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Jonathan’s series of AI generated financial articles was not the most popular with many HD readers. Others of us found the experiment quite interesting. Although there were a few major duds in the series, there also were computer generated articles that could have easily passed undetected on Yahoo Finance. This year, I’ve started using AI to assist me in my encore career as an engineer in the nuclear power industry. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how helpful my AI assistant can be at times. Today, the benefits of AI extended into my personal life. I realized an article that had popped up in my Google News feed a few days ago was haunting me and I wanted to read it again. A series of various Google searches got me nowhere. I gave up and went to bed last night thinking at least I had given it my best shot. When I woke up this morning, I had the idea to try to find the article using the AI tool I use for work. It successfully pinpointed and retrieved the article on the first try. Disclaimer: this post was written with no AI involvement.
I’ve been using the free versions of ChatGPT and Gemini. I help residents here at my CCRC solve their tech problems. I like that I can ask the AI complicated questions in a paragraph with multiple sentences containing all the details about the situation, and get a single straightforward answer. Google searches, no matter how well crafted, and even refined using the verbatim tool, tend to produce an overwhelming number of results, making it hard to find exactly what I need.
great description and suggestion, thanks
Nice summary of the advantages of using AI for searches.
Targeted searches? I like it!
I use Gemini regularly. I write an article, mostly for my blog, and then I use AI to ask questions relative to the article and compare them. I fact check or get another point of view as it were. Sometimes I expand the article based on AI info. Really not different than Google except it’s well organized and draws from more than one source at a time.
If I were still working I might find it necessary to use AI. I’m retired, and so far I have seen no need to get involved with it – any more than I am involved with, say, TikTok.
Ken, I guess that I’m begrudgingly beginning to accept AI. Fine, I admit AI has some really good uses. There, I said it. But don’t get me started on e-books, I still want to wrestle with real book in my hands. Ever try to balance a presidential biography on you lap?
I read a mixture of real and e books. But moving multiple, quite heavy boxes of books several times will tend to push one towards ebooks. Electronic readers are superior for outdoor reading, especially on the beach. Also at night, you don’t need to leave alight on and bother your sleeping partner. As Dick mentions below, when traveling it’s nice to have multiple books that only weigh a few ounces, and take up no room. I’m also a big fan of libraries – I just picked up 2 hard copy books yesterday.
I fully agree, not only a real book, but it must be hard cover for me. Connie reads two to three books a week. Our second bedroom is now a library filled with hundreds of books. I have several books on my iPad, but just can’t get into it. The exception was when we were confined to our cabin on a ship for two weeks with no other option. I was grateful for e-books then.
Without some support, using an IPad or other tablet to read a book can be a painful experience. I think we all use a laptop or desktop computer extensively and don’t find that difficult because the keyboard or desk supports the screen. I have transitioned to using my IPad to read books via the use of a separate small keyboard that holds the IPad and lets you use it like a laptop. The one I use is $29. My IPad is so much easier to use than holding large heavy books. I have purchased and given at least 10 of these keyboards to friends and relatives in my age group because they couldn’t see the value until they had their IPad sitting in the keyboard, and now they cannot do without it.
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As a fast reader, like you, I used to accumulate lots of books to dispose of after I read them, and likewise I used to make a lot of trips to the library. Now, I download books I buy or borrow, save time and $$ by not going to the library, and have less physical stuff to deal with.
Chris has a similar keyboard-case for her I-pad, that may be in my future as well. I’ve begun reading the presidents biographies recently. Working backwards from Obama, just finished Carter and am ready to start Jerry Ford. I’m buying these books for my collection, otherwise I use the library for most of my reading.
As for e-books, before I had the cataract surgeries, I could comfortably read only e-books. To try to read a “real” book I needed good lighting, but then the light shining on the white paper would create a glare that made deciphering the black printed text difficult. The dark theme available on e-books meant I could easily see white text on a glare-free black background. Even now I prefer e-books, for the convenience (easy and fast) of borrowing them from libraries using the Libby app.
My family also likes paper books, but the usual incentive prompted a hybrid system—the old books my daughter favors are free or cheap on her device. They became an acceptable adjunct to used and library loans.
I would never dispute the advantages offered by e-books, I’m just sort of stuck in the past when it comes to books, cars, and vinyl records. I did just bite the bullet with the purchase of a couple I-phone 15s, so there may be hope for me yet!
Having already switched my music collection from vinyl to cassette to CD to streaming over my lifetime, I’m in no mood at this late stage to convert my physical library to an electronic platform, although it certainly would free up a lot of space in the house.
Isn’t it amazing how many times the music business has managed to persuade us to buy the same music in different formats? I figure I’ve bought “Born to Run” at least four times.
Last weekend I drove my brother by the house in Long Branch, NJ where Bruce wrote the Album!