How are you using AI?

JohnnyPHX said:
Last year Chatgtp was super excited about my idea based on John Lennon's song Imagine that we could get everyone in the world to just stop fighting wars. Perhaps we could start with feeding everyone breakfast?
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It's a great start we started giving free breakfast and lunch to everybody in school and the summertime or even giving out box lunches to kids that look under 18. We build these huge stainless steel Central kitchens that take in all sorts of donated foods from fresh fruits vegetables and meats to finished products like butter chicken that we're getting 5 gallon buckets. It's all set up buffet style and the stainless steel bins that the food is in are all set up the central kitchen and sent out by truck and van to the schools in most of California. Some of the rural areas we're not doing yet but we will they resist the whole idea of feeding kids for free. They're also the ones that have regular book burnings if that's worth anything. Our governor went whole hog on giving these farms and food production companies big tax breaks for participating. They make a terrific roast salsa which I've seen kids eat an entire 8 oz cup full with carrot sticks and celery sticks. That butter chicken is excellent we do have a high Indian population around here. All served up buffet style the kindergarteners figure out the tongs and the spoons pretty quick. Big break for the parents too they don't have to pack a lunch nor did they have to serve their kids breakfast they can drop them off a half an hour early before a class opens they can eat their breakfast chit chat and mess around with their friends for a little while go to class go eat a free lunch some of the the high schools even off for dinner options so your kid can finish school at 3:00 or 4:00 if they start later in the day eat dinner and then go home. And from what the kids say it's the best orange chicken they've ever had. Definitely beats up Panda Express. The kids really enjoy it because they get to pick out what they want to eat fully balanced meals are provided that they can just sit and eat a whole bunch of salad and many of them do they like it. The Central kitchen also has kids in for field trips where they can go out to the farm area and pick some vegetables and herbs and then go sit down and make a meal usually things like tacos or Asian chicken salad. And then they get to go home and cook that meal for their family really brings joy to those five six seven year old kids to beat the crook at home. There's also a a program with the high school kids can go work in the Central kitchen first thing in the morning before school and during the summer breaks. Then they have a skill that they can make money at all over the place wherever they might happen to live as they become adults.

For people interested in this I believe the length to their website is Central kitchen.org where they give you video walkthroughs menus and talk about all the different programs that are used. This is the type of government I really like. I figured it out last year and the cost for all of this associated with giving the free meals came out to something like 75 to $80 per student per school year. Considering about 75 or 80% of the raw ingredients are donated and show up early in the morning that's where we get the cost savings

My favorite part of the walkthrough video is when they come up to a lady who's making scratch made chicken gravy and a big pot to go with roasted chicken thighs.

A lot of what we have to buy is milk in cartons. But will probably have more dairy producers on board shortly.

 
Here is a perfect example of a Google search AI summary contradicting what it says in the links they also provide along with the summary:

My search term was "4th of July holiday 2026 banks."

AI summary says: "Friday, July 3rd: Federal Reserve Banks are closed. While this generally impacts institutional wire transfers and clearinghouses, most major commercial bank branches will remain open, though some localized branches might close early."

The Federal Reserve link, Federal Reserve Bank Holiday Schedule , says, "For any holidays falling on a Saturday, Federal Reserve banks and branches will be open the preceding Friday. The Board of Governors, however, will be closed."

Search summary says the Fed is closed Friday but the Fed says they're open.

I ran the query again in another browser and the AI summary totally left out any reference to the Federal Reserve in the summary response to this query.
 
I was watching an episode of "Barney Miller" this morning. A character says "You know it's interesting, I've never been able to find an obscene word that began with the letter "Z". And without missing a beat, Nick Yemana blurts out something, that I couldn't quite make out, and the closed captioning didn't catch. Nick kind of laughs right after he says it, everyone else in the scene looks kind of confused, and then he follows up with "I guess you had to be there!"

I asked Alexa if there were any obscene words that began with "Z" and it said "none." But then I asked it about that particular episode. Turns out Yemana said "Zelda."

I know AI is capable of much loftier tasks, but I'm honestly impressed that it can dig up minute little trivia factoids like this.
 
Andre1969 said:
I know AI is capable of much loftier tasks, but I'm honestly impressed that it can dig up minute little trivia factoids like this.
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A normal Google search instantly gave me the same information.
 
disneysteve said:
A normal Google search instantly gave me the same information.
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Dang, my illusion is shattered. FWIW, I tried a google search on "curse word that begins with a Z, from Barney Miller" and it didn't find it for me in a regular search. But Google's AI answered it right away, along with giving all the context and background info.
 
