Using AI is easy: Here's a step-by-step meal planning tutorial
ATLANTA - Good Day Atlanta anchor Alyse Eady challenged the FOX 5 I-Team to actually show the viewer step-by-step how to use artificial intelligence. Challenge accepted.
We found using AI is easier than we thought. But, before you read more, go to www.chapgpt.com and sign up. Or, download the app and sign up there. Then, follow along as Emory professor David Schweidel, an expert in the field, takes us through a week of meal planning.
Don't feel overwhelmed because, folks, we already use AI daily, he said.
"If you're using Google Maps, you're using AI. If you're using Siri and Alexa, you're using AI. If you have a spam filter, you're using AI," Schweidel said.
It was about a year ago, he said, that we started to hear about something called ChatGPT. It's a website and an app.
"That is what has been largely credited with popularizing AI in the vernacular today," he said.
And businesses that are using it are seeing up to 90% cost and time savings when they let AI do some of their busy work.
This illustration picture shows the AI (Artificial Intelligence) smartphone app ChatGPT surrounded by other AI App in Vaasa, on June 6, 2023. (Photo by OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
"Software developers use it to write code. It lets them get away from the mundane tasks," the marketing professor told FOX 5. "It can't do anything novel very well, but it can do boilerplate work."
Big business is sold on this technology. But most of us are like Alyse and the FOX 5 I-Team's Dana Fowle, not exactly sure how to access it, much less use it.
"That's a normal reaction," Scheidel said.
So let's dig in and figure this out. We are going to build a meal plan for Alyse and her family of four with one on the way. They're busy. And any way that they can shave off a chore, well, they're interested.
There are lots of platforms to choose from, but we will start with the starter model - ChatGPT - the earlier version called 3.5. You can download the app or sign up on your computer. It's free. You know how to do that. But asking it to do a job for you is a little different from doing an internet search.
"The results that you get might not be the final result. It's going to be back and forth to kind of refine it to kind of get you what you want," our expert explained. "Like a conversation."
This is what we've asked for in writing:
"Meal Planning. Family of four, Mom is pregnant. The kids are preschoolers. We think no diet considerations right now. They'll all tend to be very hungry. Three meals a day for five days. Traditional meals. Present in a tabular format."
He asked for this meal plan to be presented in a certain format. And boom. There it is. A week's worth of meals for the family broken down in a calendar-like format.
"We are going to start Monday with scrambled eggs, whole wheat toast and a mixed fruit salad. For lunch, we have a grilled cheese sandwich, carrot sticks, hummus with pita and yogurt, and then dinner is spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and a mixed vegetable salad," he read to us.
Ok, let's tweak it. Make it a little more interesting. And he writes just that in the search bar, "Let's mix it up."
He asked for international dishes to be added to the menu.
"We have a chicken and rice stir-fry, Asian-inspired stir-fry. We've got beef tacos with salsa," he read.
Then he coaches it to send along detailed recipes and a shopping list. And folks, that's it. That's how easy it is. Sign up.
Now, you can pay $20 a month for this service and get better access. With that, you will get pictures and more details. But start with free first.
"The limitations on the free version is, if there's heavy traffic, you're not going to be able to log in," Schweidel said.
Think about the early days of the internet. It can be a touch slow. But this technology is changing so quickly that it won't last long.
HERE'S A LIST OF AI FORMATS YOU CAN TRY
1. ChatGPT
2. Bard
3. Notion AI
4. Lumen5