AI can be quite useful.
AI agents or chatbots are all the rage. Names like CoPilot, Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT are likely to be familiar.
These tools use artificial intelligence to mimic human interaction. As they have access to a huge corpus of training data and often have direct access to the web, they manifest amazing abilities.
Some of those abilities can be extremely useful even to the casual computer user.
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AI for you
AI chatbots like CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity offer practical applications you can use, including summarizing content, simplifying complex text, interpreting videos, answering technical questions, improving communication, and providing patient responses to multiple inquiries. Start by just asking.
Tools and examples
Throughout this article, I’ll be using the free versions of Microsoft CoPilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.ai for most of my examples. For ChatGPT, you don’t have to create a free account, but in my experience, the results are better if you do.
In general, the concepts below apply to most of the current crop of AI chatbots and agents, but this is a quickly evolving space, and things can and will change at any time.
1. Summarize lengthy content
This is probably 75% of how I use AI. I’ll take a lengthy article that I don’t want to take the time to read and ask for a summary I can use to make my decision of whether or not to read the whole thing.
I’ll use my email-forwarding article as an example. I opened CoPilot (which is ever-present in Edge) and clicked on its “Summarize this page” button, which is the equivalent to asking the question circled: “Summarize the main points on this page.” The response is 217 words.
That’s a bit long. So I asked, “Please summarize in 50 words or fewer.”
That would be a little more useful to my decision-making process.
2. Reword the complex
This is a use I don’t think many people are aware of.
Normally, in my CoPilot chat session above, I’d next ask, “Please rewrite the article using an 8th grade vocabulary.” Unfortunately, CoPilot won’t do that due to copyright concerns. Even a copy/paste of the article into the copilot.microsoft.com website won’t work.
So I switched to ChatGPT.com. I typed the following:
Please rewrite this article using an 8th grade1 vocabulary:
and then copy/pasted the text of the article into the chat.
The result was a slight re-write to meet an 8th-grade vocabulary level. I went further and requested it in a 4th-grade vocabulary level. You can read the result here.
Have you ever heard or seen of ELI5, or “Explain it Like I’m 5”? I also asked, “Please rewrite this article using vocabulary appropriate for a five-year-old.” The results were impressive, though there are some unavoidable tech terms: probably not many five-year-olds have “POP3” in their lexicon.
If you run into content on the internet that seems too dense or complex, AI summaries and rewrites can help make things more understandable.
Related
How I Use AI at Ask Leo!
I write all my own articles, but I often use AI as a tool along the way. I'll walk through a recent example.#168449
3. Read YouTube videos
This is similar to the preceding point, but it’s worth calling out.
I don’t always have the patience to sit through a video to see if it’s what I want. AI to the rescue.
There are several services that summarize YouTube videos (Krisp.io and Readwise Reader are two I use). But even without those tools, we can do it for free.
Visit your favorite video on YouTube and copy its transcript. Now, in your AI chatbot, enter “Please summarize this video transcript in 50 words or fewer”, followed by the transcript itself. I did this for my video on removing OneDrive and got this from ChatGPT.
Leo Notenboom explains how to safely disable or uninstall OneDrive from your PC without affecting your online files. He recommends first unlinking the account, then uninstalling the app if needed, and clarifies that the OneDrive folder remains as a regular, harmless folder.
Let’s say you’re not a video-watching person, but you’d still like the content from the video. In your AI chatbot, enter, “Please turn this video transcript into a full article with correct grammar and remove any verbal static.”
The result begins with “Sure! Here’s a polished and grammatically correct article version of the video transcript with filler words and verbal static removed”, followed by a full article you can read here. It’s pretty decent.
ChatGPT then offers more: “Let me know if you want a downloadable PDF or a version with screenshots added!”
4. Get answers to badly worded questions
One of the neat things about AI is that it does a much better job of “understanding” vague questions or questions where terminology is off the mark. This makes it a great place to ask questions and get answers.
