AI - Should You Try It?

AI is good and bad. AI can help our productivity and generate ideas for us to move ahead faster. AI can be scary and take our jobs! What should we do? How should we approach this technology?

However you feel about AI, the technology is here to stay. It is not going away. Wishing it would go away is like if you were in the 1800s and resisted electricity. Yes, you may have very valid fears about electricity: Is it safe? Are the lights too bright? Will it put my candle-maker out of business? Are having wires all over the place unsightly? Yes, these are all valid fears. However, they do not eclipse the fact that electricity was a huge leap forward in progress and helped all people at every level of society.

It is the same with AI. Yes, it can be unsafe. Yes, it will take some jobs. Yes, it is expensive and damages the environment. Like resisting electricity, avoiding AI is fruitlessly holding onto the past and letting progress pass you by. You can still use candles if you want to, but it won’t change the fact that the entire world is adopting and using AI.

If you are intimidated, but need to get started so you don’t get left behind, try using free versions of ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. I use Microsoft Copilot. I read and heard from a speaker that it is a “closed loop system” which means it may be safer and share less of your content than ChatGPT.

My workplace is offering both tools for us to use, and providing some training on them. I am signing up for all the training available because I need help learning and experimenting with the tool One of my colleagues is very adept at using AI, and she uses it every day to provide her information in an easily digestible way. She talks to an app in her phone and app talks back.

The secret to AI is mastering the prompt. The prompt is the question that you ask AI. The better the question, the better the information you receive from the tool.

I am challenging myself to use AI on a work project to help me create a giant multi-page summary and analysis of one of my projects. What is a good challenge for you? You may challenge yourself to start using the AI app on your phone or simply sit and explore your feelings about AI. If Robots take over the world, let’s learn to work with them instead of against them.

I asked AI to manipulate my hands in this photo because I love how weird AI fingers look! It makes me laugh endlessly.