To think ChatGPT is the best thing ever?

[ColliLass]

So far it has:

sorted a problem with my emails that I would never EVER have been able to work out
Found a book I haven’t been able to remember for years
diagnosed a problem on the car and accurately estimated the probable cost
found recipes

and many many more little helpful day to day offerings when i can’t remember things or I wonder things.

I loathe the AI videos and pictures that seem to be everywhere but ChatGPT is amazing.

I would assume that the checking and acceptance process by Apple/Google would have identified any such huge problems and refused to make the apps live tbph. They didn't, however.

In terms of the app working properly - it does, so far.

It is useful to check your thinking where you have done the research and remain in control. But it can’t tell where it has gone wrong or failed to account. It is best when already clear guidelines exist.

I am currently using it to check my position statement for FDR in divorce and it’s confident with section 25 and how that applies in a needs based case because it’s all over the web. But for individual stuff it can get things wrong in a way that’s not immediately obvious but strategically significant and when questioned can be strangely defensive suggesting that MY previous calculations were incorrect when referring to its own calculations. Or it flatters me that I made a good catch. If I took its calculations and therefore strategic positions as gospel I would look like an idiot. I basically have to fact check everything and perform my own calculations independently to make sure it’s not giving me a bum steer.

But still preferable to having no sounding board or paying hundreds of pounds to a solicitor for generic advice. I couldn’t afford to pay a solicitor to calculate the advantage/disadvantage to both parties of a higher pension share versus equalising income on retirement share plus maintenance in a long marriage with DB pension and no other assets where one party was unable to work or accrue further pension due to caring responsibilities.

I’m not convinced that AI is an advantage to the majority of the increasing amount of people that can’t afford legal representation and don’t qualify for legal aid.

Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups, as Apple, Google and Microsoft can't even make their own products work correctly and securely, why do you think their checking of yours is any better. I've lost count of security upgrades to windows and MSOffice, there seems to be an IOS update every week now.

Totally agree with you! I used it last week to draft a really awkward email to a company that had been messing us around for weeks. I just typed "make me sound polite but firmly annoyed" and it nailed it in about two seconds flat 😂 Saved me ages of staring at a blank screen stressing over the wording.

But I am completely with you on the AI pictures. Those weird fake photos on Facebook of kids building giant things out of plastic bottles give me the absolute creeps! It's brilliant for admin though.

Most of that you could have found via an internet search. I think what chat gpt and others do is basically stop us from using our own brains to solve problems. This might be a great relief initially but over time the societal consequences are scary especially as it often lies or hallucinates

When I first heard of it I thought it was amazing. But having heard so much now about the negative impact on the environment from AI, it really worries me. I also think it encourages people to be lazy and to never think for themselves.

Don’t be silly. As long as people are aware that it exists, what it does, and how to use it, they are not being a dinosaur by making an informed decision not to use it. I agree that people shouldn’t stick their heads in the sand about the existence of something, but nor should they blindly use something without question.

I genuinely have no idea what I’d use it for.
SIL uses it to write school reports.