Smart Not Scary: AI for Empty Nesters - E108

Rick Denton (00:06)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Loud Quiet. Today we're going to be talking about a topic that is on a lot of folks' minds. It is AI, which I know we've had for decades now, but a couple years ago when ChatGPT showed up, it became the discussion both in business and personal life. And we actually put a question out there to the Facebook community group, the Loud Quiet, and got...

Responses from y'all and how you're using AI today and we'll bring some of those in the episode But I wanted to start off with a little victory story. I actually used chat GPT in a way That actually at the end of it when I came back and told Clancy. my gosh this happened She said you're yelling at me. I was just so excited that I was so

Clancy Denton (00:50)
The was pumping, I could tell.

Rick Denton (00:52)
I

was not using my inside voice at all. So we bought an extended warranty, which is something we almost never do, but Clancy drives a vehicle that we knew the repair costs were going to be expensive and we like to keep our cars longer than the typical warranty period.

Clancy Denton (01:10)
One of us does, but yes. And therefore then I do too.

Rick Denton (01:17)
is a very good

point. I encourage our families to keep our cars longer than perhaps others would want them to. So we did, we were past the normal warranty and went ahead and made the decision to buy the extended warranty. And under the belief that almost everything was covered, we knew things that weren't. Well, of course, the first time that we bring it in, and that was this week, and at the service center, they're helpful, but it's a third party administrator. They're like, hey, they're accepting this claim.

but they're denying this part of the claim. And of course the blood starts boiling and I'm like, but that's why I bought the plan. It's supposed to be completely covered. And they said, here's the claim number. If you want to call the claims department, you can, you know, usually when they make these decisions, they stick with these decisions. So I decided to use chat GPT to help me out with this. I put the contract, the actual contract that we had,

uploaded it into chat GPT and and then told it the scenario and told it the specific part that was being denied. I'd never heard of this part before called the servo motor. Well, it was being denied because it was the exhaust system. But chat GPT helped me understand actually the servo motor.

is something else. It's an electronic piece that attaches to the exhaust system, and that's why they're denying it. And it gave me an entire script. Hey, when you call them, this is likely what they're going to say. This is what you should say back. When they respond to that, you should say this. Be polite, but firm, continuing to land the point that the motor is separate from the exhaust system, even though it's physically attached.

I had talked to the customer service frontline agent who I get it. They don't have the authority to change it. Sent me to the manager. The manager is like, I get what you're saying, but I can't do anything. I said, can you talk to somebody? So sure. I'll talk to my higher ups, but I don't think they're going to change anything. totally like, was a friendly conversation. He understood. He's like, you know, this it's just not going to happen. He called me back an hour later and goes, you're not going to believe it. Talk to my higher up. And he said, this is one of the most unique situations we've ever seen.

your explanation is not one we've ever considered before. We are going to accept the claim. And so that was 1400. All because uploading the contract, presenting the scenario and letting it guide me on how to solve for this. Chat GPT didn't air quote here, solve it for me. It helped support me. It was the, the sidekick.

Clancy Denton (03:42)
$1,400.

Rick Denton (04:01)
that helped us overcome this claim and we won.

Clancy Denton (04:05)
So yes, that was a victory for you and us. And that was nice. Some of the other members in our community group, Allison said, you know, she uses it for business tasks. She uses it to create blogs off of her podcast transcripts, which we also do some things with that as well. ⁓ So yeah, you can use it for just simple business things now that, you know, in

before this would have taken you another three hours to get done.

Rick Denton (04:38)
We also heard from Mark who said he uses both Gemini and ChatGPT for business elements. He also uses it for something that lot of folks are using it and it's a replacement for search. Google has seen its search decline significantly as people are turning to ChatGPT for answers. He also uses it for elements of his business and he uses it for recipe work as well. And then one that I haven't dabbled in, it actually makes me a little nervous, but some of the stuff that you see coming out of it.

kind of cool using Sora to generate videos that are of striking quality. Still a little nervous about it, but it is still pretty cool.

Clancy Denton (05:17)
Yeah, I like that Mark said, you know, he uses it with his wife Amy That's you know, so they can figure out what to cook for the week. Yes like that. So that's nice We also had one of our members Ron who is using it for something that is a very painful process for him He unfortunately lost his wife in a auto versus pedestrian accident

earlier this summer. And so now he is using it to take two Texas laws and try to combine them into one to get rid of some of the loopholes that will allow the prosecution and the DA to move forward in this case. And so not only to help the situation that he is in, but I can imagine this will help.

so many people in the future as well.

