How are you using AI tools?

[jymbee]

I've found various tools such as as ChatGPT quite useful at times. For example, today our fridge stopped working After some back & forth with our repair person he said whether it would be worth paying for what would likely be an expensive repair (bad condenser) that might depend of its age. Offhand we couldn't remember exactly when we bought it.

So I took a picture of the label and sent it to him but he couldn't tell much. So I sent the image to ChatGPT and asked it it could tell how old it was. In a few seconds it came back with in part:

Whirlpool serial numbers actually encode the manufacture date.
From your label:
Brand: Whirlpool Corporation
Serial: K52706004

Here’s how it breaks down:
2nd digit (5) = year → likely 2015 (could be 2005, but this model is much newer, so 2015 is the realistic match)
3rd–4th digits (27) = week 27
That means:

Your refrigerator was manufactured around late June / early July 2015.
Bottom line:
Age: about 10–11 years old (as of 2026)

If you want, I can tell you how much life it likely has left or what failures to watch for at this age.

It went on and on with additional info. Bottom line: new fridge being delivered tomorrow.

 

[Tom]

I use ChatGPT for some things, but I'm conscious of its warning that it can be wrong, and I don't rely 100% on its respones. But, I find it mind boggling, like google on steroids and then some.

 

[Seilerbird]

I love AI, and I use it all the time. Not Chat GPT. I use the Amazon user reviews and things like that.

 

[John From Detroit]

I generally use GOOGLE's AI Often the summaries are good enough to answer a question but I also dive down into the linked articles/pages
I ask it a question about Kings who thought they were God in the Bible and Google's AI said asically "No such passage" then... Provided a link to just the passage I was looking for. So do I trust it.
Well. the summray was clearly wrong.

 

[DutchmenSport]

I tried only 1 time to use AI, just to see what would happen as a personal test to determine if I'd like using it or not. I typed in the name of a historical figure I have a lot of detailed information on and I've been studying in depth over the last 3 years. (no... not Jesus) .... and AI had it all wrong. Even the information it presented contradicted itself.

That gave me all the answers I needed about the reliability of AI. It mixes fact with fiction, and cannot separate truth from lies, and honesty from deception. It's a gigantic search engine and simply returns a summary of information that's already available "out there" in the cyber world. If someone put information on a web site that is 100% false, AI still picks that up and returns it as fact.

Doing independent internet searches might take longer, but landing on web sites and web pages gives a look at the direction the biased information is originating from. AI just sloshes everything together as if it all "fact!!"

 

[Tom]

That gave me all the answers I needed about the reliability of AI. It mixes fact with fiction, and cannot separate truth from lies, and honesty from deception. It's a gigantic search engine and simply returns a summary of information that's already available "out there" in the cyber world. If someone put information on a web site that is 100% false, AI still picks that up and returns it as fact.

That's how I perceive it, but I've still received valid solutions to some issues.

 

[8Muddypaws]

There is almost no avoiding it. It’s been integrated into search engines, shopping and product reviews, music etc.

On music, I tried using AI lyric generation as a test. It gave me utter nonsense and I refused to use any of it. Given the state of pop music now that nonsense may have been my Grammy! LOL.

 

[Larry N.]

I have yet to intentionally use AI, partly because I don't trust it (too many fake answers in too many fields by too many people), but also partly because I have yet to perceive a use for it FOR ME. Knowing that there isn't any intelligence there, just clever programming of a very sophisticated (and flawed) search engine, I've had no desire to play with that "new toy."

 

[rtrainer]

Today's AI tools are not the same as "type a snetance and get a list of stuff". You need to give it context and then have a conversation with it. The context is the important part. Without it, the tool will give you a bunch of randomish stuff about the topic.

 

[Larry N.]

Today's AI tools are not the same as "type a snetance and get a list of stuff". You need to give it context and then have a conversation with it. The context is the important part. Without it, the tool will give you a bunch of randomish stuff about the topic.

As I said:

I've had no desire to play with that "new toy."

And if I want a conversation I want a person on the other end.

 

[rtrainer]

I think what you will find is that it can be used as the next gen search tool. Its strength is in being able to pull together a lot of information and give you meaning full summeries instead of a list of things you need to weed through as is evidenced in the OPs experience.

 

[Larry N.]

I think what you will find is that it can be used as the next gen search tool. Its strength is in being able to pull together a lot of information and give you meaning full summeries instead of a list of things you need to weed through as is evidenced in the OPs experience.

