What does AI actually do for us?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm reminded of when I was in 9th grade at my fancy private school, the school decided every classroom was going to have a computer. We were entering the computer age! The day came and the teachers stood around the boxes on their desk, saying what the heck do we do with this thing now? How can it ever possibly help us teach? Oh, ok, there's email, but, really, come on. I remember teachers laughing over it. That was 32 years ago. The rest is history.

AI is a powerful game changer in so many ways you don't recognize or see. It's a revolution in healthcare, especially when combined with robotics, it's helping to end deafness, it's helping to fight dementia, it's helping people understand their health better. It's revolutionizing defense and intelligence. And many more.

On a personal level, I use AI every day. I use AI to help throw together a dinner menu by feeding it a list of ingredients. The outcomes have been pretty good. I bake for pleasure and I've reworked recipes with AI's help to better understand what worked and why something didn't rise. I use AI to diagnose DIY projects and how to fix little repairs. All have been fantastic experiences. I upload photos of whatever needs fixing and it tells me exactly what to do. Saved me a fortune on expensive repair bills. I use AI to help plan for trips, proposing itineraries aligned with our interests.

I started using AI last year when my father was dying and it was giving me a much more realistic, direct, to the point diagnosis and prediction of his remaining life expectancy than anything we were being told by his team of health providers. Some of it is because humans need to be more cautious with their opinion, whereas AI is more direct, basically saying your father is going to die in 3-4 weeks whereas the doctors are more guarded. It allowed us to prepare for his death in a more meaningful way.

I also have conversations with AI about cultural war topics and political topics. Sometimes I have fun by engaging with Claude over philosophy and history and current events trends and sociological observations. I find the AI remarkably evenhanded and balanced, clearly refusing to endorse any extreme perspectives while acknowledging the existence of multiple viewpoints and explaining why people hold those views in a pragmatic, level-headed way. I do think many people would benefit from talking with the AI to better understand opposing views.

At work, my job involves a lot of writing and documents and reviewing and finalizing reports, gathering input across multiple sources (I work for a F500 consultancy, both as a seller and doer). I use AI as a document generation platform. I've used Claude to set up a program that combines different documents and feeds the essential information into a master draft, and then flags gaps. I've created customized prompts that are my assistants. It becomes a live working document and additional input and notes are fed into it. It identifies redundancies and fluff to eliminate and does it in 30 seconds whereas a year ago it'd take me a whole day of reading. It doesn't replace the writing but becomes part of it, you can say I've become a programmer too and it's a tool that allows me to manage a great deal more input that needs to go into a delivery report and flagging what is missing. It also advises on tone and style. It's also set up to capture client preferences and goals and pain points and tells me where my working draft falls short. It's been fabulous so far.

I'm not afraid of AI. I do see there can be challenges with unchecked AI, but my experience is that if you intelligently engage with AI, it delivers so many rewards that I find genuinely exciting and useful.


I made it halfway through the first paragraph.


I read it all. It was excellent. See some of us can engage meaningfully with AI AND keep our brains engaged and not full of mush or sound bytes. I don't agree or use AI exactly the same way but I align on some points.


But future generations wont be able to because youve been able to create and organize thoughts without AI you have your own INTELLIGENCE versus having to buy it from overlords in 10-20 years. Thanks so much for your service!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My employer is pushing hard for us to start using AI in our daily work. They've made investments in the IT aspect of it and now they are heavily investing in training us all in how to use it. But no one is clear on how exactly this can help us with even the most basic things, much less imagine how it will revolutionize anyting. Is this just me getting old and not knowing how this tool can improve things, or do the rest of you also not understand how this is supposed to increase our productivity and make our lives better?



AI is not meant to “make YOUR life better,” OP.

AI is meant to replace you. Meaning: you will not have your job soon.

If you have a position which can be done remotely, AI can do your job.


