Aibu - using AI?

[finsberry]

Im using AI for a lot of things and have become very dependent on it. Here are some examples

• putting ingredients in and asking for recipes
• translation
• filtering potentially triggering news stories like the r* academy that I don’t want to google
• Frequently for work
• for general quick questions
• occasionally to rewrite emails/ messages when the situation is sensitive

Aibu to think everyone is using it to this extent? I am using multiple times daily and pay.
yabu - not using it
yanbu - using it

So we're outsourcing thinking now. Getting computers to do it for us.

Can't see this being a good thing

No. I'm still attempting to think for myself.

AI is ruining the internet, amongst other things.

I use it infrequently, for things that I can’t find a solution for elsewhere. The last time I used it was to help me fit some childproof drawer locks that didn’t come with any instructions.

For personal use I use it for meal planning, shopping, recipes, calorie and protein intake monitoring. Plus travel planning, itineraries etc.

Professionally - I use it extensively at work for all kinds of things like project planning, improving writing, presentations, analysing and summarising, spotting trends, recording meetings, etc.

I also use a paid for account and have done a lot of training on its use.

I do find a lot of the narrative around it is similar to when social media was taking off - some people thing that its the answer to everything and others think we are going to hell in a hand basket. Its somewhere in between and its just the latest tech change.

I use it very occasionally for work, and for things that genuinly do save me time (like giving copilot database explain plans, nerd fans) but will not use it for things I can do myself in a similar amount of time. It's environmentally horrible and it's basically just making people lazy and incapable of critical thought.

AI emails, for example, from people you are even vaguely familiar with are increadibly easy to spot and get filled in the bin. If you can't be arsed to communicate with me properly, then I can't be arsed to answer your question.

No, I don't use AI and won't while my brain still works.
I can spot it in emails/articles/covering letters/CV's and my response is to delete.

My last place of work specifically forbade any use of AI for work purposes. I assume because there was no policy in place at the time.
I can cook, rarely use recipes and would not think AI was value-added there.
As a qualified technical translator, I might slap in the odd paragraph BUT I would check it meticulously afterwards, so it would probably be quicker to do it myself in the first place.
I have not found it reliable for quick questions as I would need to check the answers myself, so would prefer to spend the extra minute or so searching for myself with AI turned off (so annoying that it is now a default in Google, for example).
I would never pay for it - are they paying you for your input, which is used to "teach" AI? I am also very aware of the opportunities for data "gathering/mining/scraping", although AI says it doesn't do that - allegedly.
Mind you, I do not use my mobile for internet access, so perhaps I am still in the dark ages of using the laptop/iPad combo.
Let's just park all the environmental issues.

I have never used AI for anything and ignore emails where it’s obvious that someone has used AI.

I can't say I use it at all other than maybe glancing at the stuff it foists on me when I search Google.

No I’m still using my own brain 🧠.
but then I’m the generation that had to go to the library to find encyclopaedias to do our homework whilst our parents couldn’t give one hoot!!
I think it’s ruining society. Our platforms, our daily lives even. People are being redundant over it 😢😢

YABU. I hate AI both for the environmental impact and the fact that it is removing people’s ability to think. So I avoid using it at all costs. I type ‘no AI’ when I internet search.

AI dependence is the province of the lazy and the stupid. If they aren’t both already, they will be after a few months contracting out their brain to LLM confectionary.

I loathe it. I even skip the 'first result' when I Google something because it's some AI generated crap.

It's a sore point with us authors because our content was illegally scraped by AI in order to train it in how to write more AI generated novels. We were not informed, or recompensed, and millions of books were used.

And that's just ONE reason why I will never use generative AI.

I sometimes use it if I want a synopsis of what a hotel or a restaurant is like, for eg.
Saves trawling through lots of personal reviews.

No sorry, I barely use it at all. I can write well, I have recipe books, I dont want my news filtered. I hate it. I teach teens and along with scrolling, its adding to the growing cognitive decline of humans. Awful.

I work in tech and use it frequently - it can be really helpful for setting up admin workflows and explaining niche parts of the industry I need to get up to scratch on quickly.

I wouldn’t use it to write emails etc, but I do think being at least aware of how it works and what it can do is a huge part of the future of work.

And every time I see a post or anything that begins 'Chat GPT says...' I worry a little bit more. Humans are becoming deskilled at a rate of knots, and soon we won't even be able to think or write for ourselves.

AI can go fuck itself on all levels.
Too many peeps are already brain dead from staring at screens, AI is hastening the number of zombies along quite nicely. It will come to the point peeps won't need to think, talk or walk anywhere they will be told how to breathe by AI too.
Todays kids are a lost cause in the grand scheme as they will grow up with this shite and not know any better which is depressing.
The planet needs a complete reset from 'humanity' before it gets worse.

I use is to ask for a summary of something on the news if I’m not aware or the background. I also use it to help with geocaching puzzles. It’s very tempting to use is for job applications but I haven’t really (I ask it sometimes if there is something I have missed but won’t let it write things for me).

I personally don’t use AI. I think people just be mindful of the resources need to run AI and therefore be mindful about when they are using it. Using it for quick questions, which presumably an internet search would answer is a massive waste of resources in my opinion. Using it to analyse several reports and spot trends, yes but you still need to retain those skills yourself to double check it’s not hallucinating.

I can’t believe that people can’t be arsed to write emails, do a quick internet search or even write a post on here without AI helping them.

Another card carrying Neo Luddite here. I personally think AI is the biggest existential threat we have faced as a species because there is no comparison or precedent for its likely progression.

It monkeys with our concepts of reality and truth and when you consider that "being in touch with reality" is the cornerstone of good mental health, it is extremely dangerous - see actual documented cases of AI psychosis.

It can be used nefariously for political purposes, and reliance on it for decision making in things like the judicial system and government is utterly dehumanising.

You can argue it's "just a tool" and depends on the understanding and intent of the developer / user, but it is progressing in sophistication at such speed the average IT proficient member of the public can't possibly keep up. And there have already been instances of things like systems developing their own languages and bargaining with users to keep them online / survive.

Never mind the environmental impact and economic ramifications which have not been thought through at all.

It's another grand experiment where we are guinea pigs with assumed consent because we are feeding it for funsies and convenience.

So yeah, YABU, especially as you have already admitted "dependence" on it.

I use it at work because it’s one of our performance indicators. So I chuck a couple of questions at it to keep my usage stats up. Valuable use of my time 🙄

I do find it funny when people insist they can always spot when someone has used AI to write something. Yes, sometimes it’s obvious, but since you rarely find out the times that you don’t spot something that actually was AI, you can’t know how well you actually do at spotting it.

I use it sometimes to unscramble the thoughts in my ADHD brain. It gives me bullet points and breaks things down for me. But thank you for calling those that do use it lazy and stupid. I am neither of those things.

If you can spot AI then the user isn’t using it properly or is using it as an autopilot rather than a copilot.

Most people aren’t using it well - yet

And most people don’t understand it yet as evidenced by the fear and defensiveness on this thread

This is pretty much what I was going to say!