Everyone can incorporate AI into daily life

Use artificial intelligence to pack, shop, prepare for interviews

Have you used artificial intelligence in your daily life yet? I recently asked that question in a room of 10 people ranging in age from 35 to 85.

Only one person – aside from me – had used an AI chatbot like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard (now renamed Gemini), Bing Chat (now called Copilot) or any of the others that cropped up over the past year.

The person who had used it updated her professional bio through prompts on the free version of ChatGPT. It was short and sweet, she said, and did a fine job crafting an adequate professional history.

My casual little poll of the people in a room aligns with what we’re seeing from many more scientific studies and research nationwide – most people have heard of generative AI, few have used it (that they know of), and a majority of people don’t trust it.

As most chatbots will tell you, it’s good to be skeptical at this point. It’s still really early days for new consumer AI tech tools, and they can be glitchy and filled with misinformation.

As long as you know these limitations going in and incorporate a few pro tips, there are some super helpful ways we can use those tools right now.

Meal planning

Tell your AI chatbot what you have in the refrigerator and let it come back with a recipe. Or use it to help you plan dinners and buy groceries based on dietary restrictions.

You can also do the same thing with cocktails, as I just found out while on vacation in Costa Rica.

My niece, Megan Blelloch, 27, says meal planning is “the most helpful way to use AI right now.” Blelloch says she uses AI to suggest meals too.

● Pro tip: You might not get good results with recipes if you ask a vague or confusing question. Make prompts as detailed as possible with your personal preferences.

Trip planning

Did I mention I was recently in Costa Rica? I used Copilot to generate a last-minute packing list to whittle down my overstuffed luggage while not forgetting anything important. It reminded me to take mosquito repellent, my open-water swim goggles and to leave my jacket and dress shoes behind.

This isn’t earth-shattering, but it did the job I needed it to do quickly and efficiently. Five days into my 10-day trip, I felt really good about not overpacking, yet still having everything I needed.

● Pro tip: Have you heard about AI’s “hallucination” problem? That’s when AI makes up something but presents it as a fact. That happened when I tried ChatGPT to help with a camping-based road trip itinerary last fall. It failed miserably.

I’ve recently gotten much better results using paid versions of all three of my go-to’s – ChatGPT4, Gemini and Copilot, and asking the chatbots to incorporate suggestions from trusted travel sites such as Lonely Planet, The Points Guy and Outside Magazine (specifically because I like more adventure travel). Each chatbot costs about $20 a month after a free trial period.

Job interviewing

As much as we fear losing jobs to AI, Blelloch says chatbots have been incredibly useful on the job-hunter side too. “When I was interviewing for jobs, I cut and pasted the job description and my resume into ChatGPT and had AI create a list of interview questions. It was really helpful because (the potential questions) were tailored to the position and my resume.”

Blelloch also used ChatGPT to help with an early first draft of a cover letter and to critique her resume based on specific job descriptions. “These needed heavy editing, obviously,” she added, “but they used all the keywords that an AI would look for on the receiving end, and I got more interviews than I did when I was writing cover letters (from scratch).”

● Pro tip: Be sure to try out your job interview responses with your AI chatbot and ask it to rate your responses as if it were the hiring manager. Don’t memorize the AI responses because they aren’t human (duh), but instead use them to help brainstorm and practice.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact her at JJ@Techish.com.