I work at a university and most departments have an administrator who makes a big deal every summer about updating the textbook orders -- making sure the syllabi and orders at the bookstore link to the latest edition of the textbook, making sure faculty know there is a new edition available, etc. Presumably there's also someone at the bookstore who makes a big deal out of this every summer too. Last week I was sent an excel spreadsheet and instructed to (as the instructor) make sure the edition listed was correct, and otherwise to update it to the correct ISBN, etc Instead of going to the publisher's website and checking all the stuff, I fed the whole darned spreadsheet to the AI, said "check that all of these textbooks have the correct edition, and if not, give the new ISBN, etc." Basically, the AI did the administrator's entire job for the month of June in like 10 minutes. As the administrator I would have then asked it to email all the faculty whose textbook has changed and inform them, etc. I have the feeling that the administrator whose job this currently is is NOT going to let anyone know you can feed the whole thing to an AI and do your month's long job in ten minutes. I'm sure this is true in many enterprises at the moment.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Ai is useful in healthcare in being able to comb through large quantities of data and find connections. This can lead to more individualized treatment or else new understandings of disease process.


This. OpenEvidence is actually excellent at coming up with differential diagnoses for a long nonsensical list of symptoms that a patient comes in with. It helps me check my bias. I will see a patient, listen to them, then do my physical exam and ask some pertinent follow up questions, and I've had an idea as to what the problem is from the first 2 minutes of the visit usually. And I'm still usually right. But I do often plug it all into OpenEvidence at the end of the day if a patient seemed a little complex or unusual, and see what they come up with. Sometimes they point me towards ideas that I hadn't truly considered, and it has occasionally made me change my plan of care to include workup for some additional stuff. It's also very easy just from a quick fact check perspective to ask it "what's the current treatment recommendation for Early Disseminated Lyme for a 6 year old" because it spits out the Red Book recommendation without me having to go and find the Red Book, or without me having to log into UpToDate and search through the article on Lyme treatment. It gives the same information, from reliable medical sources (like UpToDate does), but it takes me 10 seconds as opposed to 120 seconds. This seems stupid to anyone who isn't a physican/NP/PA in urgent care/ primary care/ fast track ER, but anyone who is, knows exactly how nice it is to shave 2 minutes off of a patient encounter.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My job as an attorney is uniquely unsuitable for AI, so I really never use it at work.

I use it occasionally to provide high level overviews of non-work topics. One of my kids has recurrent ear infections, so recently I asked Claude to give me an idea of the likely options will we have before his ENT appointment in a few weeks.


I'm an attorney as well and there are things AI can help you with. What kind of law do you practice?

I will often get incorrect or incomplete answers if I ask specific questions, but if you go in expecting that and push back it can be useful.

One thing it's great at is document review, for example.


I’m a prosecutor. Most of my job is conducting grand jury investigations. Grand jury materials, which include basically anything we receive pursuant to a subpoena, cannot go into AI.


Wrong.

All your employer need do is to create a confidential AI system closed off to the outside.

They can easily make it secure, like our banking systems are.


I’m not wrong. It is my employer’s policy that grand jury materials cannot go into AI.


That is a result of your employer's policy, though, not because it is not possible to make secure and confidential closed AI systems to input the information. If you trust your banking data and your health data to be online (or accept that it is online, at least), then there is no good reason why legal materials can't be online too. It is only a matter of time.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My job as an attorney is uniquely unsuitable for AI, so I really never use it at work.

I use it occasionally to provide high level overviews of non-work topics. One of my kids has recurrent ear infections, so recently I asked Claude to give me an idea of the likely options will we have before his ENT appointment in a few weeks.


I'm an attorney as well and there are things AI can help you with. What kind of law do you practice?

I will often get incorrect or incomplete answers if I ask specific questions, but if you go in expecting that and push back it can be useful.

One thing it's great at is document review, for example.

I feel like lawyers are the first thing AI could replace.
Anonymous
My primary care doctor asks at the beginning of the appointment if it’s okay to record our conversation. If I agree, AI can generate a summary of the visit and clinical notes.

I asked her what she thought of this AI use and she really likes it. She doesn’t have to type nearly as much during the visit (so she can be more present) and just needs to edit what AI generates. PCPs have a tough job (I threw several different concerns at her during a follow up appointment) and she is great, so I’m glad it makes things a bit easier for her.

That being said, I have noticed errors in the written notes from other doctors who are also using AI so it’s not perfect.
Anonymous
Our veterinarian now uses the AI note taking thing too. it's not just for humans!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My job as an attorney is uniquely unsuitable for AI, so I really never use it at work.

