Tell Me an Example of When You Loved AI

[monarch64]

AI as in “artificial intelligence.”

I’m a writer, and people in my field are increasingly worried about AI. My opinion is that it will change things, and my hope is that those changes will be beneficial to us all.

I was just doing a very random google search for my niece’s zodiac sign (a zodiac-themed candle was on sale at Anthropologie), and the first result was very informative; I didn’t even have to open a link or read through a terribly-written blog post full of pop-ups and pictures to glean everything I wanted to know! That made me happy, but I wonder how others feel about things like this?

What do you all think about AI and how it will affect your future/your industry?

 

[Matata]

From the gut with no analysis. I think it will make us lazier, dumber, and more vulnerable to incorrect info than we are currently. When AI becomes intelligent enough to sift out all of the mistakes humans made training it, then it will be smarter than us and I'm not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing for humans. We have a tendency to do things because we can with not enough forethought about potential consequences and how they could be avoided/resolved and that tendency is my biggest concern regarding AI.

And then there's AIs own assessment of its cons:

AI Overview

Artificial intelligence (AI) has many potential disadvantages, including:

• Job displacement
  AI-driven automation may replace human labor in industries where tasks can be easily automated, leading to job losses. A 2023 Goldman Sachs report estimates that AI could automate around two-thirds of US occupations and eliminate 300 million full-time jobs.
  
  
• Bias and discrimination
  AI systems learn from the data they are fed, and if that data is biased, the AI may unintentionally perpetuate discrimination. For example, AI may create pictures of humans with misshapen hands and feet, or generate playlists of music that are inappropriate for children.
  
  
• Privacy concerns
  AI's use in surveillance and data analysis raises concerns about privacy and data security. For example, virtual assistants like Amazon Echo record users' voices, and these recordings could be shared with third parties without consent.
  
  
• Security risks
  AI systems can be vulnerable to cyber threats.
  
  
• Ethical dilemmas
  The development and deployment of AI raises many ethical questions. For example, risk assessment tools like Compas may base their decisions on factors that are unfair to consider, such as racism, sexism, or ageism.
  
  
• Lack of creativity
  AI may lack the ability to be creative and innovative, especially when used in content marketing.
  
  
• Lack of human touch
  AI can make interactions impersonal, such as when law firms use AI to provide client services after the initial intake process. Clients may want to know that they are receiving personalized advice, and AI may damage the attorney-client relationship.

 

[Tartansparkles]

My job involves writing, including grant applications and I also work as an assessor for other grant bodies. At first I was worried because there is an art to writing a good application, especially being able to get your point across within a very limited word count.
Having spent the last month assessing applications, I'm no longer as worried. The AI written answers stick out like a sore thumb and while they are above average, they are just not sharp enough/lack the cutting insight that is required to be in the top x % to secure any funding.

I am also currently writing an application and I'm finding my "clever pal" as I call it, quite useful. I can ask it questions and it gives me fully formed answers. It's much better/more efficient than using a search engine. You can also drill deeper into the answers it gives (up to a point).

However, there is still a skill in knowing what to ask and what information is going to be most useful/relevant to a given audience. I generally know what I want to say/what information I'm looking for and the AI helps me to quickly fill those gaps.

 

[glitterata]

Used with extreme caution, it can be good at explaining technical things in plain language. But it can plagiarize and make stuff up, and it doesn't actually understand what it's saying, so you have to keep a sharp human eye on it.

It absolutely sucks at creative writing, as this NYTimes story illustrates (you may encounter a paywall): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/28/opinion/curtis-sittenfeld-chatgpt-summer-beach-story.html

Scientists are finding generative AI tools helpful for coming up with hypotheses and processing data--maybe one of our scientist members will comment on that.

 

[glitterata]

AI as in “artificial intelligence.”

I’m a writer, and people in my field are increasingly worried about AI. My opinion is that it will change things, and my hope is that those changes will be beneficial to us all.

I was just doing a very random google search for my niece’s zodiac sign (a zodiac-themed candle was on sale at Anthropologie), and the first result was very informative; I didn’t even have to open a link or read through a terribly-written blog post full of pop-ups and pictures to glean everything I wanted to know! That made me happy, but I wonder how others feel about things like this?

What do you all think about AI and how it will affect your future/your industry?

Monarch, are you comfortable saying what kind of writing you do?

 

[m-cubed]

I feel that if you need AI to do your job, you don’t belong in that job.

