How AI Can Improve Your Life
OK, so you’ve probably heard of AI, or one of the generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or CoPilot. You may even have had a go at using one, found it freakily fast and pretty convincing. But do you wonder how it works and what it’s doing with your data? So how can you use AI to improve your life? And what do you need to look out for?
One of the first things many people do when they start using a gen AI chatbot is to ask about themselves. You might type in a prompt like... This could be a good thing to try out, because it gives you a quick answer you can easily check, and pretty often you’ll find there are a few weird mistakes or conflations where it’s decided you’re still in your old job, or a hobby you gave up years ago is still listed as a current interest.
If your summary is bang on, try asking it about a family member or friend – you’ll soon spot some errors. It’s worth being wary of all so-called facts that are generated by AI chatbots, so you don’t end up like the American lawyer Steven Schwartz, who used ChatGPT to prepare a legal brief which included six entirely bogus cases. It’s fair to say the judge was not impressed.
What chatbots can do pretty well is turning facts that you give it into an email, bullet points or a summary. Got to write up minutes from a meeting? Paste the transcript into the chatbot and it’ll turn it into an easy-to-digest summary. Need to write a presentation based on some complex data or a long, dreary report? Get a chatbot to do it for you, or at least a first draft. In fact, using chatbots for a first draft is a good way to think about it. Everything will still need careful checking, and some bits will need rewriting, but it can be a great way to get things going.
Another extremely handy use of gen AI is when searching for jobs. Asking a chatbot to reformat your CV, or do a first draft of a cover letter can save hours. They can even do practice interviews with you if you share the job description. If you’ve received a bad service or need to complain about something, AI chatbots can rustle up a semi-formal letter in seconds.
Productivity is another area where an AI assistant can help. Planning daily tasks or helping to prioritise your to-do list can be incredibly helpful. Weekly meal plans that incorporate specific dietary needs are a doddle with AI chatbots, and they can come up with a personalised exercise plan for you in no time at all. Holiday itinerary tailored to your budget, interests and level of mobility? Easy. Design a wedding invitation inspired by your favourite movie? Not a problem. Planting plan for your north-facing garden with a surfeit of slugs? You get the picture. Some people even use chatbots to share relationship problems or roleplay awkward conversations.
But it’s important to remember that AI responses can sound incredibly convincing, but can’t always be trusted. As things stand, chatbots aren’t able to provide proper legal or medical advice – for that, you’ll need advice from a real lawyer or doctor. Something else to bear in mind – whatever data you input into the chatbot is stored and could be used by the company that owns it. This is particularly important if you’re using AI chatbots at work. Make sure you follow your employer’s guidelines and take up any training they’re offering.
Every time you input data about yourself, you’re essentially giving it away. The AI is using your personal data to train its systems, and unless it’s been explicitly ruled out in the terms and conditions, the company could share your data with third parties. What if entering data about your personal health problems was then shared with insurance companies or medical providers? So it’s definitely worth checking privacy policies, thinking very carefully before sharing any personal or sensitive information, and enabling privacy settings wherever you can.
One more note of caution – AI chatbots use a lot of energy to generate their answers and suggestions. Gen AI data centres consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries, according to one estimate.
As ever, with new tech, there are pluses and minuses. Generative AI chatbots are incredible tools which can save you time and improve your life. But if you do use them, use them wisely.
There’s a lot more to AI than we can squeeze into a short film, but we hope this has given you a start. Watch the other films in this series to learn more about how to have a better relationship with a chatbot, how to avoid AI scams, and how gen AI can be used for learning.