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

You’re not being unreasonable, but you’re reducing the capability of your brain; outsourcing problem solving and other processes will also have a negative impact long term on your brain health and skills. Similarly, outsourcing work processes can reduce your skill and professional growth unless used carefully, but also you may set yourself up to be replaced if your job can be done by AI.

Lol nobody is debugging their own html anymore that’s just the industry

I have never willingly used it, but appreciate it has been used on my behalf ie when I’ve accessed an App, online shopping, chat functions etc.

I’m the kind of person who will work out sums in my head rather than use the calculator on my phone though.

More and more of our local cafes and pubs are using it for their advertising, all the pretend food in the artwork looks the same, not appealing at all.

Claude Code is an AI specifically designed and tuned to write computer application, create design architectures, diagrams, documentation and test cases. It is vastly better at this than a general consumer AI like ChatGPT.

How is one what bad? Sorry I don’t understand your question.

It’s an extremely powerful AI used to write code and do many of the other tasks that were once done by computer programmers.

An example: I had a video call with a customer today who spoke about some new design specs that he wanted in a solution we are developing for them. I pointed Claude Code at the call recording (there was video of a whiteboard that the customer was using so the transcript wasn’t enough) and it came up with new specs for the application just from ‘watching’ the recording. I read through the specs, told it to change a couple of things, and gave it the go ahead to implement them.

So, no junior developer taking notes during the call, writing up the new specs, asking me to review them, implementing them. And of course no junior developer learning and developing their skills during the process.

I use it in work (law). As a research tool it is highly unreliable, but I find it a very useful tool for proofing and editing.

I know diddly-squat about coding, but I also used it to build some macros for MS Word, to help me semi-automate some of the more time-consuming-but-brainless aspects of drafting.

I suspect the reason it is highly unreliable as a legal research tool is because no company has yet bothered to develop a legal industry-specific AI. So you are effectively asking a general-purpose AI such as ChatGPT to work in a highly specialised field where specific skills are needed to make sense of the data and its doing the best it can, which is probably not very good (but good enough that you continue to use it).

Once the AI companies decide to move onto the legal services field things are likely to change rapidly.

I agree generally, but its hallucinations that are the biggest problem. It's not so much "making sense of the data" but making up fictional cases. I agree it'll improve hugely with specialization.

Claude code has changed my life. It has made things so much quicker.
i don’t use chat for privacy reasons, Claude has a much better policy. However Claude does have its own issues too. Lots of erros within the models because it learns from human data. Without specialists checking they can be missed. You need to report so they can update the model

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/16/man-pleads-guilty-false-statements-shut-down-london-nightclub-heaven

Such a useful and harmless tool ..... 🙄

He could have done exactly the same thing without AI. AI isn't without harms, but this isn't an example of one.

Sorry I’m not sure what you mean by precursor

I use it to see what wallpapers and different colours look like in my rooms before I decorate

I use it every single day at work and encourage my team to do the same.

I’m also finding it really useful outside of work. For decor, design ideas, garden redesign, price comparisons - I’m finding it invaluable for so many things and I love it.

Whilst there are no doubt many advantages to the use of AI there are some fundamental errors in implimentation, at its current level of ability.

AI should generally either be a starting point or a checking tool. To just input a request and use the answer without any further action is more likely to be damaging than an improvement on anything you can do yourself.

It is woefully inadequate at providing accurate answers where it has a gap in its knowledge (or simply can't find something that doesn't exist) and will frequently make something up, perpetuating the error once the "answer" is repeated.

In my experience it is extremely weak on cultural references, particularly pre-internet, and will insist something didn't happen eg a 70's tv programme you loved back in the day, or fail to explain a joke correctly because it doesn't spot the link to song lyrics. And this is mainstream. I won't go into the errors it makes in specialist subjects. Much of my work involves monitoring and improving AI and LLM responses and it really puts me off using it in real life.

My workplace is absolutely AI obsessed - forcing it on us all. I have been learning R recently and can’t believe how lazy I have got. Every question I have, I bung into copilot and it does it for me. Gone are the days of locking myself away for a weekend with a book and a laptop to learn a coding language. I can feel my brain shrinking by the day. I fear I’m going to have to embrace it though if I want to keep the job.

I use it so I don’t have to spend ages searching for info, but not to write anything.

AI is satanic and overuse makes people much less willing or able to think for themselves.

I try not to use it at all.
My brain is still working.
I do see it muscling in and delete/ignore it when it does

It's robbed me of my career. I'm a translator. Sorry, was... for 30 years. For several years now, my job has consisted of tidying up machine-generated translations so they were print-ready, instead of doing "proper" translation with nuance and true understanding of the context in which the source text was written. Now, clients use AI and say "meh, it's good enough".

Oh, I also did stock photography on the side.

So basically, I'm f*cked at my stage of life.

What is your job and why can’t you do it without relying on AI to do it for you?

Would you admit this in a performance review?

I think it’s embarrassing how many people are using it for the most basic things.

Hmm...
What I do not use AI for.

1. original writing / emails
2. creating stupid art or funny pictures
3. answers that I could do myself with an ounce of effort.

What I have used AI for:

1. some health issues that I was worried about late at night. It was actually really helpful and used the info at GP following day successfuly
2. formatting documents. It doesn't require brain work and it's boring. AI is quicker
3. grammar/spell checking
4. deciding on a paint colour for my room. Saved a bunch of testers!

I am conscious of the environmental impat and I don't want to rot my brain so I'm trying to be careful on how I use it.
I'm actually more concerned with connection on an emotional level. I can see that being the biggest issue with society. I have only used it once in this context and I was aware it took on deity type proportions. Put me off using it in that way!

Yes I would 100% admit to using ai to code for work and I think people would be like why are you doing that yourself just use Claude.

most web hosting apps have a Claude link now. It’s expected.

I pay for Gemini. Got it free for a year with a new phone and now it's only £20 a month. I get my money's worth asking it to photoshop my friends into memes 😅

I'd never let it write anything for me, but it's no different than any other tool if you're using it properly.