Rick Denton (06:17)
His case, obviously, just tragic, hurts our hearts. It's admirable to see that he is choosing to do something with that in order to create a better outcome for folks in the future.

Clancy Denton (06:31)
And

so we just appreciate Ron so much for sharing that with us and all of the other answers that we got to our question. Thanks again for those of you all in the community group that are interacting with those questions when we put them out there.

Rick Denton (06:44)
It's and beyond that you can use it in just everyday life, right? We've had big cases, but there's everyday life that we certainly have used it.

Clancy Denton (06:52)
Well, just like, you know, Mark talked about meal planning. Also, you know, off of that meal planning, you can have it create the grocery list for the meals that it has created for you. you can put in all kinds of dietary restrictions if you want to be on a lower calorie, high protein diet, and it will create.

meals for you for the week. I have used this and then what I do is sometimes I'm like, I don't like that as much so I'll tweak it. You can also put in your food preferences, say you're a vegetarian or a vegan, those kinds of things, or maybe one night a week you want to do a vegan meal. There's just so many ways to use it and then I do love that then it will also generate your shopping list for you.

Rick Denton (07:45)
And you've talked about how this has been particularly helpful as we've transitioned from a house that had kids in it, like a lot of y'all listening, house had kids in it, to how do we generate, and let's be fair, in this household you are the one driving this and doing a great job of it, of how do we grocery shop and feed a family of two, which is not what a lot of those are set up for, so using this tool has helped that.

Clancy Denton (08:09)
And that

was one thing that I did struggle with at the beginning of when it was just the two of us, even when Tanner left and it was the three of us, I used to cook an entire pack and probably a half of spaghetti on the nights that it was all four of us. Now I'm like, ooh, how much do I use out of the pack that we don't have? So yes, it does. It does make a difference when you are going from,

how many ever to just two of you or for, you know, the single parents that we have out there to just one person. And I know you're, when you travel and it's just me by myself, I don't even, I just go and see what's in the pantry and I'm like, okay, yeah, I'll just.

Rick Denton (08:54)
So you're your own chat GPT there and I think we certainly just y'all know this at the very end we will talk about it's not all nirvana there's some cautions here there's some boundaries that we certainly want to share with y'all and just like in this case it's not the end-all be-all you can go into the pantry and figure it out for yourself too.

Clancy Denton (09:12)
Yeah, and so that's, you know, everyday life. If you have a trip coming up, we have used it to find restaurants in the particular city that we're visiting. We have used it before in some of the countries that we've been to. like to look and see and even the cities inside those countries. What is this city?

known for, what's the delicacy that I need to try. And then it's been fun when we've been back home to put those things in and see what it pulls up for Dallas or what it pulls up for things out in Arizona and those kinds of things. So it's just fun to play with as well. You know, another very practical use of it along with travel is a packing list.

Rick Denton (10:02)
And people think packing list a lot of times. OK, big trip, big family trip, big holiday trip. I've seen a lot of folks on LinkedIn talking about the usage of it for I have a three day business trip. I have a speaking engagement. I'm going to be in Minnesota. I also need to have a cocktail dinner, that kind of stuff. And so using it for business travel, along with your vacation travel,

at that packing list layer has proven to be really helpful for a lot of folks for a task that a lot of us are kind of annoyed by.

Clancy Denton (10:34)
I need to start using it in that way because I still write out everything and I'm like, huh, I should really start using it for that.

Rick Denton (10:45)
Help me get into a carry-on should be the first prompt that you should add to that.

Clancy Denton (10:51)
Well

yeah, then it'll say, okay, take out two pairs of shoes.

Rick Denton (10:56)
Yes,

it will. That's right. Yeah. I mentioned nuisance items and anybody who owns a home knows that there is maintenance with homes and I still remember getting the black and Decker hardback books. And then over time that upgraded to where I could use search for it. Now there's YouTube for it. Now I have used chat GPT successfully to the point that there's a series of automated blinds that we have and they're a pain in the butt. They're confusing.

The websites are very difficult to understand.

Clancy Denton (11:28)
I've

caused a lot of angst since we bought that tonneau.