I have a piece of electronic test equipment that is used to measure in the 50 ohm system. I want to measure TV equipment that is a 75 ohm system. So I need to convert 75Ω to 50Ω. That can be done with a 1/4 wavelength 61.2Ω coaxial cable. I used AI to walk me through building such a coaxial tube. It have me lengths, ID and OD, and then after a few measurements told me how to trim it to get more exact numbers. I'm down to the last 2% of refinement, which is very good when working with RF and UHF frequencies. But, I want to get better if I can. However, it is a complex measurement and an physical adjustment to alter one measurement in a positive direction can have a detrimental effect on a different measurement. I'm probably already at the sweet spot, although I'm going to keep trying. Here is just one of the chats I have had.
chatgpt.com

Check out this chat

Here's a chat someone thought you'd want to see.
chatgpt.com chatgpt.com
 
I recently tried something new. I had a poorly formatted data set from an internet post. It was not importing well to excel. I screen scraped it, sent it to Gemini with a simple request to create a graph. It worked perfectly, with the format that looked best, in this case a set of bar graphs.

That was good, so I saw a different post with similar related data, with one column the same as the first (which the first used as the Y axis). I sent the scraped data to Gemini asking it to correlate and add to the first you just created. Mind you, this was a different set of parameters, not just more of the same data. Similar, related, but not exactly the same. In electrical engineering school, we had to do convolution operations on different waveforms like a square and sawtooth (the calculus nearly killed me). This was kind of what I was looking for but didn't say so.

It came out so darn good it scared me. Even when I was at the height of my game with Excel, that would have taken me at least 1/2 hour. This process took less than 2 minutes.
 
I was working on a spreadsheet this week to calculate the RMD's/Conversions plus federal and state taxes out for the next 20 years. Used AI to help write and debug the functions for calculating taxes. It was very helpful. AI seems smarter than me but was I able to catch it a couple times in mistakes. It would then tell me "Good Catch". It found a couple typos in my code which was helpful.
 
I've loaded Gemini into my IDE and asked it to write code for me. It's painfully slow. Free version, so maybe that's it. But also writes crap code. If you ask it to add a bit of function, it will do so (after a long time babbling about it) and the code might actually work. But it's not how a good programmer would organize it.

I made the mistake of having it add a few features in a row, and the code was so ugly I had to revert it.

And the last thing I asked it to do was "an easy one" but it somehow got it's panties into a twist with duplicating a block of code into the same block of code. Then it promptly crashed and said it was too busy to continue.

I think if you ask it to write code that's been written 1,000 times before with your small twist on it, the result can be amazing, but if you want something unique, it's going to be an uphill battle.
 
A link came on Facebook to try Chatgtp for free. I followed the link. I entered a bunch of hypothetical retirement date to see where it would go. Chatgtp seem to understand and assess the situation correctly, Asked for some clarification and seemed to correctly fine tune the results, Than more info entered, and popup came on a result page asking for contact information to continue. Wanted google, email or phone number. I really don't want chatgtp tying the info given to my real identity. I stopped and closed the tab.
 
I am becoming somewhat addicted to chatting and problem solving with GEMINI in my widow isolation boredom. It strikes me that, like gambling, it can be addictive to a large group of people. It also strikes me that, once the addiction has spread widely, the per-month charges will begin locking most people into a single service. At that point, the capabilities of AI can freeze in place (or evolve more slowly). I noticed last night that I usually ask Rufus at least one question before I buy, many times a technical question unrelated to marketing.
 
Here's what I've been using AI for... increasing my depth of understanding a bit of classic literature!

The exclamation point is because I ran the other way from literature my whole life. Even in recent years, my books have been 94% non-fiction, 5% SF, and 1% plain fiction.

So on one of those boxes on a pole in our neighborhood (drop a book, take a book), I found a thin book by James Joyce. I thought I'd heard the name, so because it was thin, I brought it home. Only then did I realize it was a classic, and I figured it would go right back to the box. But it was short stories (Dubliners), so I read the first one. Yep, needs to go back to the box on the pole.

Enter AI. I ask it about the first short story. Hmm. More interesting now. I'll read another and get the LLM to spew something else. Wow, this is kind of fun! Now I'm somebody else: sengsational...reader of classics!
 