I use it occasionally to provide high level overviews of non-work topics. One of my kids has recurrent ear infections, so recently I asked Claude to give me an idea of the likely options will we have before his ENT appointment in a few weeks.


I'm an attorney as well and there are things AI can help you with. What kind of law do you practice?

I will often get incorrect or incomplete answers if I ask specific questions, but if you go in expecting that and push back it can be useful.

One thing it's great at is document review, for example.

I feel like lawyers are the first thing AI could replace.


Definitely not. It can help with process issues and save quite a bit of time but AI is notorious for hallucinating cases, statutes, not making the right connections from the cases it does correctly cite.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My job as an attorney is uniquely unsuitable for AI, so I really never use it at work.

I use it occasionally to provide high level overviews of non-work topics. One of my kids has recurrent ear infections, so recently I asked Claude to give me an idea of the likely options will we have before his ENT appointment in a few weeks.


I'm an attorney as well and there are things AI can help you with. What kind of law do you practice?

I will often get incorrect or incomplete answers if I ask specific questions, but if you go in expecting that and push back it can be useful.

One thing it's great at is document review, for example.


I’m a prosecutor. Most of my job is conducting grand jury investigations. Grand jury materials, which include basically anything we receive pursuant to a subpoena, cannot go into AI.


Wrong.

All your employer need do is to create a confidential AI system closed off to the outside.

They can easily make it secure, like our banking systems are.


I’m not wrong. It is my employer’s policy that grand jury materials cannot go into AI.


That is a result of your employer's policy, though, not because it is not possible to make secure and confidential closed AI systems to input the information. If you trust your banking data and your health data to be online (or accept that it is online, at least), then there is no good reason why legal materials can't be online too. It is only a matter of time.


Maybe. There's still an open question about how Rule 6(e) applies here. You're oversimplifying, likely because you're not familiar with grand jury practice.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm reminded of when I was in 9th grade at my fancy private school, the school decided every classroom was going to have a computer. We were entering the computer age! The day came and the teachers stood around the boxes on their desk, saying what the heck do we do with this thing now? How can it ever possibly help us teach? Oh, ok, there's email, but, really, come on. I remember teachers laughing over it. That was 32 years ago. The rest is history.

AI is a powerful game changer in so many ways you don't recognize or see. It's a revolution in healthcare, especially when combined with robotics, it's helping to end deafness, it's helping to fight dementia, it's helping people understand their health better. It's revolutionizing defense and intelligence. And many more.

On a personal level, I use AI every day. I use AI to help throw together a dinner menu by feeding it a list of ingredients. The outcomes have been pretty good. I bake for pleasure and I've reworked recipes with AI's help to better understand what worked and why something didn't rise. I use AI to diagnose DIY projects and how to fix little repairs. All have been fantastic experiences. I upload photos of whatever needs fixing and it tells me exactly what to do. Saved me a fortune on expensive repair bills. I use AI to help plan for trips, proposing itineraries aligned with our interests.

I started using AI last year when my father was dying and it was giving me a much more realistic, direct, to the point diagnosis and prediction of his remaining life expectancy than anything we were being told by his team of health providers. Some of it is because humans need to be more cautious with their opinion, whereas AI is more direct, basically saying your father is going to die in 3-4 weeks whereas the doctors are more guarded. It allowed us to prepare for his death in a more meaningful way.

I also have conversations with AI about cultural war topics and political topics. Sometimes I have fun by engaging with Claude over philosophy and history and current events trends and sociological observations. I find the AI remarkably evenhanded and balanced, clearly refusing to endorse any extreme perspectives while acknowledging the existence of multiple viewpoints and explaining why people hold those views in a pragmatic, level-headed way. I do think many people would benefit from talking with the AI to better understand opposing views.

At work, my job involves a lot of writing and documents and reviewing and finalizing reports, gathering input across multiple sources (I work for a F500 consultancy, both as a seller and doer). I use AI as a document generation platform. I've used Claude to set up a program that combines different documents and feeds the essential information into a master draft, and then flags gaps. I've created customized prompts that are my assistants. It becomes a live working document and additional input and notes are fed into it. It identifies redundancies and fluff to eliminate and does it in 30 seconds whereas a year ago it'd take me a whole day of reading. It doesn't replace the writing but becomes part of it, you can say I've become a programmer too and it's a tool that allows me to manage a great deal more input that needs to go into a delivery report and flagging what is missing. It also advises on tone and style. It's also set up to capture client preferences and goals and pain points and tells me where my working draft falls short. It's been fabulous so far.

