My General Statement on AI

Originally, I was very much against using AI. I was concerned that people would start relying on it more than other people. But over time, I started to reframe the idea of AI simply as a tool. Much like a hammer, AI can be used to build or destroy.

Humans have had access to and have created tools, items, and things that can be quite utilitarian and quite destructive at the same time.

The novelty of asking AI questions grew. I even began using AI instead of a regular internet search. Then the novelty plateaued and then waned.

At some point, I realized that AI’s carbon footprint is an issue and I curtailed my use, especially for frivolous queries.

Sometimes I use AI as spackle, sometimes as nails, and sometimes as framing studs. But I am always the one that brings them together.

Text

I have used OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthopic’s Claude.ai as sounding boards and sometimes for more than a little inspiration.

I have not used AI to assist with any of the text on this site. And that is my goal. Anything written here, I want you to know is 100% human crafted. (I have recently acquiesced to the fact that I am human, though my autistic traits wanted me to believe otherwise.)

I’ve asked AI for assistance with presentation outlines and synopses, though in the future, I will endeavor to write these myself, perhaps asking some close friends to be a sounding board.

I have used Google’s Gemini for work, especially to summarize meeting notes, assist with my review input, and other use cases.

Images

It should be obvious from the image above that I use AI to generate images. I have used OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney to generate images.

I believe the AI generated image here is the only one that is currently on my site. I may add more over time, though I will always prefer to include images created by humans.

I have used both of the same image generators to create sometimes adequate, though a few times, simply stunning character images for roleplaying games (primarily Dungeons & Dragons).

Code

I’ve had GitHub Copilot since I signed up for the technical preview in June 2022. Again, I was not a fast adopter. I just wanted the option.

The following March, I became a paid subscriber of GitHub Copilot. And I still didn’t really use it much.

I can say with certainty that I’ve used AI to assist with coding for work much more than for my personal coding. Primarily, I use GitHub Copilot and Google Gemini for work.

I’ve used AI to create Pester tests, to optimize code, and to assist with more advanced coding techniques in Python. (Okay, maybe PowerShell as well.)

This Site

This site brought to you by the letters “AI”.

Not gonna lie. I’ve used Claude.ai significantly to redesign this site. And I found it to be one of the most frustrating things I’ve done using AI assistance.

I was hoping for the following from AI to quickly convert my site from Jekyll to Hugo.

Select a theme based on my requirements.
Customize the theme to my liking.

In reality, I spent several days tinkering with different designs. Did I say days? I meant to say a few weeks.

As I type this, it’s December 29^th and I’m hoping to roll out my new site design before the end of the year. I installed this template, Stack, just a little over a month ago and I have been tinkering and polishing it since.

TIP

Watch for an upcoming post which documents this process. Once created, I’ll replace this tip with a link to the post.

Recipes

You: Recipes?
Me: Yep.
You: What?
Me: Recipes.

ChatGPT has a Sous Chef model that I’ve used quite often. Mostly it’s a sounding board, but sometimes I just include in the prompt what ingredients I have on hand and ask what I can make them. It usually asks if you want to see an image of the recipe—just say no. The images it produces will never be appetizing, and quite often, just wrong.

Maths

Though I have had advanced math and several semesters of calculus, I have not nurtured that part of my brain in quite some time. And beyond that, there are some equations that I never encountered in a scholastic setting.

For instance, I asked ChatGPT to give me the estimated BMI for André the Giant and Hulk Hogan around the time they battled in WrestleMania III in 1987. Why? Because I was playing a large D&D character that was as tall as André. Additionally, my character was growing and I wanted to adjust his weight accordingly.

Another maths use case involved trying to understand why certain D&D weapons had penalties in melee combat or at short range.

Other Usages

There may be other usages that I don’t recall, or didn’t/don’t know about.

AI Manifesto

If you’d like to learn why I made this page, check out The /ai manifesto!