I often look at the Google AI results when I ask a question typed in the Google search. Often, I will say 80-90% of the time, I get the wrong answer, a generic answer not relating to the item I am asking about. I point out the error and I get a response essentially saying it is sorry, that I am correct. I try to delve deeper and sometimes I still get wrong answers. How does this work out for someone who doesn't know that Google AI is wrong so often? My son is a big supporter of AI. We often have arguments as to how good it is or how good it will get. he tells me that I should be patient and wait for the future. Nope.
 
I have Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premiere Elements. I had a video clip I wanted to edit. I wanted to crop something out of the corner of the video, add a title, fade in and out to black, and add cover photo for posting on Intsta.

Yes, I could have figured this out by looking at the manuals that came with the software, but Gemini AI to the rescue. Gemini provided easy to understand step-by-step instructions on how to do this. It even suggested some other ideas which I implemented.

I'd guess it saved me at least 1.5 hours of dicking around time trying to figure this out on my own, or watching a bunch of YouTube how-to videos.
 
sengsational said:
Here's what I've been using AI for... increasing my depth of understanding a bit of classic literature!

The exclamation point is because I ran the other way from literature my whole life. Even in recent years, my books have been 94% non-fiction, 5% SF, and 1% plain fiction.

So on one of those boxes on a pole in our neighborhood (drop a book, take a book), I found a thin book by James Joyce. I thought I'd heard the name, so because it was thin, I brought it home. Only then did I realize it was a classic, and I figured it would go right back to the box. But it was short stories (Dubliners), so I read the first one. Yep, needs to go back to the box on the pole.

Enter AI. I ask it about the first short story. Hmm. More interesting now. I'll read another and get the LLM to spew something else. Wow, this is kind of fun! Now I'm somebody else: sengsational...reader of classics!
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I've gotten into the habit of doing this too. I'm reading something thought provoking in a book. But there is no one else to talk to about it, question it, probe this idea. But ChatGpt has read every book. I can satisfy my curiosity right then. I noticed if I copy a random section of a book, ChatGpt will recognize the passage and identify the title and author. Shocked me the first time.

Yeah, a little scary.
 
I have a high dollar fish finder on my boat, a Lowrance HDS Pro 12, they cost around $3K depending on the sonar/transducer you get with it. They run on 10 to 17 volts with the best display at the top voltage. I have LiFePO4 batteries on the boat for the electronics and was considering these specialty batteries. Really all they are are standard lithiums with an extra cell. Cells are 3.2 volts, so a standard battery at 4 cells is 12.8 volts. A 5th cell makes 16 volts. But the battery is expensive at around $300 and even then will only last about 5 hours based on all my boat's electronics that would benefit from it. Then the charger is another $200 for 16 volt lithium.
I asked AI what other options there are. It recommended I get a DC-to-DC converter. It takes any input voltage from 10 volts to 16 volts and outputs 16 volts. It does without sagging as the input weakens and drains down. You get 16 volts all the time. Any 12 volt batter will work. A 12 volt battery will charge up on my existing charger and the boat motor alternator as well. High quality converters cost around $150. I have the batteries on board, just wire in the converter and isolate to the displays at the fuse box. What might have cost $600 in batteries and charger is now just $150 in a DC-to-DC converter. AI also identified the best quality to use with sonar to avoid noise and other interference. I didn't think of any noise generated, but AI did and not only warned me, but gave me recommendations as well.
 
In Thunderbird email, I wanted to automatically apply a 'tag' to emails from specific addresses (stuff I want to mostly delete after a month or so, so they don't build up - but it could be for any reason).

You can set up a 'filter/rule" for this, and I did, but it was quite a few steps to add an address to that filter, and I have dozens of addresses to tag. So I asked AI.

It took about 4 tries, but it got it. Thunderbird has the most 'hidden' UI for this, but open the email, click the little icon by the address (a person's profile?), click once (nothing happens), then a 2nd time (but *not* a double-click!), and a popup allows you to add that address to a specific address book (and I can tab to it and hit enter, saving clicks).

AI had me set up a separate address book for this, and you can have a rule for everything in that address book, so that made it easier. I *never* would have figured that out on my own.
 
