Putting AI to use in your personal life
Whether you know it or not, there’s a good chance you’ve used some type of generative AI in the past couple of years. Even if you haven’t directly interacted with one of the popular chatbots like ChatGPT or Copilot, this new and powerful type of artificial intelligence has been integrated into phones, social media platforms, and countless other types of devices and applications. But what exactly is generative AI, how do you use it, and what are some of the common pitfalls you should be aware of before asking AI to help with everything from developing a custom meal plan to creating an itinerary for your next summer vacation? I’ve spent many hours using and researching these popular (and admittedly controversial) tools to help answer these questions and more.
Generative AI, or GenAI for short, is a type of artificial intelligence that can generate new text, images, and even videos in response to prompts input by the user. For example, I could use ChatGPT, currently the most prominent GenAI chatbot, to create a workout plan based on my specific goals, the types of workouts I’d prefer to do, and how much time I’d like to commit each week. After writing an initial prompt like “Create a 5-day workout plan that emphasizes strength training while still leaving room for cardio,” ChatGPT generated an organized list of exercises, broken down by day and muscle group.
While this may seem fairly simple on the surface — something that a Google search could accomplish — keep in mind that your initial prompt is often just the starting point. I may be happy with some aspects of the workout plan it came up with, but maybe I’d like it to be a bit more customized to my needs. From here, you can input follow-up prompts to refine the responses. You could even provide more information, such as your weight, current protein intake, and specific goals, such as competing in a 10K by the end of the year. You could even ask for suggested exercises based on the equipment you have access to at home or in your gym. This is called prompt engineering, which is just a fancy way of saying I’m providing the chatbot with additional instructions, context, and information to generate a more refined response that better captures exactly what I’m looking to achieve.
Now, here is where one of the major caveats with GenAI comes into play. While the often friendly and conversational responses these chatbots provide can make it feel like you’re interacting with a real, helpful person, never forget that what you’re seeing is being generated by a machine. GenAI tools have been trained on massive amounts of data, essentially sucking in all of the existing information that’s out there on the web. It uses this data to predict the words it should generate in response to your different prompts. While this enables it to generate unique, custom answers to every question, it also opens the door for it to provide false information.
Dubbed hallucinations, this unfortunate quirk of current chatbots can lead them to provide misleading or outdated facts, and in some cases, even give outright wrong answers. While the tendency of GenAI chatbots to hallucinate has improved as the technology has advanced, it still happens. Combine this with the fact that chatbots tend to provide responses that sound confident and well-researched, and you can easily find yourself being misled. For these reasons, it’s incredibly important to verify the information a chatbot provides before running with it, especially when asking it about serious topics such as medical or financial advice. In fact, in cases like those, there’s really no substitute for seeking guidance from a real professional.
I offer these caveats not to scare you away from trying GenAI, but simply to make you aware of the current limitations of the technology. Despite these limitations, GenAI has made significant advances in the few short years it’s been available to the public. Just look at any AI-generated image or video from 2023 and compare it to some of today’s examples; the difference is night and day, with current models able to produce images that are often indistinguishable from reality. But while asking AI to generate a ridiculous image or video might be fun, let’s refocus on text-based chatbots and how you might use them.
Most chatbots offer paid versions with premium features and unlimited uses, but there are often free versions available if you’re not quite ready to spend money on GenAI. You can get started by going to chatgpt.com to either sign up for a free account or simply enter a prompt on the home screen. If you plan to use AI a lot, signing up for an account is recommended, as it saves your chat history in case you ever want to access a previous conversation.
I’m currently thinking about summer vacation ideas, so I asked ChatGPT to help me plan a trip for my family. I started by giving it some basic parameters of what I’m looking for by asking, “Can you give me some summer vacation ideas that include locations off the beaten path but with plenty to do for kids and within driving distance of Central Pennsylvania?”
Initially, ChatGPT returned a list of 10 ideas organized into categories, including nature-focused and outdoorsy getaways, unique but not overrun kid-oriented spots, and quirky towns and hidden gems. This list included some neat places in PA I’d never heard of, such as Presque Isle in Erie and Ray of Sunshine Glamping in Mercer, along with a brief bullet list of details for each location. In addition to this list, ChatGPT offered to provide more tailored suggestions based on my son’s age, interests, and how far we’re willing to drive. I responded by saying, “Sure, my son is 7, he’s into drawing, reading, and games, and we’d drive up to around five hours.”
From here, it provided another list with a couple of the same spots, but several new locations as well, along with highlighting specific reasons why the destination might appeal to our family. For example, it listed Corning, New York, due to its relatively short distance (2.5 hours from Central PA), with things to do like the Rockwell Museum, process. However, I’ve tried a few AI tools before, so there might be a slight learning curve if you’ve never experimented with generative AI.
If you’re unsure about trying it out, my recommendation would be not to think of generative AI as some all-powerful, magical tool that can solve all of your problems. There’s certainly been some hyperbolic claims and news stories about these tools that have made them seem life-changing, but I’m guessing that for most people, they’ll work best when viewed as a super-charged search engine.
Most of the basic tasks you can accomplish with ChatGPT could probably be achieved with a handful of Google searches. Still, the difference with AI is the ability to change and refine the responses, offering a degree of on-the-fly customization that could seem almost magical to the uninitiated. But as I demonstrated in my exercise on vacation planning, I found these tools most useful for generating ideas and options when you’re not sure where to begin. From there, don’t become overly reliant on AI and do your own research to ensure you don’t fall for any hallucinations.
And if you’re staunchly against using GenAI for any number of reasons, I get it — the technology is new, sometimes scary, and is being pushed into many aspects of life. But like the internet before it, GenAI feels poised to stick around, so it may be worth seeing what it’s all about. T&G
Matt Farley is a freelance writer in State College.