 

[glitterata]

See also this chilling/hilarious article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/26/upshot/ai-synthetic-data.html

 

[Lookinagain]

Having spent the last month assessing applications, I'm no longer as worried. The AI written answers stick out like a sore thumb and while they are above average, they are just not sharp enough/lack the cutting insight that is required to be in the top x % to secure any funding.

Don't you think it will be improved and then the AI answers will get better and not so obvious?

@monarch64 Not what you're asking, as I don't love it. I'm with @Matata on this. What particularly worries me is that kids in college will use it instead of learning. It might be obvious to the professor now, but if it improves, perhaps it won't be. I'm concerned that people without any native curiosity will just quit thinking for themselves. Who would want to have staff full of people who don't think for themselves? Maybe I'm just not informed enough on the positives, but I've been very skeptical of AI all along. Maybe it's just my age, but I'm glad I don't have to deal with a bunch of young employees who got through college using AI.

 

[MMtwo]

It helps me. I have some sort of unnamed learning disability. I was in the slow class, I remember being hit with a ruler when the 5th grade assessments has me in the top 10% for IQ. I "cheated". But of course I didn't cheat. I didn't understand why my teacher was so mad at me, and why she said I cheated. It didn't occur to me until later that she thought there was no way I was that smart.

The years taught me to grind, overcome and be passably okay and hold a job and even rise to be really good at IT. I remember as a teen being told I was not so bright, so should just secure a good husband. "Not college material" said my mom.

Now, I think I am on the spectrum and I am just a one off. Smart but sometimes really disconnected. I have deficits. I had dyslexia as a child. My son is diagnosed as autistic, I am pretty sure the whole household is unique. Can I just add how much I love my atypical family and one off husband? God, what a miracle they are. I am just trying to explain that if you know you can't always make that generic neurotypical product...thank God for AI.

Anyhow, with AI, I can have a mound of thoughts that should be wrangled into a paragraph and I cut and paste into AI and it helps me smooth my broken spots. It often arranges my chaos into a more digestible form. I usually have to do a little editing, but I can pass as neurotypical and even professional. I literally am so thankful for this product.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

It helps me. I have some sort of unnamed learning disability. I was in the slow class, I remember being hit with a ruler when the 5th grade assessments has me in the top 10% for IQ. I "cheated". But of course I didn't cheat. I didn't understand why my teacher was so mad at me, and why she said I cheated. It didn't occur to me until later that she thought there was no way I was that smart.

The years taught me to grind, overcome and be passably okay and hold a job and even rise to be really good at IT. I remember as a teen being told I was not so bright, so should just secure a good husband. "Not college material" said my mom.

Now, I think I am on the spectrum and I am just a one off. Smart but sometimes really disconnected. I have deficits. I had dyslexia as a child. My son is diagnosed as autistic, I am pretty sure the whole household is unique. Can I just add how much I love my atypical family and one off husband? God, what a miracle they are. I am just trying to explain that if you know you can't always make that generic neurotypical product...thank God for AI.

Anyhow, with AI, I can have a mound of thoughts that should be wrangled into a paragraph and I cut and paste into AI and it helps me smooth my broken spots. It often arranges my chaos into a more digestible form. I usually have to do a little editing, but I can pass as neurotypical and even professional. I literally am so thankful for this product.

your teacher must have gone to training college with my teachers
i have dysgraphia, so i cant spell or write neat, my standard 4 (last year of primary school) teacher told mum and dad i was retarded - .......yet i did quite well in high school
a few years ago a kid with dysgraphia got the highest mark in the country -it was on the news -they had an aid assigned to her to write her answers
dysgraphia wasnt even discovered when i was at school

reading your post i can see some sense in AI

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

AI as in “artificial intelligence.”

I’m a writer, and people in my field are increasingly worried about AI. My opinion is that it will change things, and my hope is that those changes will be beneficial to us all.

I was just doing a very random google search for my niece’s zodiac sign (a zodiac-themed candle was on sale at Anthropologie), and the first result was very informative; I didn’t even have to open a link or read through a terribly-written blog post full of pop-ups and pictures to glean everything I wanted to know! That made me happy, but I wonder how others feel about things like this?

What do you all think about AI and how it will affect your future/your industry?

im a shop assistant, i dont think it will effect face to face shopping, and not everything can be brought online
i really hate the idea of AI
i also hate Kindle, i hate music not on a physical medium, im old school

 

[Karl_K]

Ai can not translate stormish.
On the other hand ask about p3 facets the answer is way more convoluted than stormish.

