How are you using AI?

[braumeister]

You got an AI summary pop up on your Kindle? What model/year is your Kindle?

The Kindle app on my iPad.

 

[upupandaway]

I get daily investment properties sent over from a Realtor but they are normally garbage. I setup an AI scheduled job to scrape that email do its own research on investability criteria and send me a letter grade for each property she sent over.

 

[pb4uski]

... Today, families don't eat dinner together or the kids are on their phone. This is a tragedy.

Not true. DD, DSIL and DGKs have dinner together every night and we regularly join them one day a week for a family meal.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I don't use it actively but decided to play around with Chatgpt. We're planning a detached garage with living space above. We'll have an architect, but I can't help myself.

Started with this.

And in 15 minutes of instructions, got to this. Mind you, this is the FIRST time I've used the program. Amazing. Granted, it's not enough to build, but I could potentially get through variance if needed, but at a minimum, it helps a knucklehead like me in the design phase.

 

[tenant13]

I use it for everything I can think of. Most recently for amending the operating agreement for my LLC and updating a certficate of trust for my solo 401k plan. For translating business documents to and from Spanish. For discussing pros and cons of obtaining residency in Panama. For creating spending plans and assesing ROTH conversions scenarios. For asking healthcare related question. For selecting sound system and TV based on my room characteristics and listening/viewing habits. For identifying objects, music or works of art that I encounter, I'm curious about and/or want to research. For deciphering pictograms on my oven and for finding an old music video that I can barely describe.

 

[JoeWras]

I don't use it actively but decided to play around with Chatgpt. We're planning a detached garage with living space above. We'll have an architect, but I can't help myself.

These "what if" renderings have taken off recently. There must have been something on Facebook or Tik Tok, because they are all the rage.

I think they are useful to help you conceptualize.

However, a lot of building subreddits are disallowing them because too many people would come on and say "which is better," essentially sucking the air out of the room and pushing all other discussions aside. Builders also complain that the renderings, although nice and typically buildable, are so difficult the cost per sq. ft. is way off the charts. They are seeing clients get angry with them when getting quotes.

 

[Fermion]

it helps a knucklehead like me in the design phase.

I killed another tree or two and had it add a nice car for your new garage.

 

[Ronstar]

Started playing with ChatGPT to modify photos yesterday.

 

[hotwired]

I have started writing in a diary again. Normally, I use Grammarly to check the spelling and grammar in any serious writing I do. Recently, I discovered that Grammarly has a "Write with generative AI" feature that improves and rewrites what I have written. It's amazing! English is not my first language, so I know my writing can be awkward at times. However, that is no longer an issue.

Yes, the text above is a revised version of my original paragraph.

What do you folks use AI for?

Right now, as I'm writing this post, I'm using Wispr Flow AI Voice to Text, which I found to be 98% flawless versus about 50% accuracy at its best for Google Voice to Text. I speak almost fluent Spanish as well, and I can switch mid-paragraph to Spanish and it picks up, puts all the right punctuation, etc.

Aside from that, right now I'm using it to get second opinions on investment decisions, like how options work and whether it's a no-brainer or not to buy a put option on the SPY when we're in the top quintile evaluations, things like that. It really does seem to have a lot to say about risk-reward, and especially ChatGPT speaks my language. That is to say, it answers my question the way I intended it. Unlike my financial advisor that just automatically parrots back things like "this too shall pass," et cetera. It also remembers the types of investments that I have. I don't give it any specific amounts, but I give it a percentage of total portfolio, so what it remembers is that I have a 10-year bond ladder, then what I call an income accentuator sleeve, which is like 10% of each rung invested in higher-yielding or floating-rate type things like JAAA, JBBB, CAIE, et cetera. When I start asking about mortgage REIT preferreds or closed-end fund baby bonds, it reminds me that I have a lot of overlap because I have this ETF or another.

What I really want to do is go through the steep learning curve and have it manage my PC so I'm not spending half an hour a day moving documents from downloads to the right folder and creating spreadsheets that work for me personally.