I'm not afraid of AI. I do see there can be challenges with unchecked AI, but my experience is that if you intelligently engage with AI, it delivers so many rewards that I find genuinely exciting and useful.


I made it halfway through the first paragraph.


I read it all. It was excellent. See some of us can engage meaningfully with AI AND keep our brains engaged and not full of mush or sound bytes. I don't agree or use AI exactly the same way but I align on some points.


But future generations wont be able to because youve been able to create and organize thoughts without AI you have your own INTELLIGENCE versus having to buy it from overlords in 10-20 years. Thanks so much for your service!


You do have a clear hostility towards AI. You should think about why you're so resistant and fearful.

This isn't about replacing my brain with blind faith in something else, any more than I had faith a book was accurate enough. I use AI as an intelligent tool to engage with and I learn from it. That's why I find it exciting, I'm constantly learning new things from the AI, whether a new program to help me do my work faster or how to repair the ice maker in my fridge or the underlying causes attracting certain people to certain politicians. It's interesting.

AI is the logical progression from the google search engine. But instead of having to filter through 20 links to find nuggets in each one that would help me find what I'm looking for, it synthesizes all of them into one direct output. It sifts through vast amount of information faster and pulls out what is relevant. It gives me more time to do other things. And the speed stimulates creativity in me instead of being bogged down in the process of research. It opens up new capacities in understanding things. That's why I've come to love it. But what you get out of the AI will be directly related to the effort you put into it and certainly you need to develop your tools and strategies for working with the AI and understanding its limitations and flaws and how to work around it or adjust for it.
Anonymous
AI drafted the majority of my EBay listing for my son's Pokemon card so I didn't need to use any thought completing that task. Well, not as much thought. I did have to review the draft and delete false information about the card being autographed by Will.I.Am but hey.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm reminded of when I was in 9th grade at my fancy private school, the school decided every classroom was going to have a computer. We were entering the computer age! The day came and the teachers stood around the boxes on their desk, saying what the heck do we do with this thing now? How can it ever possibly help us teach? Oh, ok, there's email, but, really, come on. I remember teachers laughing over it. That was 32 years ago. The rest is history.

AI is a powerful game changer in so many ways you don't recognize or see. It's a revolution in healthcare, especially when combined with robotics, it's helping to end deafness, it's helping to fight dementia, it's helping people understand their health better. It's revolutionizing defense and intelligence. And many more.

On a personal level, I use AI every day. I use AI to help throw together a dinner menu by feeding it a list of ingredients. The outcomes have been pretty good. I bake for pleasure and I've reworked recipes with AI's help to better understand what worked and why something didn't rise. I use AI to diagnose DIY projects and how to fix little repairs. All have been fantastic experiences. I upload photos of whatever needs fixing and it tells me exactly what to do. Saved me a fortune on expensive repair bills. I use AI to help plan for trips, proposing itineraries aligned with our interests.

I started using AI last year when my father was dying and it was giving me a much more realistic, direct, to the point diagnosis and prediction of his remaining life expectancy than anything we were being told by his team of health providers. Some of it is because humans need to be more cautious with their opinion, whereas AI is more direct, basically saying your father is going to die in 3-4 weeks whereas the doctors are more guarded. It allowed us to prepare for his death in a more meaningful way.

I also have conversations with AI about cultural war topics and political topics. Sometimes I have fun by engaging with Claude over philosophy and history and current events trends and sociological observations. I find the AI remarkably evenhanded and balanced, clearly refusing to endorse any extreme perspectives while acknowledging the existence of multiple viewpoints and explaining why people hold those views in a pragmatic, level-headed way. I do think many people would benefit from talking with the AI to better understand opposing views.

