How much has AI affected you personally so far?

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

Thanks for replies. It seems that my experience of and attitude to AI is not uncommon. It can be useful (for me) for technical matters where things are relatively cut-and-dried, but can be misleading in other areas.  I suppose advertising is one of those other areas. I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon  (mea culpa!)  and usually read reviews before clicking ‘buy’.  When you see “Using [product X] is a breeze” it’s a strong indicator of an AI generated review.  Does anyone actually use ‘it’s a breeze’ in real life anymore? Global spending on advertising is around USD 1.3 trillion apparently so I suppose there’s money in it.

Anyhow thanks again to all for interesting responses, Robin

 

[Dell]

On Dell Said:

I have just got new Phonak hearing aids & they have a dedicated speech in noise AI chip.

Does it work well?

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Being old and somewhat cynical, I tend to mistrust “super” modernn technology.

A long time ago, the antivirus program was updated and effectively shut down my PC

(garbage IN, garbage out – human error)

More recently an “Improvement” to a different anti virus, blocked all my E mails, in and out, until partially disabled.

On many sites, posing a question sends you a chatbot, where eventually the reponse is “I don’t understand your question” or we go round in circles until it can FINALLY be persuaded to allow human to human contact and things can then be sorted out quicker than the time trying get past the charbot.

Like the curates egg, good, but only in some parts.

And the recent three reports of AI systems going rogue, terrify me.

We’ve all met “computer says NO”.

How long before one goes totally rogue and nukes someone?

Howard

[Howard Lewis]

On Howard Lewis Said:

……

How long before one goes totally rogue and nukes someone?

Howard

Obviously that will never ha

[Hugh Stewart-Smith 1Participant @hughstewart-smith1]

Looks like you spoke too soo………………………………….

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Artificial intelligence will never overcome human stupidity.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

I have got sick and tired of gogle’s AI search responses. To the extent that my search engine is now:- https://noai.duckduckgo.com/

Having said that, I have and do use AI to assist with a project I’ve been working on. Trying to write the user interface to a database of tools/consumables and their locations. essentially places for things and things in their places (or checked out of stores for a job and temporarily somewhere else). It’s GUI code in Python and it’s two or three decades since I did any programming.

I’ve been using quen3-coder-next, running locally on my PC. It works very well for locating flaws in my code and suggesting improvements.

What it doesn’t do is help to motivate me to spend hours in front of the keyboard and screen trying to produce an intuitive user interface…

[Robin Graham]

On 12 August 2026 at 00:44 Robin Graham Said:

[…] The purpose of this post is to ask about what actual changes forum members have  experienced personally  in their lives for good or for ill since the advent of AI – not to invite speculation about its future or its philosophical implications.

Robin

This is a bit esoteric, but I think it relevant to Robin’s closing paragraph

 

This morning, I asked ChatGPT a simple question with a very complex answer

… I’ve learned a little  from Douglas Adams, about asking the right question !

The Question:

Gout tophi … I am aware that these are uric acid, but what is their physical structure? … it does not appear to be crystalline. SEM images would be appreciated

The answer came back within seconds, and was exemplary in its style and content.

… saving me hours, if not weeks, of ordinary browsing.

MichaelG.

[Hugh Stewart-Smith 1Participant @hughstewart-smith1]

Michael,

Re:

Gout tophi … I am aware that these are uric acid, but what is their physical structure? … it does not appear to be crystalline. SEM images would be appreciated

Has the condition of the sufferer, assuming there is one, worsened in this recent heatwave?

Hugh

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Hugh

As the sufferer … I can happily confirm that the condition is comparatively mild [confined to one finger-joint] and appears to be stable.

 

Thanks for asking

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

[ WARNING ]

This video is not for the squeamish !!

I am only linking it to explain the background to my Question

… As Hugh will probably realise, the usual glib description of tophi is that they are Uric acid crystals .

The video appears to shows a ‘non-crystalline’ morphology … hence my curiosity.

MichaelG.

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