# So... How does one actually use AI?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Tags:** ai
**Created:** [February 20, 2026, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842 "2026-02-20T03:06:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 64

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2026, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842/64 "2026-02-23T01:44:03Z")

</div>

> [@Maserschmidt](#):
>
> > [@RitterSport](#):
> >
> > You all should spend more time using Claude instead of ChatGPT or Gemini. My experience is that it’s more “thoughtful” or something, better answers. It’s also a fantastic programmer.
> 
> I’ve just added it and will play around with it. I’m sad to learn it natively supports Python debugging but not R…I knew I should’ve learned Python.

I used it to make this [post](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nyt-spelling-bee-drives-me-crazy/994739/2658) here, updating some R code. My observations:

- it still put me in an error loop because it overcomplicated the code, and I had to eventually brute-force it instruction by instruction.
- it did a much better job of explaining its coding decisions than chatGPT. I mean, significantly better.
- it genuinely surprised me when I suggested we debug line by line; it gave some starting code, and then asked me to report back the output. ChatGPT often suggests tests, but then essentially says “you can check the results this way” rather than (effectively) collaborating.

I’ll use it in the future; still not turnkey, but much better.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-how-does-one-actually-use-ai/1027842)._