Introduction
What if you could have a personal assistant who’s ready to help you 24/7, 365 days a year, to answer your questions, help you get your tasks done, teach you new things in record time and even tell you a joke when you need a lift?
Now, what if I told you this assistant works for free or nearly free, doesn’t need breaks or coffee to start their day?
You’ve likely heard of ChatGPT, as it’s been a hot topic since it was released in November 2021. And, maybe you’ve used it here and there, but still aren’t using it as part of your daily routine.
And ChatGPT isn’t the only game in the AI chatbot world anymore. Google released their Bard chatbot and Microsoft released Copilot. And both companies have recently integrated AI into their Google and Bing online searches, respectively. Basically, the same core technology that powers ChatGPT is showing up in more and more of the tools you use every day, not just in chatbots, like ChatGPT.
Until recently, I was of the opinion that most people were taking advantage of these new AI capabilities. However, I recently conducted a survey of several of my colleagues — many of whom are very tech-savvy — and found that I may have been mistaken.
Survey says… many people are still missing out on an incredible opportunity to dramatically improve their lives — both at work and at home.
I’ve found that a lot of people are rarely using this “nearly free” technology, while some aren’t using it at all. Hmmmm….
The reasons for the lack of adoption seem to range from perceptions that the technology is too flawed to a belief that it’s not worth the time to learn to use it.
The truth: very few things have the potential to transform your ability to get more accomplished.
My intention in this article is to set the record straight and show why, if you’re not already taking full advantage of these tools now, you should be.
Before I get into why you should care about AI today, let me share a bit of my story with you…
My Journey With AI
Several years ago, my mother had a severe stroke that left her paralyzed and unable to speak. So, my wife and I had moved her into our home to care for her. In case you haven’t experienced this up close, assuming the responsibility for a “full-care” adult is quite complicated and there is a lot to learn.
Over the course of caring for my mother for several years, our search for knowledge — legal, medical, government and private resources, etc. — became the most exhausting part of being a caregiver. Most weeks, we spent many hours on the phone, online or in person, simply searching for answers for a multitude of challenges.
I came to learn that many answers are out there for family caregivers, but the knowledge is widely spread across many resources, requiring a lot of time for Googling and reading. When you’re working full time, as I was, and also providing full care for someone, that doesn’t leave much time or energy to search for answers. Often, I would find the answer to a problem well after the answer was of any use to us.
So, I decided to try to do something to help us and other family caregivers to overcome at least one problem — searching for answers — so they could focus on their loved ones and alleviate some of their stress. I decided to build an AI-assisted application that would help solve this problem. I was not an AI expert. But, I am a software engineer and so I thought “I should be able to figure out how to make use of AI to create something helpful”.
Long story short, I spent many hours working on this project. Progress was very slow and painful most of the time. I had a full-time job. I had a family. And… well, eventually I decided to put AI back on the shelf and wait until it became more “approachable”.
Meanwhile, AI research continued, being led by companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, among other AI labs. And, in November of 2022, OpenAI opened the floodgates of super-accelerated AI public innovations when it released ChatGPT.
Today, all of the AI tools I had wished for as a caregiver are readily available, and a lot more. We no longer need to be “AI engineers” to make real productive use of the technology.
Today, I use AI tools now in both my personal and work life routinely, every day. I’ve found that so many tasks that used to require hours of my time can now be completed in a few minutes. And, I’ve found that AI tools are great at explaining many complex topics that were once very difficult for me to understand, and in a way I can grasp.
Below, I asked Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot to help with research into elder care topics. Note that it follows my instructions and also includes links to the sources it used to gather the information.
These tools can now do what I was attempting to build, but a whole lot more.
I’m personally very excited to be back in the AI saddle, exploring along with you all the ways we can use it to help transform our personal and work lives!
Current Attitudes Towards AI Tools
As I mentioned, I recently conducted a small survey of some of my colleagues to begin to get my finger on the pulse regarding attitudes towards AI.