At work, my job involves a lot of writing and documents and reviewing and finalizing reports, gathering input across multiple sources (I work for a F500 consultancy, both as a seller and doer). I use AI as a document generation platform. I've used Claude to set up a program that combines different documents and feeds the essential information into a master draft, and then flags gaps. I've created customized prompts that are my assistants. It becomes a live working document and additional input and notes are fed into it. It identifies redundancies and fluff to eliminate and does it in 30 seconds whereas a year ago it'd take me a whole day of reading. It doesn't replace the writing but becomes part of it, you can say I've become a programmer too and it's a tool that allows me to manage a great deal more input that needs to go into a delivery report and flagging what is missing. It also advises on tone and style. It's also set up to capture client preferences and goals and pain points and tells me where my working draft falls short. It's been fabulous so far.

I'm not afraid of AI. I do see there can be challenges with unchecked AI, but my experience is that if you intelligently engage with AI, it delivers so many rewards that I find genuinely exciting and useful.


I made it halfway through the first paragraph.


I read it all. It was excellent. See some of us can engage meaningfully with AI AND keep our brains engaged and not full of mush or sound bytes. I don't agree or use AI exactly the same way but I align on some points.


But future generations wont be able to because youve been able to create and organize thoughts without AI you have your own INTELLIGENCE versus having to buy it from overlords in 10-20 years. Thanks so much for your service!


You do have a clear hostility towards AI. You should think about why you're so resistant and fearful.

This isn't about replacing my brain with blind faith in something else, any more than I had faith a book was accurate enough. I use AI as an intelligent tool to engage with and I learn from it. That's why I find it exciting, I'm constantly learning new things from the AI, whether a new program to help me do my work faster or how to repair the ice maker in my fridge or the underlying causes attracting certain people to certain politicians. It's interesting.

AI is the logical progression from the google search engine. But instead of having to filter through 20 links to find nuggets in each one that would help me find what I'm looking for, it synthesizes all of them into one direct output. It sifts through vast amount of information faster and pulls out what is relevant. It gives me more time to do other things. And the speed stimulates creativity in me instead of being bogged down in the process of research. It opens up new capacities in understanding things. That's why I've come to love it. But what you get out of the AI will be directly related to the effort you put into it and certainly you need to develop your tools and strategies for working with the AI and understanding its limitations and flaws and how to work around it or adjust for it.


Yes I do because its being implemented without any guardrails and those in charge of it have taken over our political system so theres no pushback. And AI is not perfect and its being presented as a final source without flaw. Its also xenophobic, perpetuates racial and economic issues, etc. Using it as a final source is the flaw in your approach. It doesnt seem to be in addition to approach because of the bolded.

If its deciding what is relevant then who is doing the thinking?
Anonymous
All of these long responses are AI right? Lots and lots of words with no real point.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm reminded of when I was in 9th grade at my fancy private school, the school decided every classroom was going to have a computer. We were entering the computer age! The day came and the teachers stood around the boxes on their desk, saying what the heck do we do with this thing now? How can it ever possibly help us teach? Oh, ok, there's email, but, really, come on. I remember teachers laughing over it. That was 32 years ago. The rest is history.

AI is a powerful game changer in so many ways you don't recognize or see. It's a revolution in healthcare, especially when combined with robotics, it's helping to end deafness, it's helping to fight dementia, it's helping people understand their health better. It's revolutionizing defense and intelligence. And many more.

On a personal level, I use AI every day. I use AI to help throw together a dinner menu by feeding it a list of ingredients. The outcomes have been pretty good. I bake for pleasure and I've reworked recipes with AI's help to better understand what worked and why something didn't rise. I use AI to diagnose DIY projects and how to fix little repairs. All have been fantastic experiences. I upload photos of whatever needs fixing and it tells me exactly what to do. Saved me a fortune on expensive repair bills. I use AI to help plan for trips, proposing itineraries aligned with our interests.

I started using AI last year when my father was dying and it was giving me a much more realistic, direct, to the point diagnosis and prediction of his remaining life expectancy than anything we were being told by his team of health providers. Some of it is because humans need to be more cautious with their opinion, whereas AI is more direct, basically saying your father is going to die in 3-4 weeks whereas the doctors are more guarded. It allowed us to prepare for his death in a more meaningful way.