In a random made-up example, I asked Perplexity:
There was a character on a sci-fi show that lasted only one season but had a single movie sequel that was killed suddenly by some kind of alien pincer through the chest. Who was that, and what were the show and movie titles?
Perplexity answered my question and corrected my memory in the process (spoiler!).
Based on your description, it seems like you might be thinking of a character similar to Hoban “Wash” Washburne from the TV series “Firefly” and its movie sequel, “Serenity”. However, Wash was not killed by something through the chest while piloting a spaceship; he was impaled by a Reaver spear after crash-landing the Serenity near a broadcast tower.[3]
Note the “[3]”, which is a link to a citation for the source Perplexity used for this answer.
Not only is that the correct answer to my horribly worded question, but I also learned Wash’s first name.
5. Translate badly worded questions
This might be a niche use, but it relates directly to what I do for a living: answering questions.
Every so often, I get a question that can most politely be termed as a missive, including paragraph after paragraph of backstory with lots of details sprinkled in. Sometimes there’s an explicit question, but often there’s not. The person asking has put a lot of effort into it, thinking they’ve expressed their needs, but if you look closely, there’s nothing phrased as a question.
I don’t have an example I feel comfortable sharing, but it’s not uncommon for me to head over to ChatGPT and ask:
What is this person trying to ask, and what are the relevant details?
followed by the lengthy “question”. ChatGPT is good at sifting through the word salad to give me what I need: the question in a form I can answer.
6. Get answers to tech questions
In theory, this could put me out of a job, but AI is pretty good at answering technical questions. In fact, I’ve gone so far as to copy/paste error message text into Perplexity and have it summarize what the error means with suggestions as to what to do about it. As one example, I just “asked” Perplexity:
0xc00000e
That’s it. No question, no context, no nothing. It responded beginning with:
To resolve the 0xc00000e boot error in Windows, follow these structured troubleshooting steps:
This was followed by eight things to try and a short list of common causes of the problem.
You can ask AI questions without worrying if the terms you’re using are correct or even sensible. AI has shown an amazing ability to make sense of it and at least get you pointed in a helpful direction.
7. Write better emails (and questions)
You can use AI chatbots to polish and clarify your communications with anyone. For example, I gave ChatGPT the question I asked about a sci-fi character’s death and asked it to “Make this question clearer”. The result:
“Which character from a one-season sci-fi TV show was killed by an alien pincer through the chest in a movie sequel? What were the names of the TV show and the movie?”
Note that it didn’t try to correct me — the alien pincer is still in there — it simply improved the wording and clarity.
Another approach is tone. For example:
Please write a polite but sternly worded short email asking someone for the TPS report they have due. I’ve asked them repeatedly and they’ve completely ignored me, and it’s getting frustrating.
Perhaps my tendency would be to throw some inappropriate profanity in my email, but knowing that’s probably not a great idea, I’ll let ChatGPT take the wheel. Its suggestion:
Subject: Final Reminder: TPS Report Due
Hi [Name],
I’ve followed up multiple times regarding your TPS report, and I still haven’t received it. This report is overdue and your lack of response is becoming a serious concern.
Please send it to me by the end of today without further delay.
Let me know if there’s a problem, but silence is no longer acceptable.
Best,
[Your Name]
Definitely better than my version would have been.
AI can be useful any time you’re trying to communicate complex ideas to someone else or need help with tone (or just about any other characteristic of your communication). Just make certain that the result says what you intend to say.
8. Ask annoying questions
When you’re learning to understand something, it’s not uncommon to have lots of questions. If you’re dealing with a real person, they may get frustrated and impatient.
Not so with AI. AI doesn’t get tired or impatient.
Want to learn how to do something? Start with a question. Don’t understand the answer or uncover something that has you puzzled? Ask more questions.
Keep asking.
