Workers in tech and AI from all over the country are coming to San Francisco this week for the Data + AI Conference. But AI is still a very new technology, even for those familiar with it. What exactly can AI be helpful with besides office work? For today’s Question of the Bay, KALW asked some attendees Monday outside of the Moscone Center: How do you use AI in your daily life?
Most named ChatGPT specifically for helping with small writing tasks, like Caleb Cornelius from Albany, Oregon, who was asked to write a review for his realtor.
“ I don’t know, I feel like I had writer’s block or something, so I just told ChatGPT a little bit about the experience and it wrote a review for me and it was really easy and nice and…yep!”
Nishan Gosh is based in Bangalore, India, and travels a lot for work. He told KALW AI helped with his correspondence.
“There are ways where I use it to check my grammar, because I am not a native English speaker, while I can speak fluently and whatnot. But then, lot of times, while phrasing a paragraph or paraphrasing something, that’s when I use.”
Nathaniel Cooley came from Raleigh, North Carolina. Because of AI engines, he said he doesn’t even use Google anymore.
“Honestly, it's kind of my go-to for search now. So, I use it pretty frequently, yeah.”
Michael Martin from College Station, Texas, echoed that…saying that AI is already more ubiquitous than we might think.
“Yeah, I mean your smart phone for instance. Think of all the things it assists you with, that’s probably going to be driven with AI or some sort of machine learning. It's a big label for a lot of different things that I think we’ve been using for a while and just haven’t labeled as AI.”
Pranay Chakilam, from Indianapolis, recently graduated. He said AI helped him in his studies.
“To get my doubts clarified, to understand new concepts or something like that, so I was using AI a lot and maybe how to draft a paper or how to draft an email. For those simple things as well, yes I was using a lot of AI.”
Everyone KALW spoke with traveled to San Francisco from outside the Bay Area for the conference. Pratyush Parvatharaju, from Boston, said AI planned his whole trip for him.
“For travel, its amazing! I’m new to SF and just this morning I asked ChatGPT can you come up with an itinerary or what are the places to visit, like its so easy Yosemite, Tahoe…with an entire plan so that’s amazing.”
The conference is being held through Thursday at the Moscone Center.