Can It Be Helpful?
While my computer tech guy was helping me with a software problem, we got onto the subject of AI (Artificial Intelligence). He thinks it is all "hype," that it can't fulfill its promise, and he explained that it takes a huge amount of energy to work. He gave an example of Chat GPT's response to a question he asked; the response was erroneous and downright nonsensical.
I told him that I've found AI to be very useful. I use perplexity.ai. My computer guy asked the same question of perplexity and got an accurate answer. Perplexity not only gives a helpful answer, but gives several references from which its answer is drawn. By checking the references, one can see that its answer is valid.
I asked ChatGPT and Perplexity to each tell me, in one paragraph, what the pros and cons of AI are. Their answers were similar and, amusingly, they each described a long list of cons, such as high energy cost and potential for error, of themselves (if one can view them as selves). At least they were honest.
(There are other AI platforms, such as Gemini, but Perplexity is the one I depend on.)
What are the Uses of AI?
- To Get Information. If you were at the mercy of ChatGPT, you couldn't rely on information provided unless you already know that it was accurate. Using Perplexity, you could check the references and decide whether they were adequately dependable. (For instance, I would consider The New York Times a dependable source.)
- To Do Homework. Many students cheat by having AI write homework assignments for them. But teachers can often tell if a student has used AI because what AI writes may not sound like what a student would write. And there are now AI tools that can help teachers spot plagiarism.
- To Wordsmith. If you are not satisfied with something you write, you can ask AI to improve it. The result will be an improvement but it won't sound like you. But you can take certain sentences from it to improve what you originally wrote, thus keeping your own voice.
There are a number of other uses, but I use it primarily to get information and to help improve my writing. But, as it is free, at least for now, I don't know how long it will continue to be available. My computer tech guy suggests that it survives by data mining, as Google and other platforms do.
The Inner Guide as Data Miner
As our Inner Guides work to eliminate all of our discomforts and solve our problems, they are aided by their ability to data mine our entire memory bank (something that AI can't do) to learn the origins of those discomforts and problems, and to discover new solutions for them. If you don't yet have an Inner Guide, you can acquire one, for free, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ4G9VIxS94
