Nine Practical and Everyday Uses of AI Tools

Posted on September 10, 2024 by resourcefulman

Almost two years into the AI revolution, you’re probably tired of hearing about how AI will either turn the world into a utopia, or replace you at work and destroy the environment. Fear and anxiety are exhausting, but so is hype—and for now, it’s just hype . Of course, many AI-powered applications are useful , but they are highly specialized programs, a far cry from free, ask-me-anything platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini .

And if you’ve used one of these AI platforms, you already know that AI is often wrong , sometimes in the most hilarious and public ways . Often, AI-powered gadgets that promise to revolutionize the way you interact with the world don’t seem to do anything at all . The point is that some aspects of AI can be useful, but AI is hardly omnipotent. And when it seems like AI is doing little more than making music that no one wants to listen to and books that no one wants to read, you’re not wrong to wonder if the technology has any real practical application.

As it turns out, this is true, as long as you set limits and keep your expectations in check. Here are nine ways AI platforms can make your life a little easier right now.

Menu planning

If you’re trying to reduce your grocery costs or need to create recipes and shopping lists for specific dietary needs, you know it can be a tedious job that takes up a lot of time between searching for the best prices and searching for coupons. and select the ingredients. This is where AI can really help (there are even AI grocery store-specific AI bots , like Buzzfeed’s Tasty ): you can literally tell it your dietary restrictions, food preferences, and budget, and ask it to create a meal plan and make purchases. lists for you. Alternatively, you can load these tools with the contents of your pantry and ask for recipes that you can make without buying anything else. You’ll still have to review the recommendations again to make sure they actually make sense to you and meet your needs, but it’s easier than starting from scratch.

Managing your schedule

Have your days become less organized and more filled with anxiety? Perhaps AI can help. You can give the AI platform your to-do list, your main schedule (work hours, meetings, lunch plans, etc.) and ask it to create a schedule for your day . So, instead of struggling with how long each task should take, the machine can do it for you, and you can always customize it by changing the prompt asking for more downtime or adding background tasks for maximum efficiency. As a bonus, add a tool like Reclaim , which analyzes your calendar and schedule to find ways to free up more free time.

Conducting simple correspondence

AI tools like ChatGPT can’t always be trusted to write long, labor-intensive documents—they tend to outright lie and make up sources—but they’re actually very good atshort, boring things like emails , especially templates. things like customer service contacts, thank you notes, RSVPs, and the like. These types of messages are not difficult to write and don’t take up much of your time, but this also makes them quite accessible to the AI’s limited skill set, and every message you upload to ChatGPT gives you back five to ten minutes of your life.

Start brainstorming

This is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of AI, because this is where the whole weirdness of making an AI bot think there are only two “R’s” in the word strawberry becomes a positive. The AI does a great job of simply throwing suggestions at you in response to a prompt. Whether it’s ideas for things to do with the kids, party planning ideas, new shows to watch, or gift ideas, AI can save you time by returning a long list of suggestions in just a few seconds.

Create a packing list

If you’re going on a trip, especially to a destination you’ve never been to before, you can provide an AI chatbot (or a dedicated app like PackPoint ) with information about where you’re going, how long you’re staying, and a brief a list of possible actions and he can create a packing list for you . Not only can AI help you choose what you need to take with you, it can even suggest things you wouldn’t otherwise consider.

Estimate the cost of a DIY project or renovation

When you’re renovating your home, the math can get complicated faster than you think. While there are plenty of calculators online that can help you figure out how many tiles, gallons of paint, or planks you need, artificial intelligence can be much more accurate and flexible because you can enter all the information into the prompt, including all the required data. weird angles and features of your floor or room – plus, it can show you its math calculations so you can check them against reality and adjust the clues if something doesn’t look quite right. It can then also help you estimate costs and create lists of tools and materials you’ll need for the job.

Summing up

The era of quick, insightful podcasts or YouTube videos that immediately showed you what you want to know is long gone, and the era of four-hour podcasts or videos has arrived. Even if you watch or listen to something at 2x speed, it takes a lot of time. Well, your favorite AI chatbot can summarize it for you very effectively , so if all you want from a podcast or video is the information it contains, feed it to the AI and get a clear, labeled resume – with timestamps included. , so you can jump to specific points and listen for yourself.

Solve everyday math

Mathematics is mysterious (to many of us and to AI chatbots ), but this is how the universe works. If you have trouble with math beyond primary school, you already know that there are plenty of calculators and other tools online to help you do math, but they only help if you know the calculation you need to do in first of all. For example, I asked ChatGPT the following:

I have 300 books and a five-shelf bookcase that is 30 inches wide and 80 inches high. Can I put all the books in a bookcase?

And it answered:

Assuming that all the shelves are evenly spaced, we can use all the available height for books.

Shelf height per shelf: 80 inches / 5 shelves = 16 inches per shelf.
Total linear shelf area (width of each shelf multiplied by number of shelves): 30 inches x 5 shelves = 150 linear inches of shelf space.

Estimation of space occupied by books:

Let’s assume that the average thickness of each book is about 1 inch (this can vary greatly depending on the type of books, but we’ll use this as a rough average).

Therefore, 300 books will require approximately 300 linear inches of space.

Conclusion:

Total available space: 150 linear inches.
Space required for 300 books: 300 linear inches.

Since the space required (300 inches) is much larger than the space available (150 inches), you will not be able to fit all 300 books in the bookcase.

As you can see, while AI is notoriously not always good at mathematical calculations, what makes it useful despite this shortcoming is the fact that you can ask it to perform calculations based on your description of the problem , telling you which do the math you need and move on. you are through the process. This will allow you to take the AI’s work and test it with other available tools, since you now know what question to ask.

Practice before an interview

These days, trying to find a new job can be a nerve-wracking (and seemingly never-ending) ordeal. If you’ve actually made it to the interview stage, you know you need to practice. While the best way to prepare may be to have a real, live person ask you questions, AI can step in and help you practice for interviews very effectively . And AI tools have one advantage over your buddy: they won’t get tired of asking the same question over and over again.

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