Topics I have been exploring the last few months:

Artificial Intelligence use in the office. With the new AI tools available now like Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, Midjourney, Dall-E, Canva and a little know one I have been experimenting with called Fabric.

These developments remind me of the early days of the internet circa 1995-2001 when everyone was trying to build websites. Search engines were new. Then Google came along. Now even today most people think Google is easy to use. It is at the most basic level which typically typing in a couple of words and press enter. Did you know that Google has whole list of operators that make it even more useful?

Some of the Google operators that can make your search more effective and precise are:

- site: This operator restricts the search results to a specific domain or site. For example, site:nytimes.com covid will show only results from nytimes.com that mention covid.

- filetype: This operator filters the search results by a specific file type or extension. For example, filetype:pdf resume will show only PDF files that contain the word resume.

- intitle: This operator searches for a term within the title of a web page. For example, intitle:chocolate cake will show only web pages that have chocolate cake in their title.

- inurl: This operator searches for a term within the URL of a web page. For example, inurl:recipe chocolate cake will show only web pages that have recipe and chocolate cake in their URL.

- OR: This operator allows you to combine two or more search terms with a logical OR. For example, dog OR cat will show results that contain either dog or cat or both.

- - (minus sign): This operator excludes a term from the search results. For example, dog -cat will show results that contain dog but not cat.

- "" (double quotes): This operator searches for an exact phrase or word. For example, "chocolate cake" will show only results that contain the phrase chocolate cake as it is.

- * (asterisk): This operator acts as a wildcard and can replace any word or phrase. For example, "how to make a * cake" will show results that contain how to make a followed by any word and then cake.

- .. (two dots): This operator specifies a range of numbers. For example, laptop $500..$1000 will show results that contain laptop and a price between $500 and $1000.

- define: This operator shows the definition of a word or phrase. For example, define:artificial intelligence will show the definition of artificial intelligence.

Now you can have fun with these if they are new to you.

The AI revolution is no different when it comes to public knowledge of the technology. Some people think AI is dangerous, some think it can replace workers entirely, some think its like Google search. What I have been using it for is like having a very skilled research assistant that I can call upon any time of the day to solve a problem. I have found that it makes me more productive. The myth about AI is that it will do everything for you. I find that like a fast car on a race track the driver is the most important piece of the equation. A fast car will not win a race without a driver. (I think Elon is working on that one lol)

So that’s why I find it similar to Google when Google was new to the public. And now I am growing fond of Microsoft’s Copilot. Microsoft has made ChatGPT better and more useful by integrating into their Office suite. This is so much better that typing everything into a browser to get an answer from ChatGPT. Even though Copilot is plugged into Openai’s API to make Copilot work.

The open source project Fabric takes a similar approach by bottling up advanced prompts which then can be piped with other Unix/Linux commands to produce amazing results you simply cannot get from ChatGPT in the browser. To use Fabric you have to purchase OpenAI api access which is billed on how much you use instead of a monthly fee. For basic users this might be less than the monthly fee.

The learning curve is high right now to get the most out of AI. Which is similar to how hard it used to be to create a website in the 1990s. If you wanted an online store you needed a computer programmer. Now you can build websites without coding.

Some examples of useful GPT prompts for everyday use cases are:

- Writing a catchy email subject line: You can use a prompt like "Write a subject line for an email that invites people to a webinar about AI." Some possible outputs are:

- How to leverage AI for your business: join our free webinar

- Don't miss this opportunity: learn from the experts in AI

- AI secrets revealed: sign up for our exclusive webinar

- What you need to know about AI: a live Q&A session

- The ultimate guide to AI: register for our webinar today

- Generating a shopping list based on a recipe: You can use a prompt like "Given a recipe for spaghetti bolognese, generate a shopping list of ingredients." Some possible outputs are:

Shopping list:

• - Spaghetti
• - Ground beef
• - Onion
• - Garlic
• - Carrot
• - Tomato sauce
• - Olive oil
• - Salt
• - Pepper
• - Oregano
• - Basil
• - Parmesan cheese

- Summarizing a long article or report: You can use a prompt like "Summarize the main points of the following article in three sentences." Some possible outputs are:

- Summary: The article discusses how AI can help improve education by providing personalized feedback, adaptive learning, and intelligent tutoring. It also highlights some of the challenges and risks of using AI in education, such as ethical, social, and technical issues. It concludes by suggesting some best practices and recommendations for educators, policymakers, and researchers.

As you can see the use cases are endless. I also noticed that AI does make mistakes just like Google will give you results that are not useful too. So to get the most out of AI tools you have to plan out the prompt and break down the problem into smaller parts. This is similar to thinking like a computer programmer. Have fun with it before some tech makes it even easier to and ruins our fun.

I asked Copilot to write a riddle about AI and this is what it gave me lol

I can write, read, and speak, but I'm not alive. I can learn from data, but I don't have a mind. I can help you with tasks, but I don't understand your goals. What am I?

Answer: AI or artificial intelligence

I hope you all have a great weekend,

Ken