for the most straightforward, banal things as well.

There's nothing wrong with using it to streamline or simplify tasks, that's literally what it's designed for, but I've seen posters saying things like "I asked Chat GPT to write a message to (apologise for missing a friend's event)." Surely by the time you've done that (and then almost inevitably amended the first response so it doesn't sound like a weird American salesperson) it would have been faster (let alone the environmental impact) to just send a text saying "Sorry, can't do Friday, hope you have a nice time" or whatever.

It's weird that they do it in the first place but then even weirder that they feel the need to tell everyone they have rather than just using the Chat GPT generated answer as their own.

tbf a while ago there used to be a number of posters on here who would reply to everything with "I asked DH and he said" as if their farty husband was the voice of God - I was pleased when that seemed to die out but this is even more annoying!

Meh. You could say the same about googling things or asking on mumsnet.

It is useful at work, and at home I use it for recipes when I'm trying to use store cupboard and freezer items, I give it a list and it comes up with ideas I can refine. It's useful for that. But if I found myself asking it how to get my neighbour to pick up a parcel from my house, for example, I'd think I'd lost the plot.

Yes. More and more. It never ceases to amaze me the things I see people using it for on here. How the hell do some folk get from one end of a day to the other!

They ask chatgpt how to! Not that it knows where they put their keys though.

One of my colleagues uses AI to draft reports and briefings. They always need to be redrafted - every single time - because they’re inaccurate, waffling or presented in such a convoluted way they’re unreadable. It makes my job doubly hard and takes me a huge amount of time to fix. Certainly doesn’t improve productivity in my work space.

Not really. The environmental impact alone is poles apart.

they're probably the same type of people whom you read about having got their cars stuck in a flood or thought they could drive across the ocean because they blindly relied on their satnavs...

there are lots of benefits to chat gpt but it should be a tool to help you, not an option to willingly outsource all thought.

OTOH if you think of how stupid the average person is, 50% of people are stupider than that, so it could be beneficial.

My husband does this. If not that he calls my name followed by 'what time does Tesco close', whats the weather like in Morocco in Oct. Its so annoying...I really think over use will contribute to earlier onset of dementia. My DH doesnt think for himself at all!

SoloMumJustMuddlingThrough · Today 23:24

I use AI primarily for language learning. Its excellent for checking/explaining grammar and suggesting different ways to say the same thing depending on the scenario.

But if you don't know the language how do you know it's teaching you correctly?

No one else to talk to. Loneliness.

Chat gpt is great. I run a lot of my problems through it. And I have some bloody big problems. My mum is very ill and I’ve used it for all sorts to do with that. For example, a little while ago, she accidentally double dosed one of her pills and I asked chat gpt what to do and it told me what would happen and how to deal with it.

I don’t rely on it as gospel, but it’s exceptionally useful.

Not OP but I have co-pilot (it's Microsoft's AI) on my laptop and started asking it to draw me pictures. Suddenly it is uploading my files - for what, who knows? I don't like it and don't know how to stop it. I don't want it reading my stories, diary etc. Feels like spying.

Calling 111 or her GP would have been a much safer thing to do!

That's how it works, isn't it? It steals/uses your information and mixes it with everyone else's information and turns it all into a big information soup to be served up to other customers.

If you haven't used it for work or even personal planning as an example you are missing A trick ! Not sure what line of work you are in but most office jobs you can increase productivity hugely

My mother received a letter from her bank apologising for a cock up of theirs. Clearly written by AI. So the apology wasn't from them at all - it was from a computer program.

You might increase your productivity, but you won't impress your clients if you use AI to communicate with them.

DH does this. He has even given ChatGPT on his phone a name and constantly asks [X] for "his" opinion using voice recognition, so they actually have a conversation in front of us. Even our DCs say they're not interested in what [X] thinks.

I think to say it drives me mad would be going too far. [X] is definitely a lot quicker at looking things up than I would be and "he" does draft emails well. But I just don't think it's necessary. We coped quite well before.

That said, when I grew up my main source of information on the world outside my home town was a set of encyclopaedias that were even then about 30 years old, so goodness knows how out of date they were. But it didn't seem to matter as much. Maybe because everybody else, including my teachers, were also relying on equally out of date information.

And if you didn't know something you just lived with it. Why do we have to know everything about everything within seconds?

I have made DH promise not to talk about me or my job to [X]. "He" seems quite reliable so far but I don't trust "him" 100%..........

(Do you think "he" heard me?)