In fact, that might be the key to it all: don’t be afraid to ask AI questions — including questions about itself. I asked Perplexity, “What else can you do?”, and got even more ideas. Perplexity responded:
I can assist with a wide range of tasks and provide information on various subjects. Here are some examples of what I can do:
- Answer Questions: I can answer questions on history, science, technology, literature, and more.
- Provide Definitions: I can define words and explain concepts.
- Translate Text: I can translate text from one language to another.
- Summarize Content: I can summarize articles, books, or other written content.
- Generate Text: I can generate text based on a prompt or topic.
- Offer Suggestions: I can suggest books, movies, or other media based on your interests.
- Explain Concepts: I can explain complex concepts in simple terms.
- Provide Recipes: I can share recipes and cooking tips.
- Help with Language Learning: I can assist with language learning by providing grammar explanations and practice exercises.
- Create Lists: I can create lists of items based on specific criteria.
- Provide Study Tips: I can offer tips for studying and learning more effectively.
- Discuss News and Trends: I can discuss current news and trends in various fields.
If you have a specific task or question in mind, feel free to ask!
Postscript: Which one?
There are so many AI offerings right now that it can be hard to know which one to use for what.
For general chat, any of the most common will do. ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, Claude, and others are all, I’ll just say, similar. You may find one more to your liking than the others based on how you use it.
That being said, here are the AI tools I currently use most.
- I normally use Kagi.com for a traditional search engine, but if my search is more like a semi-formed question, Perplexity is where I go.
- For my article summaries and anything that involves transforming text (rewrites, etc.), ChatGPT remains the most comfortable for me.
- I use ChatGPT’s new image-generating feature and also use it to access DALL-E 3. I keep trying other image-generation AIs but keep coming back to those two.
An honorable mention goes to Straico, which allows you to use multiple AIs at the same time. For example, when I summarize an article, I can run the same operation against ChatGPT and Claude simultaneously and pick the result I like the most. Straico has access to dozens of different AIs and is a great tool to use if you want to experiment with them.
I have paid plans for all of these, but most have free tiers as well.
Do this
Give AI a try. You may find that it’s not only simple (just ask questions) but also useful. AI can help make you better informed and more productive. As with all AI-generated information, have a healthy dose of skepticism ready, but honestly, you need that no matter where you get information.
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Podcast audio
Footnotes & References
1: 8th graders in the U.S. are roughly 12-13 years old.
I use AI extensively to get answers to tech questions. Unfortunately, it often hallucinates (get’s it wrong). When I correct it, it apologizes and says, “You’re absolutely right . . .” Why didn’t they get it right the first time? Trusting AI can be dangerous. AI won’t put us out of business yet. I’m sure that not very long from now, AI will improve to the point it becomes reliable, or not. AI depends on the Web, and I’m not sure if AI will ever be able to sort the wheat from the chaff on the Web.
I agree and avoid using AI as much as possible. it’s responsible for most of the misinformation on the internet today.
True. A little correction of terminology:
The Web is commonly known as the Internet, but the Internet includes more, for example, email, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), FTP & more.
The Web is just one piece of the Internet, but because it’s so dominant, people often use “Internet” when they really mean the Web.
The Web is responsible for the misinformation in AI today.
People are responsible for spreading it and/or not vetting it.
True. Who would vet the vettors? Unfortunately, more and more of the vetting is being done by AI and that relies on how people programmed it and what it finds on the Web.
GIGO Garbage In, Garbage Out, and the AI can’t distinguish the Garbage yet.
Disagree with one aspect: people are responsible for most of the misinformation. AI is just another tool they use.
