My experiments with AI
I have been a big skeptic of AI in its current state and how much value it really adds beyond making weird images, refining your email and what? I mostly go out and say "ahha! and this is what we're wasting away our GPUs on - so you can get a cute cat in your slide. Really?"
However, over the last few weeks my opinion is shifting. As I've started to play around a bit more (Last week with v0.dev/chat), I am trying to find more opportunities to employ AI to tasks which I know how to do - but maybe take more time, just to see how AI does - and boy it is changing my mind!
Task #1: I had a list of emails with names in the format: Armaan Shahanshah <abc@gmail.com>, person 2 <person@gmail.com>, etc. and needed to extract just the email with commas in between them. Traditionally, I'd go to sheets and split columns, then do some funky copy pasting and be done.
This time, I just Gemini'd it - two prompts and less than a minute later, the list was in front of me - copied it and pasted. Boom.
Task #2: I am a sucker for reading articles (much like most of us). I listen to a chunk of podcasts but not all articles have audio with them, so a few months ago I started using Screen reader at 2x to blaze through my articles. Which was great - until I used Notebook LM today, which blew my mind.
Two simple steps: 1) Add the article as a source. 2) Generate a deep dive conversation. Boom! I had a 7:23 podcast, which I heard while making myself lemon soda. The voices seemed real, so much variation and they said "Thanks for diving deep on this with us. Let us know! We'll catch you on the next one".
WHAT?! <insert shocked Armaan>
My learning is that I have optimized my life to do things in a certain way and I know most of what needs to be done, most of the times - even the how. AI is an enabler, which can make things a bit more efficient and if you know me, then you know I will go for that extra minute of saving. ;)
P.S.: I also asked Gemini to do a better job, here is its version. You can tell me if it is better or not? (I think it is! :o ) https://lnkd.in/guq6dpSz
P.P.S - Scott Galloway's Article: https://lnkd.in/gWFJHQ-c
PSSSS (I guess that's what it's come down to): Just found Google's launch blog as well: https://lnkd.in/gK5tuHcJ