How do you use AI, and what do you recommend be avoided?

[Voboy]

Probably no one uses it for things their brain can do just as well.

You are quite wrong. Several of my colleagues use it for things they used to just do themselves. It's very pervasive.

 

[AG31]

I'd do this, involve an engineer who knows what they're doing. Right from the start.

And where do I find such an engineer? I'm just hoping one of the condo owners might have such skills.

Didn't you just say up above that the AI produced the wrong manual?

I'm not sure what your point is. In my first contact with AI, I didn't send it the manual I had, I just gave it the model number.

The AI is only as good as the raw material it's given. If the installation manual is useless, the AI composite of all similar installation manuals is going to contain an element of that wrongness. You've said that yourself, it gave you the wrong manual.

And your point is? Sounds like your making a case FOR AI. Just be sure to give it a good prompt?

 

[ElectricBlue]

And where do I find such an engineer? I'm just hoping one of the condo owners might have such skills.

I'm not sure what your point is. In my first contact with AI, I didn't send it the manual I had, I just gave it the model number.

And your point is? Sounds like your making a case FOR AI. Just be sure to give it a good prompt?

My point is always, you can't trust the content it gives you. If one element turns out to be demonstrably wrong, you can't trust anything else to be correct.

You gave it the correct model number, it produced the wrong manual. That's not a useful search tool. Apply the same principle to every question you give it, is all I'm suggesting you do, but don't trust any of it.

I picked up a tip from @Bramblethorn the other day - put -ai at the end of your search query, and your search return will list the sources and omit the AI distillation. Now that's useful information.

 

[EmmAgain]

I used Topaz’s AI image enhancer on a whole bunch of old, low-res personal pictures as a batch job and throughout regretted it. It wrecked the original images and left my thousands of often deeply personal photos with irreversible Insta filter effects.

Use sparingly and selectively! Not every personal souvenir needs a patina of Tropical Beach Daiquiri Glam or droopy bunny ears.

 

[XerXesXu]

What's a diffusion model? I know, I know. I could Google it and let AI tell me, but I'd rather continue in a human conversation.

It's explained here:

 

[Bramblethorn]

You are quite wrong. Several of my colleagues use it for things they used to just do themselves. It's very pervasive.

Yep, thinking is work, sometimes fatiguing work.

One thing I always find unreasonably challenging is when I need to write a farewell message in a card for a co-worker, especially if I don't know them well. Everything I can think of feels so trite and generic, especially when a dozen people have already written in the card and covered the bases on stuff like "wishing you well for your next job!" and "keep in touch!" I can't help overthinking that kind of stuff.

We usually do that kind of thing via an e-card since it's hard to get a physical card to everybody who needs to sign. Last time I did it, they'd added a new option: you can just click a button and have an AI generate a farewell message for you.

I could've saved five minutes out of my day clicking that button, and nobody would ever have known. But the idea just felt repulsive. No, I'm not good at interpersonal stuff with people I don't know, but even if I can't write an original or memorable message I can at least affirm that they were worth five minutes of my time, and get in the practice for saying things that are important for other humans to hear.

 

[Aviastroitel]

A widely misunderstood group of people, the Luddites.

I used to moderate a Luddite web forum.

 

[ChuckWolf]

I've used AI as a search engine and for recreational use for image, voice, movie and music generation.

I wish it were more accepted, but I thoroughly get why it isn't, especially on a site like this.

 

[AngieGZC]

As a tool and not as something to do work for me...

 

[ronde]

The search engine I use has an AI component that will give me relevant details about my search terms, but I use it as a starting point for further research, not as an absolute truth. It's pretty good for questions for which there is published data, like the demographics of a particular area, but if has been known to be wrong when compared to further searches. It's a lot like Wikipedia in that respect. The validity of the answer depends upon which sites it searched and the author of the data on those sites.

 

[AG31]

I've had a mini-course in how AI can get things slightly wrong over and over (different errors), but how it can be used to finally get some useful info. As I described above, I've been wrestling with an uber complicated, super non-intuitive thermostat. I progressed from asking for manuals to asking specific questions. How do I change the set temperature? How do I turn off the fan? What does "auto" mean if the thermostat turns the fan off without "auto" showing? Blah, blah. The pattern was that I'd ask the question, and the answer would not reflect my thermostat experience, and I'd tell the bot so. It would refine its answer. I did get good, useful info. One bit was that one of my two thermostats had been installed as if its temperature were under the control of the building manager. It matched my experience well enough for me to get a visit on Monday from someone who promises to show me how it worked.

Bottom line. With a lot of "arguing" it did give me useful information.

 

[AG31]

Well, finally another resident of the building, who has a working thermostat and the correct manual, came and spent half an hour to get mine in a workable state. He finally had to do a factory reset (which involved pressing 3 icons simultaneously over and over till he got "heard")

I learned through that that almost everything ChatGPT had told me was untrue. It would just make stuff up, based on my confused questions.

 

[AG31]

As I've said in this thread, I often use AI to help me navigate web sites or my cell phone. I've lately begun to feed it screen shots. It cuts way down on the iterations required for it to hone in on the right advice.

 

[Writer61]

The search engine I use has an AI component that will give me relevant details about my search terms, but I use it as a starting point for further research, not as an absolute truth. It's pretty good for questions for which there is published data, like the demographics of a particular area, but if has been known to be wrong when compared to further searches. It's a lot like Wikipedia in that respect. The validity of the answer depends upon which sites it searched and the author of the data on those sites.

Name a search engine that doesn't make use of AI.

They do a reasonable job of summarising what they find, but the results are only as good as the input. GIGO.

