Name: How AI can improve your life - at home and work | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2025-10-25T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 4 min 55 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

Okay, so you've probably heard of AI or one of the generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot.

Adverbs of degree

You may even have had a go at using one, found it freakily fast and pretty convincing.

But do you wonder how it works and what it's doing with your data?

So how can you use AI to improve your life and what do you need to look out for?

One of the first things many people do when they start using a GenAI chatbot is to ask about themselves.

This can be a good thing to try out because it gives you a quick answer you can easily check.

And pretty often, you'll find there are a few weird mistakes or conflations where it's decided you're still in your old job

or a hobby you gave up years ago is still listed as a current interest.

If your summary is bang on, try asking it about a family member or friend.

It's worth being wary of all so-called facts that are generated by AI chatbots so you don't end up like the American lawyer Stephen Schwartz,

who used ChatGPT to prepare a legal brief which included six entirely bogus cases.

It's fair to say the judge was not impressed.

What chatbots can do pretty well is turning facts that you give it into an email, bullet points or a summary.

Gotta write up minutes from a meeting, paste the transcript into the chatbot and it'll turn it into an easy-to-digest summary.

Need to write a presentation based on some complex data or a long dreary report?

Get a chatbot to do it for you, or at least a first draft.

In fact, using chatbots for a first draft is a good way to think about it.

Everything will still need careful checking and some bits will need rewriting,

but it can be a great way to get things going.

Another extremely handy use of GenAI is when searching for jobs.

Asking a chatbot to reformat your CV or do a first draft of a cover letter can save hours.

They can even do practice interviews with you if you share the job description.

If you've received a bad service or need to complain about something,

AI chatbots can rustle up a semi-formal letter in seconds.

Productivity is another area where an AI assistant can help.

Planning daily tasks or helping to prioritize your to do list can be incredibly helpful.

Weekly meal plans that incorporate specific dietary needs are a doddle with AI chatbots,

and they can come up with a personalised exercise plan for you in no time at all.

Holiday itinerary tailored to your budget, interests and level of mobility. Easy.

Design a wedding invitation inspired by your favourite movie. Not a problem.

Planting plan for your north-facing garden with a surfeit of slugs. You get the picture.

Some people even use chatbots to share relationship problems or role-play awkward conversations.

But it's important to remember that AI responses can sound incredibly convincing, but can't always be trusted.

As things stand, chatbots aren't able to provide proper legal or medical advice.

For that, you'll need advice from a real lawyer or doctor.

Whatever data you input into the chatbot is stored and could be used by the company that owns it.

This is particularly important if you're using AI chatbots at work.

Make sure you follow your employer's guidelines and take up any training they're offering.

Every time you input data about yourself, you're essentially giving it away.

The AI is using your personal data to train its systems,

and unless it's been explicitly ruled out in the terms and conditions,

the company could share your data with third parties.

What if entering data about your personal health problems was then shared with insurance companies or medical providers?

So it's definitely worth checking privacy policies.

Think very carefully before sharing any personal or sensitive information and enabling privacy settings wherever you can.

AI chatbots use a lot of energy to generate their answers and suggestions.

GenAI data centers consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries, according to one estimate.

As ever with NewTek, there are pluses and minuses.

Generative AI chatbots are incredible tools which can save you time and improve your life.

There's a lot more to AI than we can squeeze into a short film,

Watch the other films in this series to learn more about how to have a better relationship with a chatbot,

how to avoid AI scams, and how GenAI can be used for learning

If you enjoyed that, be sure to check out these videos next.

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