 

[Kings over Queens]

I killed another tree or two and had it add a nice car for your new garage.View attachment 63734

I totally need a pair of driving gloves now!

Love it.

 

[Donno]

I haven't used AI much, but I did entrust it to make a $10k investment decision in December. Back then I came across a YouTube video from some investment guy I had never heard of discussing his test of several AI platforms in picking stocks to outperform the S&P 500. In short, he had 6 or 7 AI machines pick a sample portfolio of 10 stocks that, in aggregate, would beat the S&P during 2025 and the results were amazing. All but one beat the index, and most beat it substantially.
I decided to give it a whirl and took $20k of fun money out of a money market fund and invested half in a Schwab S&P 500 ETF and the other half in 10 stocks that I let Grok pick. Most of the stocks were fairly mainstream, and I was familiar with them all except for one, so I wasn't really worried about losing any money, and I was intrigued by the prospect of beating the index fund.
It's been right at 5 months now, and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed. The S&P 500 index fund is up about 8% and the Grok picks are up 20% YTD. It may completely fall apart between now and the end of the year, but I've found this to be somewhat exciting watching these stocks and may just make this an annual game.

 

[JoeWras]

For those who are not familiar with how easy it is to create or manipulate images, give it a try. After I pranked someone's avatar on a different thread, I thought I'd do the same to myself here to just give it a demonstration.

I used Google's AI mode (gemini) and spoke clear instructions. It didn't get it all correct, but mostly it did. It missed reversing the incline. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. The source image was obtained from my low resolution avatar available by clicking my profile. I didn't use the original, just the one you all can scrape here. I simply cut-n-paste and dropped it into the dialog.

Me: "in the following image, smooth it out, make the sign background green, flip the incline to the other side, and add a puppy riding the bike." It gave me something, but I didn't like the electric lines, so for try #2 I added: "can you get rid of the power lines please?" It asked me if I wanted to change the style of bike or breed of puppy, but let's keep it like this.

 

[Jerry1]

I'm not sure if it AI or advanced search, but today I was very happy with the results of my query. I was looking for some lithium batteries (AAA) and found them running about $2.50 an above depending on amount in the package and the vendor. Over $3 per battery was common. So I asked "who has the best price on Energizer Ultimate Lithium AAA batteries. The response was Kroger. Yep, a grocery store. I never thought of looking there. They were half off. I got 8 batteries for $12.49 or $1.56 per battery. I would have liked 4 but to get that price, I went ahead and got 8. To get close to that price on Amazon, I would have had to buy a 40 pack.

 

[richardsok]

On another thread (CEF thread) I recently compared how well different AI sites handled an identical question when I asked them to compare dividend coverage for various Pimco closed end funds. The claude.ai did much better than Gemini or CREAO in both comprehensive and accuracy of their answers.

However, when I asked them to list ETFs that recently had MACD buy signals, Gemini listed six different funds with recent bullish MACD, but claude (pro level) would not list anything specific; just gave me some general response and suggest I dig deeper myself!

ChatGPT also listed Bullish MACD funds --- but they were different from what Gemini mentioned !

It appears when applying AI to investment choices you'll do well to ask identical questions of different AI sites, as well as trying to ask your question in different ways. IOW, Don't be satisfied if your first response isn't adequate.

 

[SecondCor521]

I was buying an umbrella insurance policy the other day and was asking chatGPT questions about the topic. Towards the end of the conversation, chatGPT gave me a bunch of things to look out for.

I ended up buying a policy and the company emailed the policy document to me. It was something like a 40 page PDF.

I was sitting there thinking, "Bleh, do I really want to read a 40 page PDF and look for all the things chatGPT recommended?" And the answer was no, I didn't.

But I then realized I could copy and paste the PDF into the same chatGPT conversation and ask it to review the document for me against the recommendations. It took a few minutes for it to parse the PDF, but it was able to do so and confirm that the policy I bought did in fact meet its recommendations.

