Granted, this is like the 4th or 5th post I have ever done on this blog so it is a bit early to expound on AI but here we are….
I’ve been experimenting with AI (Gemini and Claude) for awhile, trying to do little things with it that mostly revolve around helping me reduce the amount of searching I might do to find the right product for me. For that it’s been pretty decent, I can give it a set of requirements and it pops out some pretty good options.
Another thing I tried was with Claude specifically. I installed the Filesystem connector and let it loose on my car service folder asking on what dates I got my snow tires installed and removed. For that it did really well and even made a nice table so I could see the history of my tire changes. To date, I haven’t asked it to make any changes to the files as I am still a bit concerned about what might happen.
In both cases I am essentially using these AI tools like I saw Commander Data do on Star Trek TNG, asking AI to search and collate data for me. This is a useful thing for my life. What I am having trouble with is finding other things to do with it. I don’t code, I don’t have a hyper busy schedule that needs organization, hell I don’t go any many vacations. So what am I missing that AI could help with? Am I that unimaginative?
Right now the return on investment isn’t there. The things I do with AI right now are shortcuts to work I can do myself. It’s all donkey work as MacSparky would say. That’s great and all but it’s not enough for me to spend any serious money. I’m certainly not going to spending $24 CAD for Claude or $27 CAD for Gemini a month for the limited use cases I’ve found so far. If the free tiers go away or become really constrained then I will go back to the old ways rather than plunge into paying unless I can find something truly game changing for a regular user like me.