#161 - AI in My Personal Life:

Welcome back.

I'm having a blast with this series on The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Beautiful when it comes to AI.

I'm not a tech guru, and far from an engineer, but I am someone who is learning and using what's available to us every week. Being able to document what I'm doing and learning for anyone else who is interested in this stuff is something I take a lot of pride in. While I don't want On The Fly to feel like it's becoming an AI-centric newsletter, I really do believe this is the year to lean into AI.

I'm doing my best to break down AI into niche topics that make the conversation more concrete and less abstract. Two weeks ago, we talked about AI at work, how the uncertainty around it is real, but so is the opportunity if you're willing to learn the tools and start the conversation early. Last week, Prof Mike did a breakdown on AI for learning, which made me rethink how I approach these tools as a way to actually retain and apply knowledge, not just get quick answers.

Same approach this week, but this time it's AI in your personal life, which remains a hot topic right now.

Time for takeoff.

The Bad & The Ugly 🤢 

Let's get into it.

When I started using AI more in my personal life, a big commitment of mine early on was to set boundaries with the tool. By boundaries I mean quite literally ensuring I don't upload everything and anything when working with LLMs.

For example: I never upload financial information, sensitive documents, anything like my address, driver's license, social security — none of that. But besides the obvious, I began to wonder what these companies actually do with the content I've been feeding them over the last three years. And that's where The Bad comes into play because…

You really don't know how the content you're uploading is being used.

So I decided to dive more into what we may be allowing access to with these companies. All those questions, queries, and random ideas — what do they do with it? Well, little did I know that I was allowing my content in ChatGPT to be used to train their LLM models.

With a little more digging, I found out you can turn this off. I turned mine off yesterday after looking more into it because I don't want my content being used to train their models for everyone else. I like having some control over my privacy and how my data is reused. My mom would be proud.

I'm sharing step-by-step guides below on how to turn this off for both ChatGPT and Claude. I highly suggest toggling that setting off if you feel the same. It's an extra layer of protection and I'm all for that!

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Now that we have that addressed, it’s time to talk about The Ugly.

Let's remember these tools are businesses first and foremost. They get you in on the free tier, but then you start using it more, and over time you hit your limit. So you're pigeonholed into buying the $15 or $25 a month tier because you want to keep using it and realize you can't brainstorm without them. But it gets even uglier if you're anything like me — exploring, building, and testing across multiple tools at once.

I'm going to be honest with you and it may be TMI, but I'm spending anywhere from $150 to $200 a month right now across four to eight tools. LLMs, app builders, different browsers, research tools. Call me crazy, but I really want to get good at this stuff, so I have to pay to play. The free versions are a fine starting point, but you do see a difference when you upgrade. My point is: there's always a catch, and the ugly part is that these companies want your money and they know how to get it.

And aside from the ugly upsell, there's another ugly…the decision fatigue. Most people think this space is just a few LLMs competing against each other where you have OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini duking it out. And you’re sitting there wondering, which one is best and what do other people using AI use?? Despite that, there's a whole world behind the scenes because it’s not just LLM’s. Tools most people don't even know exist. When you start getting into the weeds of what's out there, it gets overwhelming fast. I try things out, see what works best for me, research the companies behind the tools, and then decide. But that process takes time, energy, and as I've relayed…money.

The reality is: this space is moving extremely fast, there are a lot of options, and it costs real money to go beyond the surface. That's not a reason to avoid it. But it's something you should know as you get more exposed to AI.

In sum: The Bad and The Ugly = data and privacy issues (but we fixed some of that today), paying to use these tools is inevitable, and indecisiveness when it comes to which tools to use.

The Good & The Beautiful 😉 

Okay, now let's flip it.

Back in 2023, I saw a tweet from Shaan Puri that stuck with me.

I couldn’t get this out of my head and for years, when you had a question, you’d Google it. You got links. You scrolled. You pieced it together yourself. Now you have a tool that doesn't just find information for you, but it helps you think through it. It expands on your ideas, challenges your assumptions, and takes a half-formed thought and builds on it. It’s still such a wild concept to me.

It’s all been a game changer for me personally. That’s The Good. Whether it's creating content for LinkedIn or TikTok, brainstorming newsletter topics, or even troubleshooting something broken around the house, I don't have to think of every little thing on my own anymore. I can bring one idea to the table and let the tool help me expand on it. This saves mental exhaustion, which is one of the most underrated benefits of using these tools.

And it's not just about getting answers. I use it to learn. If something comes back and it doesn't look right, I ask why. "Why is this structured this way? What's the reasoning?" I let it teach me along the way. It's not just doing the work for me - it's helping me understand the work better. And that’s really good.

I've even been able to create PDFs to help young professionals breaking into underwriting or learning about AI. A year ago, I couldn't have done that on my own. Now I can. And that's just one small example.

Now here's what I think is The Beautiful part of all of this.

You can take a problem you're experiencing, a passion you have, or an idea you can't stop thinking about and actually build something with it.

I'm currently working on a project to help people create content on LinkedIn who don’t know where to start. I'm also exploring an app idea for dog parents. None of this required a technical background. I’ve been in insurance for 10 years…haha

But having an assistant at your fingertips that can help you build things you don't have to wait for a company to create is a BEAUTIFUL thing to me is it not?

I full-heartedly believe that our parents, if they were back in their 20s and 30s, would be exploring these tools and seeing what they could do for them.

If you have any interest in this, whether you're just curious, a little overwhelmed, or somewhere in between, I'd love to talk. Seriously. Reach out through email, send me a DM, or let's hop on a Google Meet or Zoom. I've been where you are, and there's a lot to talk about.

Because if I can do this with zero technical background and 10 years in insurance, so can you.

In sum: The Good and The Beautiful = AI as a thought engine that saves you mental energy and helps you learn, the ability to create things you never could before, and the fact that it's never been easier to build something for yourself with just an idea and the right tools.

Those YouTube ads that make fun of people who just use AI to search? Yeah, they’re making fun of me.

The truth is, I don’t want to use AI too much in my personal life, but for quick information - when I’m cooking, when I want the news, when I’m trying to fix something and have no clue where to start - I default to the Perplexity app on my phone. It’s easy to use, and I like the way it’s organized.

Beyond that, I could see Notebook LM playing a role in my life. I can’t ignore its potential to make learning more efficient. There’s so much I’d love to know that could benefit me personally, but I could never justify “wasting” the time to learn it. If Notebook LM can, say, cut that time in half, that’s incredibly valuable to me.

And that’s all I need right now. AI’s going to become essential at work (if it isn’t already), and we spend most of our lives working, so in those rare moments of freedom, I’d rather disconnect from my devices and connect instead with living, breathing human beings.

Before You Go!

Thanks for reading. This wraps up our Good, Bad, Ugly and Beautiful series. It's been a fun ride breaking this down across work, learning, and our personal lives.

But here's what kept coming up for me throughout this series: no matter how powerful the tools get, certain human skills aren't going anywhere. In fact, they matter more now than ever.

Next week, Prof Mike and I are going to break down the five most important skills you need despite the rise of AI over the last few years. Stay tuned.

As always, see you next Tuesday!

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