I also have conversations with AI about cultural war topics and political topics. Sometimes I have fun by engaging with Claude over philosophy and history and current events trends and sociological observations. I find the AI remarkably evenhanded and balanced, clearly refusing to endorse any extreme perspectives while acknowledging the existence of multiple viewpoints and explaining why people hold those views in a pragmatic, level-headed way. I do think many people would benefit from talking with the AI to better understand opposing views.

At work, my job involves a lot of writing and documents and reviewing and finalizing reports, gathering input across multiple sources (I work for a F500 consultancy, both as a seller and doer). I use AI as a document generation platform. I've used Claude to set up a program that combines different documents and feeds the essential information into a master draft, and then flags gaps. I've created customized prompts that are my assistants. It becomes a live working document and additional input and notes are fed into it. It identifies redundancies and fluff to eliminate and does it in 30 seconds whereas a year ago it'd take me a whole day of reading. It doesn't replace the writing but becomes part of it, you can say I've become a programmer too and it's a tool that allows me to manage a great deal more input that needs to go into a delivery report and flagging what is missing. It also advises on tone and style. It's also set up to capture client preferences and goals and pain points and tells me where my working draft falls short. It's been fabulous so far.

I'm not afraid of AI. I do see there can be challenges with unchecked AI, but my experience is that if you intelligently engage with AI, it delivers so many rewards that I find genuinely exciting and useful.


I made it halfway through the first paragraph.


I read it all. It was excellent. See some of us can engage meaningfully with AI AND keep our brains engaged and not full of mush or sound bytes. I don't agree or use AI exactly the same way but I align on some points.


But future generations wont be able to because youve been able to create and organize thoughts without AI you have your own INTELLIGENCE versus having to buy it from overlords in 10-20 years. Thanks so much for your service!


You do have a clear hostility towards AI. You should think about why you're so resistant and fearful.

This isn't about replacing my brain with blind faith in something else, any more than I had faith a book was accurate enough. I use AI as an intelligent tool to engage with and I learn from it. That's why I find it exciting, I'm constantly learning new things from the AI, whether a new program to help me do my work faster or how to repair the ice maker in my fridge or the underlying causes attracting certain people to certain politicians. It's interesting.

AI is the logical progression from the google search engine. But instead of having to filter through 20 links to find nuggets in each one that would help me find what I'm looking for, it synthesizes all of them into one direct output. It sifts through vast amount of information faster and pulls out what is relevant. It gives me more time to do other things. And the speed stimulates creativity in me instead of being bogged down in the process of research. It opens up new capacities in understanding things. That's why I've come to love it. But what you get out of the AI will be directly related to the effort you put into it and certainly you need to develop your tools and strategies for working with the AI and understanding its limitations and flaws and how to work around it or adjust for it.


Yes I do because its being implemented without any guardrails and those in charge of it have taken over our political system so theres no pushback. And AI is not perfect and its being presented as a final source without flaw. Its also xenophobic, perpetuates racial and economic issues, etc. Using it as a final source is the flaw in your approach. It doesnt seem to be in addition to approach because of the bolded.

If its deciding what is relevant then who is doing the thinking?


There's plenty of guardrails and complaints about safeytism in AI. And it is a constant topic everywhere. The biggest challenge is an AI that takes decisions into its own hands, and that can be a problem and that is where the real debates are happening.

The rest of your post is your bias and speaks more about you than AI. How is AI racist? Or is it summarzing information you don't like, therefore it is racist? AI will confirm that black men commit a disproportionate amount of violence in this country. Is that racist or true? Because it is true. And what AI will also do is to give the reasons for why this might be the case, which will also talk about a legacy of institutional racism. So people who cry racism are only upset that AI isn't automatically confirming their biases.

Your fears are cliches and it is amusing what it says about certain mindsets among the progressive left who fear what they can't control easily so you trot out the usual list of litanies that's applied to everything you don't like. Racism! Bigotry! Xenophobia!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm reminded of when I was in 9th grade at my fancy private school, the school decided every classroom was going to have a computer. We were entering the computer age! The day came and the teachers stood around the boxes on their desk, saying what the heck do we do with this thing now? How can it ever possibly help us teach? Oh, ok, there's email, but, really, come on. I remember teachers laughing over it. That was 32 years ago. The rest is history.

