Summary
- Google Bard is an exceptional tool for writing code and analyzing data, providing excellent answers and protecting against accidental plagiarism.
- ChatGPT is a helpful research tool, providing a starting point and more ideas for researching niche topics and difficult questions.
- GPT for Sheets, a Chrome extension, simplifies data analysis by summarizing data, generating text-based content, and processing data, making it worth considering for those who work with large amounts of data.
Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days, and it's easy to see why. You can incorporate artificial intelligence into so many parts of life already, but with tools like ChatGPT and AI image generators out there, it can be overwhelming to figure out what exactly you can use it for. Well, these are six of the coolest ways I've used some of these AI tools to improve the quality of my work or to help me with my hobbies.
1 ChatGPT is an excellent research tool
Helping you with college and more
Trying to research a broad and wide-spanning topic can be difficult, especially if you don't know where to begin. Some subjects are particularly niche, and while you can use search engines like Google to find sources and research yourself, sometimes it's hard even to know where to start. That's where a tool like ChatGPT can come in handy. You ask it a question and then research the answer that it gives you.
For example, I recently learned that Hangul, the Korean writing system, prevented Pokémon Gold and Silver from coming to the regular Game Boy due to technology constraints. While in the West, users could enjoy these games on the regular Game Boy, only the Game Boy Color had the necessary vRAM to render Hangul. Googling the reasons for this proved difficult, but I asked ChatGPT what makes Hangul more computationally expensive to render.
While I wouldn't trust everything that it says, it can provide you with a good starting point and give you more ideas for what to search for through a traditional search engine. Then, you can research the reasons for the answer.
2 Data analysis can be so much easier
Leave numbers to the computer
If you find yourself doing a lot of data analysis, then you may be able to benefit from GPT for Sheets. As you can guess, it's a Chrome extension that'll allow you to use ChatGPT on Google Sheets. It can summarize data, generate taglines and other text-based content, clean lists for you, process data, and a lot more. It requires a ChatGPT Plus subscription so you can get an OpenAI API key, but if you process a lot of data, it might be worth it.
3 You'll never need Grammarly again with this Chrome extension
It's completely free, too
If you're writing long-form content like a thesis, you'll know the pain of trying to proofread all of your text. It can be long, it can be monotonous, and when you're faced with a ton of text, it can be easy to miss some errors. Thankfully, there are plenty of AI-based tools that leverage ChatGPT to proofread the text that you've written.
This is done via a Chrome extension called editGPT, which the author shared on Reddit. It's not perfect, as you can see from the screenshot above, and it struggles with word count changes, but it simply shows the difference between your text and what ChatGPT gives you. When I was writing my thesis, this kind of tool would have been excellent for providing third-party, unbiased input.
4 Generate images for your role-playing game
Add that personal touch
If you take part in role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, you'll know that you don't need a ton of visual aids to actually play the game. You can use sites like Inkarnate to make your own maps if you want to get a bit technical or Foundry to act as a virtual tabletop, but after that, there aren't a lot of options if you want to, for example, generate some character artwork. In previous games, we would have players use stock images or draw their own if they wanted, but with the power of artificial intelligence, players can generate their own images for use.
For example, my friend generated the above image for the campaign he runs. He previously used stock imagery in his campaigns to convey information to players, but AI has given him the ability to add more of a personal flourish. Other players have started using their own images, which were designed using tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
This is another set of images that my friend generated for him and his friends to use in their campaign. They're unique to them and increase their personal attachment to their game and characters.
5 Get a new hobby or improve your health
Making it easier to meal prep
Tools like these don't all have to be about maximizing your productivity. You may want to learn to play guitar, take up running, or maybe even need a bit of help with meal plans. For example, I asked ChatGPT to help me plan dinners for a week that were budget-friendly, quick to make, and would still taste good, and it gave me some interesting ideas.
I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm a fan of all the recommendations that it gave me (and I would definitely double-check the cooking time for anything involving meat to be on the safe side), but the fact that I can go from having zero ideas to having an entire week planned with a shopping list provided in just five minutes is incredible.
6 Bonus: Get programming help
This is what I use Google Bard for all the time
I write a lot of code to automate various parts of my life, plus I write some of the tools that I use here at XDA for reviewing devices. Google Bard has been an exceptional tool for me when it comes to writing code and analyzing data. It's not perfect, but when I need to solve a problem and I'm getting really stuck, often I can share the error I'm getting, or ask it what I'm doing, and I'll get an excellent answer.
Even better is that if it takes code straight from somewhere else, Bard will tell you where it got it from. ChatGPT won't, so Bard may protect you from accidentally plagiarizing someone else.
Tools are what you make them
All of these tools are capable of doing so much, but they rely on your input to help you out. They won't do anything for you on their own, but if you have an idea that you want to execute, it might be worth looking at the range of AI tools on the market that you can use to help you achieve those goals and improvements like GPT-4 are always on the way. Do you use AI? If you have any of the best phones, then chances are you do even inadvertently, but what do you use it for?