Lately I have had a ChatGPT tab open all the time. It is interesting to see what it can do.
Today I tried a simple word problem. If a drive takes 1 minute for every 500mb how long would it take to encrypt a 1TB drive?
It did the math and showed it and came back with an answer. It is a pretty simple question, but the fact that I didn’t have to put it in the google search box and then fill in some missing detail means that it was faster than what I had done in the past.
AI isn’t revolutionary, it is time saving in some cases. It would have taken me slightly more time to do it, and perhaps the mental exercise helps keep one sharp. On the other hand, the calculation was just to demonstrate a point and extreme accuracy wasn’t required. I could have made my point just as well with an estimation, so using ChatGPT one could argue was unnecessary and took more time.
Still, I think more convincing arguments have facts and numbers and I try to use them whenever possible. It also verified something that I said earlier in the email, and something that was my own experience.
Having a logical argument and facts are nice, but caring about people is more important. For most people, facts don’t change their heart.