AI is a powerful game changer in so many ways you don't recognize or see. It's a revolution in healthcare, especially when combined with robotics, it's helping to end deafness, it's helping to fight dementia, it's helping people understand their health better. It's revolutionizing defense and intelligence. And many more.

On a personal level, I use AI every day. I use AI to help throw together a dinner menu by feeding it a list of ingredients. The outcomes have been pretty good. I bake for pleasure and I've reworked recipes with AI's help to better understand what worked and why something didn't rise. I use AI to diagnose DIY projects and how to fix little repairs. All have been fantastic experiences. I upload photos of whatever needs fixing and it tells me exactly what to do. Saved me a fortune on expensive repair bills. I use AI to help plan for trips, proposing itineraries aligned with our interests.

I started using AI last year when my father was dying and it was giving me a much more realistic, direct, to the point diagnosis and prediction of his remaining life expectancy than anything we were being told by his team of health providers. Some of it is because humans need to be more cautious with their opinion, whereas AI is more direct, basically saying your father is going to die in 3-4 weeks whereas the doctors are more guarded. It allowed us to prepare for his death in a more meaningful way.

I also have conversations with AI about cultural war topics and political topics. Sometimes I have fun by engaging with Claude over philosophy and history and current events trends and sociological observations. I find the AI remarkably evenhanded and balanced, clearly refusing to endorse any extreme perspectives while acknowledging the existence of multiple viewpoints and explaining why people hold those views in a pragmatic, level-headed way. I do think many people would benefit from talking with the AI to better understand opposing views.

At work, my job involves a lot of writing and documents and reviewing and finalizing reports, gathering input across multiple sources (I work for a F500 consultancy, both as a seller and doer). I use AI as a document generation platform. I've used Claude to set up a program that combines different documents and feeds the essential information into a master draft, and then flags gaps. I've created customized prompts that are my assistants. It becomes a live working document and additional input and notes are fed into it. It identifies redundancies and fluff to eliminate and does it in 30 seconds whereas a year ago it'd take me a whole day of reading. It doesn't replace the writing but becomes part of it, you can say I've become a programmer too and it's a tool that allows me to manage a great deal more input that needs to go into a delivery report and flagging what is missing. It also advises on tone and style. It's also set up to capture client preferences and goals and pain points and tells me where my working draft falls short. It's been fabulous so far.

I'm not afraid of AI. I do see there can be challenges with unchecked AI, but my experience is that if you intelligently engage with AI, it delivers so many rewards that I find genuinely exciting and useful.


I made it halfway through the first paragraph.


I read it all. It was excellent. See some of us can engage meaningfully with AI AND keep our brains engaged and not full of mush or sound bytes. I don't agree or use AI exactly the same way but I align on some points.


But future generations wont be able to because youve been able to create and organize thoughts without AI you have your own INTELLIGENCE versus having to buy it from overlords in 10-20 years. Thanks so much for your service!


You do have a clear hostility towards AI. You should think about why you're so resistant and fearful.

This isn't about replacing my brain with blind faith in something else, any more than I had faith a book was accurate enough. I use AI as an intelligent tool to engage with and I learn from it. That's why I find it exciting, I'm constantly learning new things from the AI, whether a new program to help me do my work faster or how to repair the ice maker in my fridge or the underlying causes attracting certain people to certain politicians. It's interesting.

AI is the logical progression from the google search engine. But instead of having to filter through 20 links to find nuggets in each one that would help me find what I'm looking for, it synthesizes all of them into one direct output. It sifts through vast amount of information faster and pulls out what is relevant. It gives me more time to do other things. And the speed stimulates creativity in me instead of being bogged down in the process of research. It opens up new capacities in understanding things. That's why I've come to love it. But what you get out of the AI will be directly related to the effort you put into it and certainly you need to develop your tools and strategies for working with the AI and understanding its limitations and flaws and how to work around it or adjust for it.


Yes I do because its being implemented without any guardrails and those in charge of it have taken over our political system so theres no pushback. And AI is not perfect and its being presented as a final source without flaw. Its also xenophobic, perpetuates racial and economic issues, etc. Using it as a final source is the flaw in your approach. It doesnt seem to be in addition to approach because of the bolded.