Rick Denton (11:32)
I took a picture of the blinds, described the problem, uploaded that picture to ChatGPT, and it provided a series of instructions that helped me not only solve the immediate issue, but reprogram it for the future. And in home maintenance specifically, that photo use of it, taking a picture of a particular part.

I've seen Home Depot commercials. There are plumbing things in the house. There's random screws that I don't know what is this used for. Take picture of screw upload and it'll help you understand that it has been such a tool in simplifying the absolute nuisance that is home maintenance.

Clancy Denton (12:11)
And that's tools to simplify, I think, is a key point of what these AI tools can be used for. I was a fitness instructor for 15 years.

when I retired from that job, then I joined a different gym and started going and I just started getting really bored with what I was doing. And so I fed into Chad GBT. want a four day weight workout, alternate arms or upper body with lower body. And I mean, it built a whole program for me.

And then within that program, when I got tired of doing those exercises, I could say, okay, I've done these. Now give me another set of exercises that focus on triceps, biceps, where it, will get as specific as you want it to get, but it'll also be as general as you want it to be general. And so I found that super helpful. I had it on my phone so that I could just go into the gym and.

just pull it up on my phone and go through the sets and reps and everything that it had for me. And that took a lot off of my plate. And I'm sure that now those of us who taught or are still teaching, I'm sure they're using it. Like I've said, always in fitness, there's only so many exercises.

And so this is a way to kind of help you change it up a little bit without.

taking it outside of the box too much. Now I will also say.

these things need to be double checked. you know, don't, it's not the end all be all.

Rick Denton (14:12)
Common sense plays a part here as well.

Can I ask you a question about that? Cause you, you're doing that. You're a fitness instructor. You've come, you've retired. You're doing this at home. Well, is, does this mean that there's not a place for fitness instructors anymore?

Clancy Denton (14:27)
No, and really the fitness instructor world, okay, I will say classes did take a hit after COVID because everyone realized, I can do this at my house. And if they didn't have to go back into an office, then I think that did affect it. That community interaction in classes, people still crave.

the personal training, is what I had it build more for me. If you are the type of person who needs accountability or just likes to have again that one-on-one personal interaction. No, you're not going to use this tool. So yes, there are still a huge amount of people. I see them at the gym, you know, now there's still people working out with trainers.

I just, coming out of what I did, I don't need to do that. And I don't necessarily want it.

Rick Denton (15:33)
And that's something I, you know, I came out of the customer experience consulting world. And so a lot of that involves customer service and all that. And there's all this language out there around how, you know, all the humanity is being extracted from this and there is going to be disruption, right?

It is a truth that there is going to be disruption here and I don't want to diminish that. I love what you brought in there though. And that is the humanity is not going away. There is that desire for the community you described. There's some people that desire the, the one-on-one just interaction with another human. Hey, I get to see this person every Tuesday and the accountability aspect of it. Cause well, chat GPT might be programmed to say, Hey, have you done your workout today? And it's a lot easier to blow it off.

than it is to know that there's somebody sitting at the gym waiting for you.

Clancy Denton (16:17)
And

especially for those of us who have paid personal trainers, they're not cheap. So if you pay to do that, then yeah, you're going to show up. I know another aspect that I have not personally used it for yet, but I, when I saw a list that I was looking at, I was like, oh my gosh, this one really kind of excites me. Gift ideas.

Rick Denton (16:24)
The economic

Clancy Denton (16:47)
I would have never thought of that. I love that. And I am going to probably use that around Christmas time. You know, okay. What's something that a 23 year old boy in law school would want for Christmas and just see what it generates.

I really, I really, really liked that idea when I saw it. Like I am going to implement that.

Rick Denton (17:15)
And I like that that's one of those that gets at what I think a lot of the root of using IAI in general, chat GPC specifically, is inspiration. Not the end all, but the inspiration aspect of it. that's so one that is increasingly, this is a bit of a game. I almost don't want to talk about this one because there's a bit of an arms race that's taking place here. It's getting harder and harder to find a job in this day and age. And in the past, you'd see a job description.

you try to tailor your resume to that job description. Well, now what you can do is take the job description, take your resume, feed all that into chat GBT and say, help me craft a customized resume that would then be read by the company's AI tool to be able to make it past the technology filter. That has always been one of the biggest barriers is getting past the technology filter.