Most of the people surveyed are highly technical and very smart. I thought that it might be good to start with a group of folks I figured to be the most likely to be closely following and experimenting with AI.
What I found was that only a handful of people were seriously following AI developments or regularly using any AI tools. Over half were of the opinion that current AI models are still too unreliable — meaning, that they sometimes give incorrect or partially correct answers, or even make up stuff (referred to as “hallucinating” — more on that later).
But, wait! We use unreliable human experts to help us solve complex problems all the time. And, it’s rare that we immediately get a completely accurate answer, with no errors or omissions, from any human — no matter how knowledgeable they are. But, we still find these human experts to be extremely valuable.
When you visit your doctor, you don’t just say “I’m sick, give me a fix”. You have to have a dialog with your doctor. The doctor is going to need a lot more information from you to provide any diagnosis. And, the doctor can still misdiagnose your problem. And, you don’t stop going to the doctor!
I suggest we approach our interactions with AI in the same way, with the same expectations.
Because something isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not useful.
Why You Should Care, and Care Now
So far, we’ve talked about how AI chatbots can help you get more done. That’s certainly reason enough to use them, in my book. However, there are other very important reasons to start learning to use AI tools today.
AI is here, it’s advancing rapidly, and no amount of ignoring it is going to slow it down in the least. It’s the people who ignore it who are at risk of falling behind.
Over the next few years, many types of jobs will go away or be completely transformed as organizations realize they have no choice but to embrace AI. Because, if a company doesn’t embrace it, a competitor will. And, that competitor will use AI to produce more value for more customers and do it at a much lower cost.
"If generative AI lives up to its hype, the workforce in the United States and Europe will be upended…"
~ Kelly, Jack (2023, March 31). Goldman Sachs Predicts 300 Million Jobs Will Be Lost Or Degraded By Artificial Intelligence. Forbes.
And, individuals who have prepared for the transformation will be in high demand. Those who have taken a “wait and see” approach to AI… well, as always, the people who “skate to where the puck is going to be” will have the advantage.
I predict that, in 2024, “How do you use AI tools to assist you in your work?” will become a common interview question. I conduct interviews for my company and I’m already starting to ask candidates about this now.
We’re not talking about a year from now. This is happening now — and accelerating rapidly.
Even if you’re not working in a field that you believe will be highly impacted by AI, you can leverage AI tools to significantly improve your life right now.
You don’t have to understand the technology behind AI. In fact, often simply touching and experiencing something new is the best way to begin to understand it.
What Can AI Do for You Today?
The short answer to this question is: while current AI technology is better at some tasks than others, today it is capable of assisting you with pretty much any “knowledge” task. Below is just a small sampling of the types of tasks you can use AI tools to make your life easier today.
Throughout this article, I’ve sprinkled in a few examples of using various AI chatbots to help with tasks. Also, notice that some of the images I’ve included were generated by ChatGPT (the ones labeled “Generated by DALL-E 3”). Prior to the availability of modern chatbots, many of these tasks would have consumed hours of your time. Now, assuming you take a little time to learn to use them, these same tasks can be completed within a few minutes.
A full list of the tasks you can use this technology for would require a full-length book. However, I’ve included a list of a few examples of these tasks, just to give you a flavor.
Research
Language Translation
Financial Planning
Health Advice
Brainstorming Ideas
Analyzing digital images
Analyzing data
Trip Planning
Learning New Topics
Cooking and Recipe Suggestions
Generating digital images
Creating software applications
Some Things to Keep in Mind
As with all humans and technologies, today’s AI chatbots do have some limitations you should be aware of.
Math
Math is not a strength of the AI models currently used by these chatbots. They may get some math problems correct, but I would not recommend relying on them for even fairly simple math problems, as of this writing.
