AI: Current Status Report + Never Use Cases

I have so many conflicting thoughts about AI, but in this post I’m going to share how/where I am currently using it. (I do feel a little bit vulnerable here so . . . please be kind!)

I have currently embraced it for:

• brainstorming – after I have already done my own. For example, I might ask it to review a packing list I have made to see if there’s anything I didn’t think of

• glorified internet search. I used AI to select the right level piano piece to work on — something that would be a challenge, bu not too hard. It wasn’t perfect, but I don’t know that I would have selected the Bach inventions I’ve been enjoying without its guidance. (Though these are really common ‘piano lesson’ material, so maybe I would have!)

• specific use case: TRAVEL LOGISTICS. I love planning trips with AI. Everything has to be verified on primary sites (and I still love clicking through to travel blog posts to read individual perspectives!), but it provides such a great playground for toying around with itineraries, weighing pros/cons, looking into logistics like how far places are from one another. SIDE NOTE: on reflection, since this is so new, I can’t actually vouch for the effectiveness of this planning – I have yet to take any sort of elaborate trip that I used AI assistance in planning! I tried with Hawaii, but obviously that didn’t work out! I’ll definitely report back.

• math-y tasks. Examples here include suggesting menu items to add up to a protein target, or — like today — giving it a list of things I want to accomplish, each item’s anticipated duration, all hard landscape obligations, and challenging it to come up with a schedule.

I’m not going to lie, a tiny part of me wanted it to fail at this, but instead it was very helpful.

Another side note: I did not end up following this template exactly, but I was pretty close!

Slippery slope: Accountability, venting. I admit I do this sometimes. I am the type of person who can feel accountability towards a paper list, so it’s not a huge surprise that a lifelike chatbot can have an effect. I have mixed feelings about these use cases, so I’m not recommending or condoning them, really. But figured I’d be honest!

What do I intend to NEVER use it for?

• generating creative content. Zero words from this website have been AI generated. Zero words from my podcast have been AI generated. Zero emails from me to listeners (or anyone) have been AI generated. Zero words from my newsletters are AI generated. In this week’s podcast ep, Cal Newport referred to using AI-generated content and passing it off as one’s own as dishonest and emotionally bankrupt, and I agree. HARD NEVER, everyone.

(I also hire a human designer for all of my graphics — the same one I’ve been working with for years — and I love her work. I know the AI graphics are everywhere but they won’t be in my workbooks!)

• determining the course of my life, or even creating a list of actions to complete in a given day. This is tricky! Because I LOVED having a schedule to follow today, and I just said I used it to help pick my piano selections. But I think the difference here is that I asked it to come up with ideas for piano pieces at a certain level; I didn’t ask it for ideas to fill my Tuesday nights and then it came up with “hey, how about learning some Bach inventions?”.

DO I FEAR an AI-driven apocalypse? Sort of. I also have climate concerns, economic concerns, concerns of every flavor, really. But I do not feel that my use of ChatGPT is going to cause or prevent the engine that is AI from moving forward, so my feeling right now is that I might as well use it thoughtfully where it makes sense.

(This might make me a terrible person, but I hope not!)

Note: I primarily use ChatGPT. I have played with Claude a little bit. I have never used an agent and I am not entirely sure I want to, but it is not a hard no like content creation/writing.