But that's why I mentioned this sort of arms race here in that, well, great. Now companies know that people are doing that. And so they're looking for it. So there's a back and forth that is taking place here that I'd almost offer this up. If you're not using chat, GPT or some other tool to craft your resume or be involved in your job search, you are likely to fall out of the success path because it is so technology in enveloped. don't like it.

I'm not saying that's the way it should be, but in practice and that's where voice interaction comes in. say you, yeah, you made it past the screen. Okay. I, I don't know a lot about this company. I want to be a successful interviewer. You can actually ask chat GPT to be your interviewer for the company. And instead of doing chat, you can turn it into voice mode where you are sitting down and having a practice interview with them.

and there is nothing quite like having a practice interview to build your confidence walking into that room that you know what you're going to be asked, that you know good answers to it, and you feel confident about what you can deliver. Chat GPT can help you practice that.

Clancy Denton (19:25)
So I'll ask you the same question. How do you feel about that versus, you know, because there are coaching centers and those kinds of places that people can go to to get practice their interviewing skills.

Rick Denton (19:37)
I love that. I'm so glad you asked that. ⁓ like really glad you asked that because I have two answers to that. One is there's scale scale and cost. ⁓ sometimes you get laid off and you get to be put into some of those networking groups with great coaches and all of that. And if so, you would be remiss not to take access because a human interacting with you will be able to read your body language better. We'll be able to tell you, did you notice you folded your arms when you didn't meet?

Those kind of things that a technology tool might not pick up on, but there's cost and scale involved there. If you want to do 10 practice interviews on a Tuesday, you can do that a lot easier with ChatGPT than you can a human coach. And so those two worlds together make it where it's, I give you two answers. Go after the human practice as much as you can. There's great, like in Dallas, the practice interview team, there's all sorts of volunteer organizations for that.

and use the technology that's available because the scale of research and the scale of just interaction that you can have can't be matched by a human.

Clancy Denton (20:45)
I know another place that we use it and is with email and subject lines. you're trying to catch someone's attention, you want a catchy subject line. And so I know we have used that in our, in the business side of things to, okay, give us some examples, give us some, you know, catchy.

subject lines that will get the attention of the person that we're sending this email to.

Rick Denton (21:15)
I'll say specifically

the example that we're talking about. We've we told y'all a couple weeks ago, was it last week? I think it was last week that we said, hey, we've got a book coming out. Well, we want to incorporate some elements of praise for the things that you see on the back of books. And we've had some wonderful responses from our friends We've also reached out to some names that we don't know and not making it click, Beatty. And I think that's something that this has really

helped us shape the message to where it's not just another cheeseball sales line, but actually something that is human, that reflects the connection that we actually have to the person in a way that would make them out of 100 emails click art.

Clancy Denton (21:53)
And we've also had it help craft the email itself. And I know some of our teacher friends have talked about a tool that they use if you have to send a not so great email to a parent, it lets you put in what you want to say and then it will adjust it to how

You really should be saying it. I think that's another great tool out there for teachers and.

Rick Denton (22:26)
that

take that in a whole category. It's a great sparring partner. I've been using that word a lot because it really comes to mind because sparring helps you get better, but it's kind of conflict related, but it's helping you and your partner actually get better. ⁓ it's really good for that kind of stuff. Just speak the anger and the cussing that you want into that and it'll shape a professional.

Clancy Denton (22:47)
I liked it said, somewhere I read that it's an assistant that you don't have to feed because you can't say you don't have to pay because there are different levels that you can do, but there are also free options out there as well. If you haven't delved into it yet and you want to play around with it, there's plenty of free. The chat GPT free option is great.

Rick Denton (23:14)
Yeah, and sadly we're not sponsored by Sam Altman, so there are plenty of other tools as well. there's a lot that needs to be considered with this. We've alluded to some of it as we're talking through here.

Clancy Denton (23:29)
Mm-hmm.

Rick Denton (23:32)
along with the just fear of the apocalypse, we'll keep that off of that. Yeah, we've hit the singularity and there's different perspectives on that. that part notwithstanding, there's a lot that can go very, very wrong with the use of this. And so there's some smart boundaries that we've learned that we want to share with y'all as well on what to do, what not to do.

Clancy Denton (23:58)
think the first thing is just be wise, use your common sense as with anything, anything out in the real world, just use your common sense, be wise with what you're feeding it.