 

[tenant13]

I was buying an umbrella insurance policy the other day and was asking chatGPT questions about the topic. Towards the end of the conversation, chatGPT gave me a bunch of things to look out for.

I ended up buying a policy and the company emailed the policy document to me. It was something like a 40 page PDF.

I was sitting there thinking, "Bleh, do I really want to read a 40 page PDF and look for all the things chatGPT recommended?" And the answer was no, I didn't.

But I then realized I could copy and paste the PDF into the same chatGPT conversation and ask it to review the document for me against the recommendations. It took a few minutes for it to parse the PDF, but it was able to do so and confirm that the policy I bought did in fact meet its recommendations.

I had AI review the 80 pages sales contract for the condo in PV and flag potential issues. It did so in a few minutes. It was fairly standard but it found two, which I was able to promptly address before signing.

 

[JoeWras]

Those PDF reviews are great examples! Better than inserting puppies in an avatar for sure!

 

[sengsational]

I wasn't really worried about losing any money, and I was intrigued by the prospect of beating the index fund.

I wonder what the AI guidance for finding the winners will do when "everyone" uses the technique. Will a stock be a winner one minute, then have the price bid-up and quit getting recommended the next minute? Will it push valuations to be "more accurate" or will it multiply the irrationalality of the markets?

 

[Fermion]

I wonder what the AI guidance for finding the winners will do when "everyone" uses the technique. Will a stock be a winner one minute, then have the price bid-up and quit getting recommended the next minute? Will it push valuations to be "more accurate" or will it multiply the irrationalality of the markets?

If it is the same as using AI guidance for books to read, it will direct everyone to the few popular stocks because those have higher token connections or whatever makes it do what it does. So everyone will be loaded up on Nvidia.....wait...is this why the market is doing what it is doing now? You guys stock picking with AI?

 

[sengsational]

Won't the AI realize the emperor has no clothes at some point?

 

[old medic]

I avoid it as much as I possibly can. The AI-generated crap I see more and more of is awful. Finding accurate info is getting harder and harder as people and websites resort to using more AI content.

Totally agree.... I say it started with calculators.... why learn simple math when I can use a calculator.

 

[Tadpole]

Color me blockheaded but almost noone knows how to "hitch up the horses" since transportation switched to automobiles. What negative impact has befallen humanity from that lost archaic skill? Same question with typewriters (or typesetting). Calculators, same question. After 50 years with calculators I am sure many people are not as skilled as before in figuring it yourself. What negative impact on humanity has resulted?

 

[disneysteve]

Totally agree.... I say it started with calculators.... why learn simple math when I can use a calculator.

I don't actually think that's a good analogy. There is nothing at all wrong with using tools to work more efficiently and accurately, which is what calculators do. AI is different, though. All too often, the result is worse, not better. I see it every single day in many different ways. People have been way too quick to jump on the AI bandwagon and have failed to use their brains to review the crap the AI is spitting out to check if it is accurate. They are just immediately assuming the AI answer is right when it frequently isn't. A calculator, assuming you enter the problem correctly, always gives the correct answer.

 

[pb4uski]

I wonder what the AI guidance for finding the winners will do when "everyone" uses the technique. Will a stock be a winner one minute, then have the price bid-up and quit getting recommended the next minute? Will it push valuations to be "more accurate" or will it multiply the irrationalality of the markets?

I have similiar concerns about whether we will drift to groupthink and critical thinking will become a thing of the past.

 

[disneysteve]

I have similiar concerns about whether we will drift to groupthink and critical thinking will become a thing of the past.

I don't think that will ever happen. The people who continue to use their brains will always have an advantage. I see it already on ebay as more and more sellers turn to AI descriptions and images and then post to the reselling groups about how lousy their sales have gotten. Meanwhile, people like me are taking our own photos and writing actual descriptions and sales are just fine. People just aren't making the connection between their new dependence on AI and their failing sales, as much as some of us try to tell them.