Hallucinations
AI chatbots can sometimes get “creative” and make up facts. This can happen when you’re asking the chatbot to help you generate text and it doesn’t have access to all the data it needs.
A prime example is asking it to generate a resume for a job posting. Even if you provide it with the job posting and your current “generic” resume, it may create a new resume that contains a combination of your actual past experience, and some “imagined” experiences you don’t really have. In this case, it’s typically trying to “fill the gaps” to meet the job posting requirements.
One way to reduce the chances of this occurring is to be very clear in your instructions to the chatbot. For example, instead of just saying “Use this job posting and my current resume to create a new resume”, add “Only use the experience stated in my current resume”.
Action Time!
If I did my job, and you weren’t using these AI technologies before, now you’re convinced you should start. Or, if you were only dabbling in these technologies, you’re now motivated to take it to the next level.
AI Chatbot Selection
As of this writing, I recommend that you start with one of the below AI chatbot options.
ChatGPT (Plus subscription)
The Plus subscription is currently $20 per month.
Although OpenAI does offer a “free” ChatGPT subscription, this version is extremely limited, as compared to the Plus subscription. Although many authors/teachers do suggest getting started with the free version, I do not, for the following reasons:
The free version uses an older, much less capable backend AI model (e.g. the “brains” of the operation)
It also lacks access to current information (it only knows about information up to September of 2021).
It does not allow you to do many useful things, such as upload images or generate images.
While the free plan may be an acceptable first step for some, if this is your only encounter with AI capabilities, you’ll likely be disappointed.
Microsoft Copilot and/or Bing Chat
These are free options.
Microsoft offers these free options for leveraging their own AI chatbot technology. Both are great choices for anyone getting their feet wet with modern AI chatbots. Microsoft has integrated the same backend AI technology that ChatGPT uses into these offerings.
While these don’t have all the bells and whistles provided in ChatGPT’s Plus, they do provide more functionality than ChatGPT’s free version. For example, you can upload images, generate images. It also has real-time access to the Internet.
Google Bard
This is a free option.
However, as of this writing, I recommend taking a “watch and see” approach to this “experimental” (Google’s own words) chatbot. Although it is good for many tasks, it currently lacks some important features. For example, it currently cannot generate images. However, Google has recently made significant improvements to Bard and I expect it to quickly become a leading contender.
I included links to all these tools in the References section below.
I want to stress that these AI tools are frequently updated and their user interfaces and capabilities are constantly shifting.
Getting What You Want Out of the Chatbot
All of these AI tools use the same core AI technology — the AI “Transformer” architecture. Therefore, the same general techniques apply to all of them.
Whether you’ve never touched any of these tools or have basic familiarity, you should spend some time learning how to successfully interact with them, for best results.
I recommend that you read up on the basics of a subject called “prompt engineering”. Prompt engineering is the technical term for tips and techniques you can use to interact with AI chatbots to get what you want and to reduce the odds the chatbot will hallucinate.
Even better… just ask your AI chatbot to help you learn how to construct prompts!
Using ChatGPT to learn to use… ChatGPT!
I included links to OpenAI’s online prompt tips in the References section below.
You do not need to become an expert “prompt engineer” to get real value from this technology. I suggest you take a “playful” approach and experiment. See what works, what doesn’t and learn as you go.
Over time, you’ll find you get more and more value from these tools. Pretty soon, I’m confident you’ll find them indispensable to your life!
References
OpenAI ChatGPT: ChatGPT (openai.com)
Microsoft Copilot: Copilot (microsoft.com)
Bing Chat: Bing AI — Search
Google Bard: Bard (google.com)
OpenAI’s Tips for Writing Good Chat Prompts: Prompt engineering — OpenAI API
I enjoyed this article because I recently started to use chatGPT for Nonprofit proposals and Letters of Inquiry.
I found it very helpful and wondered about the pay version.
After reading this I think I will add it to my necessary tools for the job.
Thank you for writing about AI assistance.
Christina Murphy