Ways AI can help you be more productive at home

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly common in the workplace, but it's also starting to assist with tasks at home. 

Insider tech reporter Lakshmi Varanasi told CBS News she uses OpenAI's GPT4 technology to help her plan and prep meals, while parents are using it to generate bedtime stories to read to their children. Really committed parents can even use it to create their own books with corresponding images, also using AI tools, like image generator DALL-E.

In this way, AI can be tremendously helpful in sating kids' appetites for constant entertainment, Varanasi added. 

Something to beware of when reading AI-generated text to children: AI tools like ChatGPT are known to occasionally make errors or inappropriate statements. "There needs to be fact-checking involved whenever you use an AI tool," Varanasi said. 

To be sure, AI doesn't have the same level of judgment and insight that humans do, and may not be able to respond helpfully to personal questions. 

"It's really good for the broad strokes of navigating life." Varanasi said. 

Other useful applications of sophisticated AI include asking it for help generating emails, or general inspiration for creating any type of content. Travel company Expedia is even betting that it will be helpful for people planning trips.

Computer programmers and coders have found AI useful as well. One worker used GPT4 as a coding assistant while building a video game.

"He'd type in command he wanted, the tool gave him code," Varanasi said. When a digital spaceship that was part of the game wouldn't move, AI stepped in and "helped get it moving."

A coder might have ordinarily spent hours on trial and error, but AI sped up the process.