 

[qubitasaurus]

AI is great, you can get it to proof read for you. You can give it snapshots of pdf and stuff and get it to extract text or latex code. You can get it to genetate code snippets. You can get it to generate images -- my kids love the colouring in templates it makes for them.

And you can get it to write a short summary of the document you just wrote (to include in the email for sharing the document etc).

Amazing stuff. The only thing is you have to really check it as its prone to bullshit it's way through arguments -- it'll write complete logical garbage with absolute confidence.

 

[monarch64]

Monarch, are you comfortable saying what kind of writing you do?

I write online content. Think blog posts, social media captions, website content, everything in between. In my free time I’m working on a book that is based on real life but will be presented as fiction.

 

[monarch64]

im a shop assistant, i dont think it will effect face to face shopping, and not everything can be brought online
i really hate the idea of AI
i also hate Kindle, i hate music not on a physical medium, im old school

I would not have guessed the word “hate” was in your lexicon! LOL

I appreciate everything old school, but I have a 12 year old and feel that if I don’t keep up with the times she will be grumbling about having to help me with tech and gadgets in the future. I didn’t like feeling that way about my parents, and I don’t want her to feel that way about me.

If I could sell everything I own and run off to a deserted island, I surely would. That’s just not in my life plan, though.

 

[Lentibulariaceae]

I am an artist and writer, but there’s some use in it, just not for those things. Would I also like to have serious words with the person who let midjourney out onto the internet? Yes.

I think it has potential to be very good at math, especially once some kinks are evened out.

It has already helped scientists find thousands of potential new sources for antibiotics, and while most of them were duds, there were dozens that actually worked! https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/tho...ht-superbugs-found-using-ai-and-dozens-worked
It has potential to run over massive amounts of information in very fast timeframes, which could be helpful in innumerable ways.

Like everything, people will abuse it and it will be an issue. So are mobile phones. But just like phones, we will develop solutions to those issues (Glaze and Nightshade) and the potential to do good should not be overlooked.

 

[monarch64]

It helps me. I have some sort of unnamed learning disability. I was in the slow class, I remember being hit with a ruler when the 5th grade assessments has me in the top 10% for IQ. I "cheated". But of course I didn't cheat. I didn't understand why my teacher was so mad at me, and why she said I cheated. It didn't occur to me until later that she thought there was no way I was that smart.

The years taught me to grind, overcome and be passably okay and hold a job and even rise to be really good at IT. I remember as a teen being told I was not so bright, so should just secure a good husband. "Not college material" said my mom.

Now, I think I am on the spectrum and I am just a one off. Smart but sometimes really disconnected. I have deficits. I had dyslexia as a child. My son is diagnosed as autistic, I am pretty sure the whole household is unique. Can I just add how much I love my atypical family and one off husband? God, what a miracle they are. I am just trying to explain that if you know you can't always make that generic neurotypical product...thank God for AI.

Anyhow, with AI, I can have a mound of thoughts that should be wrangled into a paragraph and I cut and paste into AI and it helps me smooth my broken spots. It often arranges my chaos into a more digestible form. I usually have to do a little editing, but I can pass as neurotypical and even professional. I literally am so thankful for this product.

This is SO interesting! Thank you for sharing your story. I often find myself wondering what people are experiencing or have experienced now that we’re talking about neurodivergence and how it affects ourselves and others as well as our relationships and all that we do on a daily basis.

I brought this up in another separate post, but I’ll say it here as well: there are people in my immediate family (myself included) who are undiagnosed neurodivergents. I find AI comforting and while I know it isn’t the best most reputable source I know that it’s at least a short bridge to more in-depth content.

Was just having a conversation with another mom; we were discussing the A and B groups our children are segregated into at school. It’s fairly obvious to most that there are faster learners vs slower learners. I had no idea schools still did this! When I was a child it was just called “the slow group” and if you were in it you weren’t considered “smart.” I’m still kind of in shock over this. I don’t know where I’m going with this point except to say that I can relate and that I’m so sorry your educators were unkind to you!

 

[MMtwo]

This is SO interesting! Thank you for sharing your story. I often find myself wondering what people are experiencing or have experienced now that we’re talking about neurodivergence and how it affects ourselves and others as well as our relationships and all that we do on a daily basis.

I brought this up in another separate post, but I’ll say it here as well: there are people in my immediate family (myself included) who are undiagnosed neurodivergents. I find AI comforting and while I know it isn’t the best most reputable source I know that it’s at least a short bridge to more in-depth content.