I approach their output with as much caution as the individual items returned.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I have embraced AI as a tool. I use ProWritingAid to flag my typos and my missing commas. I use my phones Gemini to research facts for my stories. For instance - In 1870s Newton, Kansas what was the primary source of water for the town?
And as I'm published outside Lit on sites that require a cover, I use OpenArt to create the image my cover is based on. Which I then modify myself using Paint Shop Pro to crop, add effects and text.
I'm not ashamed of any of it so don't bother throwing sass my way about it.

I however, do not use it for writing beyond spelling/grammar check. And I do this for the same reason I don't plagiarize or pay a ghost writer. It's my story.

 

[AG31]

Got an informative answer to "How can I get rust stains off of stone floor tiles?" It made a distinction between acid sensitive and non-sensitive stones. It's the kind of thing it probably doesn't lie about.

I pretty much go to ChatGPT for any question I have that would formerly have me figuring out the navigation for several web sites and trying different wordings for prompts.

 

[AG31]

Well, I had a helpful response from ChatGPT when I described a strange noise we'd been hearing in our building. I didn't get an answer about what the noise was, but I was introduced to a whole world that I assume engineers and architects know all about. Here's the response I got.


What your description strongly points to
The key clues

• 9th–10th floors (high in the building)
• 3 exterior walls
• Storage room directly above
• Sound lasts ~2 seconds
• Scraping / sliding sound
• Ends with a double thump
• Happens mostly at night, but not exclusively
• Occurs in clusters (7 times last night)

That combo narrows things a lot.

---

Most likely causes (ranked)
1. Thermal expansion / contraction of the building
This is the #1 suspect.
What it sounds like

• Dragging, sliding, or scraping
• Followed by a thud or double thud
• Often described as “furniture moving” or “a window slamming”

Why it fits

• Exterior walls expand and contract as temperatures change
• Happens more at night or early morning
• Tall buildings amplify this effect
• The “double thump” can be:
  • A metal component releasing tension
  • A pipe or beam settling against two contact points

Why it can seem directional
Sound travels through:

• Concrete slabs
• Steel framing
• Wall cavities
  …so your brain tries (and often fails) to triangulate it.

---

2. Plumbing risers or pipe movement
Very common in condos.
What it sounds like

• Sliding or dragging
• A sharp knock or two quick knocks at the end
• Can happen even when you aren’t using water

Why it fits

• Pipes run vertically through stacked units
• A storage room above may house:
  • Shutoff valves
  • Fire suppression piping
• Pressure changes elsewhere in the building can trigger it

Nighttime is common because:

• Hot water use elsewhere drops
• Pipes cool and shift

---

3. Mechanical equipment above or nearby
Especially if the storage room isn’t just storage.
Possibilities:

• HVAC components
• Exhaust fans
• Elevator-related machinery (even if not directly above)

The sound pattern you describe could be:

• A motor engaging
• A damper or vent closing
• Something returning to a “rest” position (the double thump)

The 9:30 a.m. occurrence supports this — that’s when systems often cycle.

---

4. Wind-related exterior movement
Since you have multiple exterior walls and a deck:

• Wind pressure can cause:
  • Exterior panels to shift
  • Railings or brackets to move
  • Window assemblies to flex
• The final “thump” can be when something re-seats

This is more likely if:

• It happens on windy nights
• You notice it more during weather changes

---

Things it’s very unlikely to be
Just to rule out the anxiety-producing stuff:

• Someone in the walls
• A neighbor dragging furniture repeatedly at night
• Someone accessing your storage room intermittently
• A loose window being opened/closed regularly

The consistency, duration, and ending sound argue strongly against human activity.

---

How to narrow it down (without going full detective)
Next time it happens, note:

• Outside temperature (dropping? rising?)
• Weather (windy? calm?)
• Time pattern (clustered vs isolated)
• Whether water or heat is running anywhere in the building (even faintly)

Simple tests

• If it happens again, try:
  • Standing near the north wall
  • Then near the deck
  • Then near the ceiling below the storage room
    See where it sounds sharpest, not loudest.

---

Practical next step (this helps a lot)
I’d suggest emailing or calling building management, framing it like this:

“We’re hearing an intermittent scraping/sliding sound followed by two thumps, likely structural or mechanical. It occurs mostly at night and seems related to exterior walls or the storage area above us. Has this been reported before?”

You are almost certainly not the first person to notice it — especially in a building of that height.

---

If you want, I can:

• Help you draft a very calm, effective note to management
• Help you distinguish pipes vs structure vs HVAC
• Tell you what answer from management would confirm the cause

You’re being observant, not paranoid — tall buildings are just noisy in very specific, very weird ways.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

When I want a machine's opinion I talk to the toaster.

Is that toaster made by Hitachi?

 

[onehitwanda]

Is that toaster made by Hitachi?

The day I let an "AI" system near my clit is the day I hope the heavens open and Great White Sharks rain down everywhere.

 

[StillStunned]

The day I let an "AI" system near my clit is the day I hope the heavens open and Great White Sharks rain down everywhere.

At least the AI will *try* to please!

 

[onehitwanda]

At least the AI will *try* to please!

I do have standards. They might be just this side of ice-cold and only ever-so-slightly-higher than a snake's belly in a wagon rut, but they do still exist.

 

[BeechLeaf]

only ever-so-slightly-higher than a snake's belly in a wagon rut

Do you know Beachcomber?

I don't care much about my body but I am protective of my writing. The day I let an AI near a comma or a hyphen is the day the nurses should plug the drip feed into the mains socket and have done with their (almost certainly) grouchiest patient.