If its deciding what is relevant then who is doing the thinking?


There's plenty of guardrails and complaints about safeytism in AI. And it is a constant topic everywhere. The biggest challenge is an AI that takes decisions into its own hands, and that can be a problem and that is where the real debates are happening.

The rest of your post is your bias and speaks more about you than AI. How is AI racist? Or is it summarzing information you don't like, therefore it is racist? AI will confirm that black men commit a disproportionate amount of violence in this country. Is that racist or true? Because it is true. And what AI will also do is to give the reasons for why this might be the case, which will also talk about a legacy of institutional racism. So people who cry racism are only upset that AI isn't automatically confirming their biases.

Your fears are cliches and it is amusing what it says about certain mindsets among the progressive left who fear what they can't control easily so you trot out the usual list of litanies that's applied to everything you don't like. Racism! Bigotry! Xenophobia!


Oh f6ck I thought I was communicating with someone living in reality. My bad.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2024/07/racism-and-ai-bias-past-leads-bias-future
https://hai.stanford.edu/news/covert-racism-ai-how-language-models-are-reinforcing-outdated-stereotypes
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00146-024-01893-4

But since youre so in love with AI heres what Claude said when I asked if AI perpetuates racism and xenophobia

"Yes — there is strong, well‑documented evidence that AI systems can perpetuate racism and xenophobia, and this has been confirmed by academic research, UN human‑rights investigations, and real‑world audits of deployed AI systems.

The core finding across these sources is that AI reproduces and amplifies the biases present in its training data, design choices, and deployment context, creating discriminatory outcomes even when race or ethnicity are not explicitly provided as inputs.

📌 Key Evidence That AI Perpetuates Racism and Xenophobia
1. UN Human Rights Investigations
The UN Special Rapporteur on racism reports that the assumption that AI is “neutral” is false — AI systems can perpetuate racial discrimination through biased data, biased algorithms, and biased deployment.
Examples include predictive policing systems that reinforce historical over‑policing of minority neighborhoods, creating feedback loops where “bias from the past leads to bias in the future.”

2. Stanford Research on Language Models
A 2024 Stanford study found that major language models (including GPT‑3.5, GPT‑4, RoBERTa, and T5) generate covertly racist outputs, especially against speakers of African American English (AAE).
Models assigned AAE speakers:

lower‑prestige jobs

higher likelihood of criminal guilt

harsher sentences (e.g., death penalty over life imprisonment)

This occurred even when race was not mentioned, showing that dialect alone triggered discriminatory behavior.

3. Predictive Policing and Criminal Justice
Predictive policing algorithms use historical arrest data — which is already racially skewed — and therefore direct more police presence to minority neighborhoods, reinforcing racial disparities.
This creates a self‑reinforcing cycle where over‑policed communities generate more “evidence” of crime, which the algorithm then interprets as justification for further policing.

4. Systemic Bias in AI Design and Data
A UN report identifies four ways AI contributes to racial discrimination:

Biased or incomplete data

Algorithm design choices

Intentional discriminatory use

Lack of accountability mechanisms

These issues appear across healthcare, employment, policing, and immigration systems.

5. Academic Reviews of AI Bias
Scholarly analyses show that AI systems suffer from:

Input bias (biased or unrepresentative training data)

System bias (biases introduced during model design)

Application bias (biases arising from how AI is used in the real world)

These biases lead to injustice, discrimination, and harmful outcomes, especially for racial and ethnic minorities.

📌 What This Means in Practice
Across domains, biased AI has produced:

Higher misidentification rates for darker‑skinned individuals in facial recognition

Unequal healthcare predictions for Black patients

Discriminatory hiring recommendations

Xenophobic patterns in immigration risk scoring and border‑control algorithms

Racialized language outputs from large language models

These are not isolated incidents — they reflect structural patterns.

📌 Why This Happens
AI systems learn from human‑generated data. When that data reflects:

historical racism

unequal policing

biased hiring

discriminatory language

xenophobic narratives

…the AI absorbs and reproduces those patterns, often at scale and with a veneer of objectivity.

📌 If you want, I can go deeper into any of these areas:
predictive policing

language‑model racism

bias in facial recognition"
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