What CAN your take on AI be?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in the process of overtaking our lives and there isn’t anything that can stop it. Which begs the question “Why are so many people trying to stop it?” So many of us are trying to ignore it, speak against it, revel in all the ways it’s going to destroy the life we currently know, somehow connect it to shame, and find other ways to prevent it from having any impact on us. I feel like this is a complete mismanagement of the pathway between fear and hope. Where AI is concerned, all of us should be seeking ways to eliminate any fear of AI and embracing all the hopefulness that AI can offer to each of us. Is there a simple thought process to achieve that?

                  Closing the gap between fear of AI and hope for all it can offer begins with breaking down the concerns that are holding us back from a willingness to embrace AI. Those concerns (fear) are being driven by several sources including media reports and articles, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, social media posts, and even casual conversations with people we know. The thing they all have in common? In the end, they’re all simply opinions formed by sketchy research that’s driven by a predetermined effort to create fear. Why? Because fear sells. Fear induces clicks and likes. Fear is a powerful producer of mob mentality. And the fear that we’ve built up inside ourselves is based on an emotional approach regarding other people’s opinions rather than our own self-directed research on a subject we all agree will have massive impact on our life. Whoa Nellie!!!

                  If you want to permanently park fear in the “time-out” corner of your mind, you can. Just give yourself the gift of understanding what AI can do for you, your life, and the lives of those you love. Yes, it’s that important and YOU are worth possessing a clear understanding of AI, how it works, how to maximize its use, and what action to take once it provides you with the knowledge you seek from it. In essence, you can create a massive amount of hope that can be converted into ongoing success for the rest of your life. Ponder that for a moment. Could it really be within your reach and control to enhance every important area of your life? Yes, absolutely.  So, what might be some steps to take now to get AI moving forward in your life?

                  The first step is to understand how AI works. AI works through a process of learning patterns from data that occurred in the past, and then using those patterns to make predictions or decisions. What’s absent in those predictions or decisions is imagination, or the creation of new thought process. Imagination and creative thought are something YOU have that AI never will. Think how often AI’s autocorrect changes something you didn’t want changed when you’re texting. It’s your imagination that can drive what you seek from AI. Granted, over time, the specific AI you choose to utilize will recognize personal patterns in how you ask questions and which direction you select for follow-up questions related to its answers. That saves time in responding in a way that suits you best as you utilize AI more.

Let’s say you’ve always wanted to start a business of your own. You can ask AI which industry’s have the highest profitability, have the lowest start-up costs, produce the greatest cash flow, require the least amount of time commitment, and more. You can ask which industry appears to have the strongest future growth curve, but it can only predict based on historical information. It doesn’t have access to your personal knowledge, experience, and intuition like you do. It can’t imagine a single original thought process, but you can. So, closing the gap between fear of AI and the abundancy of hope that it can offer is where the second step to understanding AI comes into play. The second step is knowing what to ask.

Knowing what to ask AI is a routine that grows and develops over time. Admittedly, at a recent family gathering I was kind of embarrassed when a couple of our sons, both with jobs involving information technology, asked what I’ve been using my AI subscription to Claude for. But they opened my eyes to the possibilities that I had previously been overlooking. Possibilities that can range from: What’s the best way to lessen the impact of the flu?  What’s the most dependable used vehicle? What’s the best gift in a specific price range to give my wife for her birthday? What are the most successful parenting strategies for teenagers? How do I best prepare to buy/sell a house? What are the best time management strategies? What’s the best way to mow a lawn? How can I lessen becoming a fall risk as I age? What are the top self-help books, murder mystery novels, movies with a lasting impact, games for 2-8 adults, local hiking paths, and on and on.

My biggest challenge over the past couple years has been to get past all the potential negatives that AI may get used for. I admit there’s bad people out there who will use AI against all of us. But there’s been bad people doing bad things since the beginning of time. Psychological research shows that us humans overestimate negative outcomes and that over 85% of what we worry about never occurs.

If I could offer any advice to you regarding AI, it would be a step 3 telling you to have fun. Make using AI like playing a game you want to win. Ask AI silly questions, serious questions, outrageous questions, and creative questions for every area of your life. Ask AI questions that seek solutions to the challenges you face, that our community faces, and that the world faces. At least ASK IT SOMETHING. Then think about what you can do with the response it gives you. Believe it when I tell you that it’s a lot more fun and a lot more educational than spending any time scrolling on social media, which is a place that uses AI against you for its own benefit. How do I know this is true? I asked AI.  Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!