Think before you click the little up arrow that's the send to the chat GPT God ⁓ that is helping us.

Rick Denton (24:24)
Well, there goes our faith discussion for today.

Clancy Denton (24:28)
Okay, maybe I don't know what would be a better word for the chat, GPT boss. I don't know. ⁓

Rick Denton (24:35)
worried about it at all. They're going to rule us anyway. Be cautious, like you're saying, be cautious with personal data. And this is one that I'm not going to be able to say what buttons you need to click. But in all of these AI tools or LLMs, these are large language models. There are a series of settings that you can click to ensure that your engagements are private, that the data that you're providing is not being used to train the model and increases a level of security.

Those have a really nasty way of moving around. So I can't tell anyone right now what they are, but what I can say is it's kind of odd. You can ask the tool, what privacy buttons do I need to click to ensure yada yada. And so do that. Go in and ask it what you need to click to ensure that your data is not being used in a way that you don't want it to be used.

Clancy Denton (25:28)
And it is interesting because you have been using it a little before me and it will learn.

how to talk like you, know, because you are feeding in it. ⁓ we don't usually typically use that kind of a phrase. Okay, great. It really does learn how to.

Interact like you yeah, like you would and so yes, I can see that that could be a Scary thing The I was watching the morning show if any of you watch that and There was a deep fake that yeah, she was fighting against and She had no idea that all of these things were out there that

had been created by AI tools. So yes, the less personal information that you give it, the better,

Rick Denton (26:38)
Yeah, the deepfake thing scares me well, deeply. Here's a tip. Have a code word inside of your family that has no predictable relevance. And have that so that if it's something serious and your daughter calls you and you can say, hey, what's our word? And just make sure that you're not being deepfake.

And so it's really smart to have that code word inside of your family.

Clancy Denton (27:11)
I know personal stories of people that it's happened to hey grandma. I'm in jail and Why are this no they're not yes, so yeah, there are definitely safeguards that need to be put in

Rick Denton (27:24)
into

place. And I think that may be sort of an overarching theme to close out the boundaries. It's just recognize that it isn't perfect. Recognize that you can't outsource your thinking to it. You can outsource inefficiency to it. You can outsource summarization. It absorbs a ton of information much faster than a human can. But if you outsource your thinking to it, two things are going to happen. One, you're going to trust it in ways that you shouldn't trust it. And two,

Your own thinking is going to atrophy. is your brain is a muscle. so don't outsource the thinking to it. Make sure that you are always recognizing that whatever the output is, it's not final. Verify that output.

Clancy Denton (28:08)
That is interesting because someone just posted something that I guess there's a study that's come out that because we are doing less writing, handwriting, it's causing the brain to atrophy at a faster pace that there's some linkage between actual pen to paper handwriting versus. ⁓ I. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Rick Denton (28:33)
believe that part memory perspective.

neither you nor I are technology averse. We talked about my grandmother who was on the forefront of technology, right? It is, we're not making the argument that some people made when the calculator was brought out that nobody's going to know how to do critical math thinking, well, you know what? Maybe they don't need to know how to 134 times 986. It's okay to have outsourced that part of your brain, but the mathematical concepts

And the way that one goes at solving a problem is still very relevant. Sorry, teachers who are teaching math, I understand. I may have just offended a lot of people, but the calculator usage didn't suddenly kill all of our ability to do things. This won't kill our ability to do things as long as we use it as a, as a, as a partner rather than an authority.

Clancy Denton (29:08)
I'm say you

It's a proceed with caution and just like on every.

Well, everything these days, consult an authority before you really take some of these things.

Rick Denton (29:38)
And that authority is not just another AI tool, a trusted, honest-to-God authority.

Clancy Denton (29:44)
So how are you going to use it this week? If you're not using it already, you know, just play around with it. Have it plan a couple of meals for you and do the grocery list and just see, you know, that to me is pretty much the most basic, easy one to start with. Just do one thing this week. On the free tier. Yeah. See if you like it and it's just chatgpt.com and.

And yeah, just say, Hey, I want a chicken dish for two or how many ever people playing it. Give me the list and just see how it goes. And then share with us, you know, if you're using it for that, if you used it for the first time after hearing this episode, share it on the community group, the loud quiet emptiness living on Facebook.

And you can also find all of our information at theloudquiet.com. And thanks again for joining us for another episode of the Loud Quiet.