I use Gemini, which comes with Google by default, I think. It's great for helping you with details about how to fix appliances, cars, etc, but yes, it is often just wrong. Fortunately I have been able to figure out where it is wrong, and avoid any problems. You have to check another source, to be sure it's right, for anything important.
 
Built a fairly good (IMHO) spreadsheet that models retirement cash flow, preferred sources of income, etc. Basically a personalized and custom built Pralama/Boldin.
 
Looking for a soundbar for DW's Roku TV. I'd like to keep it under $200. And I want a subwoofer. As you probably know there are tons of soundbars out there. Which one should I get?

In the old, pre-AI days, you'd probably start with a Google search, "Best soundbars under $200 with a subwoofer". You'd probably get a dozen results. Then you'd start eliminating them one-by-one by checking the physical size and the features of the soundbar and then reading reviews. You'd easily be doing this for over an hour.

I started the same prompt with Gemini AI and it came back with an interesting question, that I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten had I simply plowed ahead with non-AI Google search.

[BTW, I did this search by talking to Gemini AI using my phone. Much faster than typing and are actually interacting with the AI.]

Gemini: "Do you want a Roku-ready soundbar? Or doesn't that matter to you?"

Huh. I didn't know there were Roku-ready soundbars!

Me: "What's a Roku-ready soundbar. What features does it have that other non Roku-ready soundbars don't have?"

Gemini: "A Roku-ready soundbar means you can use your Roku remote to control the soundbar. Not just the volume but you can press the asterisk button on your Roku remote and set the bass, treble, sound modes, etc. without using the included remote that came with the soundbar. Additionally, the Roku-ready soundbar is guaranteed to be plug-and-play with your Roku TV."

Me: "Find me a Roku-ready soundbar, between 26" and 38" wide, up to 5" deep, with a wireless subwoofer, that gets great reviews for under $200."

BAM! Three results. I then asked for a side-by-side comparison of these three soundbars with the output in the form of a table. I was able to compare their features side-by-side. I then asked which soundbar has the better reviews for sound quality. In about 10 minutes I had my answer. And I found out about Roku-ready soundbars.

Had I done this the old fashioned way I would have been at it for an hour or more, looking at spec sheets on Amazon or each manufacturer's website. Looking for physical size, input/output ports, reviews, etc.
 
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In switching from xfinity to quantum fiber I decided I wanted to ditch the quantum router in favor of my linksys over which I had better visibility and control. I set it up using instructions from the web and must have misunderstood the instructions. Nothing connected. I told Google GEMINI what I did and asked what was wrong with it and asked if I needed to reset the quantum NID unit. (Turns out that when the NID is placed in bridging mode, there is no way to get back in and change anything without the reset to factory.) GEMINI gave me a solution that only changed my Linksys settings, turning VLAN back off. I might have solved it myself eventually but not before trying a reset of everything and starting over. I would have never dreamed that it could be hacked to a good solution without access to the NID. Actually, I shouldn't have followed any hacker's success stories in the first place. If I had just set up the bridging with untagged, it would have worked without any changes to my Linksys settings I used with Xfinity cable. Who woulda thunk? Suddenly I had almost 1G up and down when connected to the Linksys via ethernet cable. My wifi connected computers are pretty old but I got over 500 Mbps up and down on the two newest ones. I really didn't need more speed but am still impressed I am getting what I paid for even with the linksys.
 
I had a cracked windshield in my Ram 1500 pickup. My son recently had his windshield replaced in his Lexus and urged me to be sure to get an OEM windshield, not whatever Chinese made windshield the glass shop had or whatever one the insurance company was willing to put in the truck.

Using the old way of finding a shop I would be Google searching for auto glass replacement shops and then checking their websites and then calling them and asking them about their windshields.

Instead I simply asked Gemini: "I'm looking for an auto glass replacement shop near me that specializes in OEM windshield replacements. I have a [describe my truck] so I want the Ram Logo and the Mopar logo on the windshield indicating it's an OEM windshield. I want a shop that will handle all the insurance paperwork and will send a tech out to my house to replace the windshield."

Gemini came back and asked me if I had rain sensing wipers and/or a forward looking camera. I do not.

Gemini then gave me three options. I quickly scanned their websites and I could tell that two of them were national franchises that uses canned content for the web pages, just pastes in your city name to make them look like they are local. So they were out. The third one was obviously local so it got my business.

The tech came out yesterday morning and replaced my windshield in about an hour. My participation was to sign the work order when the job was done.
 
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