I won't likely find that, but for you, enjoy...

 

[UTTransplant]

I believe AI has a valid place in specific industries where it can be trained for in depth knowledge in that specific field. But the large language model (LMM) AIs that pretend to be all knowing over all topics are pretty useless in my experience. There is a tendency to weigh all input equally, and that just isn’t a good way to work. Some authors/publications/organizations are much more accurate than others, but AIs dump them all together. I have seen the summaries developed being internally inconsistent. And when they totally hallucinate (start making up responses based on no input data), they give you no notice of it. You discover it for yourself when you try to fact check them. I much prefer to get a list of sources and investigate them myself. I am much more capable of understanding the reliability of a source than the AIs I have encountered.

 

[RayIN]

There is almost no avoiding it. It’s been integrated into search engines, shopping and product reviews, music etc.

On music, I tried using AI lyric generation as a test. It gave me utter nonsense and I refused to use any of it. Given the state of pop music now that nonsense may have been my Grammy! LOL.

Yup, I just bought a new laptop running W11, it has a button to turn off AI features, I did that. Now to do the same with search engines and browsers.

 

[ButchW1]

I use it to second guess my doctor. ...
Butch

 

[NY_Dutch]

I asked ChatGPT, Grok, and Google's AI a legal question regarding settling my wife's estate. All three answers were virtually identical with slightly different wording, and my lawyer said all were correct.

 

[old_toys]

my daughter has the ChatGPT download on her cell phone. she's into antique furniture and such and she just takes a pic of the goods and ask the chat about the age and origins of the antiques and it may ask for additional pics of the inside and outside of the drawers and screw heads and dovetails and it gives her an in-depth assessment of the values and dates.
on StPatricks day she took a pic of her dogs and asked it to dress them up for the occasion and in 5 seconds it sent this pic. had to take a pic of the pic on my cell phone because she uses some software reduce photo size that I can't transfer off mine.

 

[jymbee]

my daughter has the ChatGPT download on her cell phone. she's into antique furniture and such and she just takes a pic of the goods and ask the chat about the age and origins of the antiques and it may ask for additional pics of the inside and outside of the drawers and screw heads and dovetails and it gives her an in-depth assessment of the values and dates.
on StPatricks day she took a pic of her dogs and asked it to dress them up for the occasion and in 5 seconds it sent this pic. had to take a pic of the pic on my cell phone because she uses some software reduce photo size that I can't transfer off mine.View attachment 2431866

Now THAT's a great use of AI!!

We also do similar with images and can come up with some pretty bizarre results. Fun though...

 

[jymbee]

It seems like when it comes to AI tools most people think of AI Chatbots. But of course there's a huge world of AI tools other than those out there and more in the pipeline.

I think some who try a bot like ChatGPT type in a question of some kind and if they see errors in what comes back, dismiss it altogether. Understandable as that happens to me fairly often as well. But the key is, given that unlike a web search, it's an interactive tool in that you can respond to what comes back, challenge it, point out errors, rephrase your query. The initial prompt is key and knowing how to structure that is important for best results.

I tend to get personal. Once I was asking about how to lay out concrete blocks (don't ask) and asked for a diagram. It thought about it and came back with a ridiculous drawing.

"Uh, you idiot how in he** is that going to work?!"

Then it "apologizes" and admits its error and tries again. Back and forth like that. Kinda' fun.

I use the AI features in some of the Adobe apps such as Photoshop and Premiere and that's about the extent of it. But there's really many interesting AI tools out there that are literally changing the way many people work. So naturally I asked AI to give me a list of some:

Top AI Image & Video Generators

• Midjourney: A leader in creating high-quality, artistic images.
• Runway (Gen-2/Gen-3): Popular for generating and editing video content.
• DALL·E 3: OpenAI’s image generator, commonly used within ChatGPT.
• Suno AI: A popular tool for generating music and songs.

Top Productivity & Specialized Tools

• Notion AI: Enhances productivity by integrating AI directly into workspaces.
• Canva AI (Magic Studio): Streamlines design with automated image and text features.
• ElevenLabs: Leading tool for AI voice generation and text-to-speech.
• GitHub Copilot: Essential AI coding assistant for developers.
• Otter.ai: Popular for recording and summarizing meetings.

 

[OldWEB]

Yup, just a matter of time that a whole new religion starts up, a whole new set of kooks... But this "god" will actually listen and answer their questions... scary....