Was just having a conversation with another mom; we were discussing the A and B groups our children are segregated into at school. It’s fairly obvious to most that there are faster learners vs slower learners. I had no idea schools still did this! When I was a child it was just called “the slow group” and if you were in it you weren’t considered “smart.” I’m still kind of in shock over this. I don’t know where I’m going with this point except to say that I can relate and that I’m so sorry your educators were unkind to you!

Thank you. I don't usually talk about this, but I had a glass of wine last night and decided to expand a little. It has been an interesting ride. My son, who is autistic, is at home. He has a college degree. He has IT alphabet soup to his name. He works a job for a year or so then sort of "hits a wall" and takes time off. He was tested in college because he struggled so hard. His ability to understand concepts was at a 99. something or rather. Brilliant mind. He also has an ability to see and retain pictures in his mind. At seven he memorized all the presidents in order from a placemat and had me ask him a number, and he would reply with the president's name, and sometimes date of birth. He started school at 2.5 years old for autistic traits, was mainstreamed at 3rd grade, and once reading, had superpowers.

His professor that tested said he only had three or so students that tested that high in his career. His processing speed clocked in the 5th percentile. Jobs are designed for an average processing speed. He gets there, and not only gets there, but can bring process changing ideas and a new way of looking at process flow, but the speed gets him every time. He was most recently tech support for a cable company. His boss was on him for not clocking a certain speed on the calls. However, he was recognized for having excellent skills in trouble shooting complicated interface issues. The pressure was not good for him though. Currently, he is taking a break from work and adding more alphabet soup to his resume. Oh, and he also has profound auditory processing disorder. He refuses to go on disability, but he does struggle with a work fit and social interactions.
You know how helping your kids is so important? I want him to find a good spot that fits him. But the world is not built for how he is. This breaks my heart.

Thanks for the kind reply. Being different can be fine in safe places that can accommodate differences, but the real world is seldom that kind. But what doesnt kill us makes us stronger. I hope.

Back to AI though, for me and my issues, it is a helping tool. Honestly, the content writing is rather lame. Very good to bring up background information or maybe a proofing or rewrite, but the content generation has an AI "flavor", like a very general book report that is usually rather boring. For laughs, ask it to rewrite using a more casual narrative and you'll get a voice that sounds like something from the 1950s. or really odd. If kids are using it to cheat, I bet they would have done it anyhow; plagiarizing the old fashioned way.

 

[MMtwo]

your teacher must have gone to training college with my teachers
i have dysgraphia, so i cant spell or write neat, my standard 4 (last year of primary school) teacher told mum and dad i was retarded - .......yet i did quite well in high school
a few years ago a kid with dysgraphia got the highest mark in the country -it was on the news -they had an aid assigned to her to write her answers
dysgraphia wasnt even discovered when i was at school

reading your post i can see some sense in AI

Sending a hug...not easy having a difference in how things process. Awesome you did well in school. I am so sad your teacher said that...I think she had it backwards.

I know you said you don't like it, but if you're having a struggle in expression sometime, open co-pilot (in the Edge browser) and paste your work in and ask the AI to edit for clarity, or spelling, or even to arrange thoughts into paragraphs. It amazes me how quickly it can do that. However...proof read, because it can do great, then have a crazy sentence or thought that is incorrect.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

This is SO interesting! Thank you for sharing your story. I often find myself wondering what people are experiencing or have experienced now that we’re talking about neurodivergence and how it affects ourselves and others as well as our relationships and all that we do on a daily basis.

I brought this up in another separate post, but I’ll say it here as well: there are people in my immediate family (myself included) who are undiagnosed neurodivergents. I find AI comforting and while I know it isn’t the best most reputable source I know that it’s at least a short bridge to more in-depth content.

Was just having a conversation with another mom; we were discussing the A and B groups our children are segregated into at school. It’s fairly obvious to most that there are faster learners vs slower learners. I had no idea schools still did this! When I was a child it was just called “the slow group” and if you were in it you weren’t considered “smart.” I’m still kind of in shock over this. I don’t know where I’m going with this point except to say that I can relate and that I’m so sorry your educators were unkind to you!

i still think about the slow readers group at primary school and wonder how they did in life? they must have had dyslexia or ADHD or something but in 1976 they got written off as just naughty
i was initially in that group but by the end of primary i think i had taught myself to read
the little baby books were just too childish and i had discovered the cricket news in the newspaper