I use Claude and Gemini, and the results were rather disappointing. Gemini literally gave me the same room with a piece of paper asked “who am I?” on the floor, while Claude couldn’t generate a photo at all.
I do not think Claude is ever meant to generate an image (although I have done it for a logo and it did a pretty good job). Try something like https://ideogram.ai/ which is purpose built for that task.
I absolutely use AI for work. Yesterday I had to change my website security (against hacks and bots) from one host to a different host. No small task, lots of steps and details. Claude walked me through it all. Step-by-step and if a step confused me I said so and it would go into greater detail then pick-up where we were for the following step with no problem at all (indeed, it often would just steer back on course on its own). Even more cool, it would ask for screenshots of what I was seeing and would interpret those screenshots perfectly and tell me you missed this or that.
Really quite remarkable and a lifesaver for me. Doing all that without it would have been a real pain (still was a pain but so much easier).
I created a skill in Claude to analyze 2027 health insurance plans. I created a spreadsheet with our drugs, including the GoodRX “Companion” and “Base” pricing, so we can analyze drug costs as well. It is quite useful!
It’s a great idea!
They granted me access today, how’s that been going for you?
(Oh, wow, I didn’t realize there were two simultaneous “how you AI” threads)
I stopped using it after a few days, actually. It was too noisy.
I prefer to use technology on a “pull” basis, meaning I check them when I want to. I turn off most notifications on my phone. Duet kept suggesting low-importance tasks that it wanted to try to help me with, but that I didn’t really want to bother with.
For someone who lives a more rigorously scheduled life (and needs a proper secretary-like bot), maybe it’s helpful, but for me it just added to the digital noise rather than filtering it.
I continue to use it to organize grants. I’ve used it to make about ten templates for different phases of the grant life cycle. For example we received a letter asking for additional information for a recently awarded grant. I had it create a spreadsheet with every required item and steps needed to get those items. I also created a generic post-award planning document for all the steps necessary to prepare an awarded grant for implementation. I can check off every step as I do it.
Then I used it to create a template Memorandum of Understanding for our research partner. I have to go through and edit and put it in my own words, but I truly had no idea how to structure it. This is a problem I have often - not knowing how best to organize and structure something. Claude excels at this.
Basically I use it for the executive function I don’t have. I use it to give structure to the chaos in my head.
I used it to get suggested cuts for a 36 page narrative I wrote down to 22 pages. I think I edit faster on my own, though. Where it was helpful was identifying which parts of the narrative could instead be a chart which would take up less space. It then made the charts for me.
That grant was awarded.
We have received two big, highly competitive grants since I started using Claude to organize and review applications.
I’ve also used it to discuss some productivity books I’ve read, and ways to apply them. For example I used it to explore some ideas in Dana K White’s Procrastinators Get Stuff Done. I asked it to give me some nuance and alternative perspectives. I would call my interest in productivity something of a hobby, so sometimes I just chat with it to explore different ideas around productivity. The same with so-called self-care and gradual changes I want to implement.
Tangential question: what did people use before Excel? I can’t imagine living without it.
Lotus or Quattro Pro. Really not bad, though not as robust.
ETA and before that, grids of green and white paper.
Or if you go back even further, VisiCalc. But no piece of software has probably been abused more to do things it was not intended to do than Excel.
The closest I’ve come to using AI at work is probably the “AI” feature CAS has put into SciFinder. I’m not convinced it’s all that much better than just doing a normal search or that its retro synthesis is any different than what Reaxys was doing 20 years ago.
Especially as a database (shudder!) Of course there’s a German word for such a universal software, device or method: die eierlegende Wollmilchsau, literally the egg-laying wool milk sow (you’ll get the gist). Excel is that in the corporate software world.
My impression of LLMs is that if you lack skill in an area, they can sort of compensate for that in a rudimentary way. But if you actually have in-depth knowledge of a subject, the gaps in their knowledge are more obvious.
I’ve seen this less with grants, though I’m not an expert on federal grants, I just have some experience managing them and some professional training. I know more than most people, but I have less knowledge than, say, a seasoned consultant would. So maybe I don’t know what it doesn’t know.
I won’t use it for writing applications. It’s not a bad grant writer, but I think the human touch is worth something to reviewers. I think the reason it does this well, though, is that it’s very technical writing where there’s not a lot of room for deviation from the norm. Unlike many other kinds of writing, there’s an actual objective best way to write a grant application.
There was a thread about this earlier this year: What is a spreadsheet?
Oh, and another one 20 years ago… What did people use before spreadsheets?
Thank you, that was very interesting. It sounds like the answer I was looking for is “paper.”
Shudder.
Yes, because someone hired me to do their movie soundtrack I was involved in. But he edited/filmed it, and it didn’t fit, and I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I told him I’d take half, but I would only use my original instrumental music.
I have Patreon and some patrons like to hear certain songs sung by other members of the band… Or re-mixing to fix the audio – increasing vocals, bass, lowering drum sound, etc.
Well, just wait another decade and kids will be asking “What did people do before AI?”
I have no reason to use it. Which is good, because I have no idea how to use it.
I use it daily, primarily just to hold conversations. I might be discussing how an armadillo is expanding its range or inventing something; world-building is fun. Whatever I am in the mood to talk about, AI is always ready and willing.