Hey Leo,
Great content. I loved it so much I made a cheat sheet of the info in this video for future reference:
8 Ways AI Can Help You Every Day
Summary of Leo Notenboom’s YouTube Video
General Ai bots
– Microsoft CoPilot – Can summarize articles (2:02)
– ChatGPT – Can rewrite articles with an 8th grade vocabulary (5:28)
– Can translate badly worded questions (15:58)
– Can polish and clarify communication (18:56)
– Can change the tone of your communication (19:46)
– Perplexity.ai – A search engine base Ai tool that is good at understanding
vague questions (13:17), (18:56)
– Can answer tech and computer related questions (17:27)
Services That can transcribe video content (9:01)
– Krisp.io
– Readwise Reader
Ai can also be used to ask annoying questions as a newbie. (21:01)
Which Ai To Use? (22:00)
For generalized chat consider:
– ChatGPT
– CoPilot
– Gemini
– Claude
– Kagi.com – Browser search engine (22:30)
– Perplexity.ai – A good tool for inferring semi formed questions, and it provides
the source citations used to generate the answer (22:48)
– ChatGPT – Good for article summaries and rewrites (23:15)
– Good image generating tool (23:32)
– Has access to DALL-E 3, another image generating tool (23:32)
– Straico – Has access to many different Ai tools (23:46)
– Allows the use of multiple Ai services at the same time
Go to https://askleo.com/8-ways-ai-can-help-you-every-day/ to post a comment.
It took me over an hour to do this. Just wondering how long Ai would have taken to do the same thing or something similar?
That’s a good reason to try AI. You can compare it to your version.
I used Robert’s list (Thank you, Robert) and asked ChatGPT this:
Rewrite this, leaving the time references out, and adding any missing AI resources that could be useful. Prepare it in a list that I can save as a note to have a reference note of all AI resources.
8 Ways AI Can Help You Every Day
Summary of Leo Notenboom’s YouTube Video
General Ai bots
– Microsoft CoPilot – Can summarize articles (2:02)
– ChatGPT – Can rewrite articles with an 8th grade vocabulary (5:28)
– Can translate badly worded questions (15:58)
– Can polish and clarify communication (18:56)
– Can change the tone of your communication (19:46)
– Perplexity.ai – A search engine base Ai tool that is good at understanding
vague questions (13:17), (18:56)
– Can answer tech and computer related questions (17:27)
Services That can transcribe video content (9:01)
– Krisp.io
– Readwise Reader
Ai can also be used to ask annoying questions as a newbie. (21:01)
Which Ai To Use? (22:00)
For generalized chat consider:
– ChatGPT
– CoPilot
– Gemini
– Claude
– Kagi.com – Browser search engine (22:30)
– Perplexity.ai – A good tool for inferring semi formed questions, and it provides
the source citations used to generate the answer (22:48)
– ChatGPT – Good for article summaries and rewrites (23:15)
– Good image generating tool (23:32)
– Has access to DALL-E 3, another image generating tool (23:32)
– Straico – Has access to many different Ai tools (23:46)
– Allows the use of multiple Ai services at the same time
Got this:
8 Ways AI Can Help You Every Day
Inspired by Leo Notenboom’s overview and expanded with additional tools
1. General AI Bots for Everyday Use
• ChatGPT
• Summarizes and rewrites articles (can simplify to an 8th-grade reading level)
• Translates and interprets poorly worded or vague questions
• Polishes and clarifies your communication
• Changes tone to fit your desired style
• Provides access to DALL·E 3 for image generation
• Microsoft CoPilot
• Summarizes articles and documents
• Gemini (by Google)
• Good for general queries, research, and integration with Google tools
• Claude (by Anthropic)
• Strong contextual understanding and long memory; good for thoughtful responses
• Perplexity.ai
• Search engine–based AI that excels at vague or partially formed questions
• Cites sources for transparency and fact-checking
• Kagi.com
• Privacy-focused search engine with integrated AI tools for enhanced browsing
• Straico
• Access multiple AI tools from one interface
• Supports simultaneous use of services like ChatGPT, Claude, and more
⸻
2. AI for Transcribing and Digesting Video Content
• Krisp.io
• Removes background noise and can assist with transcription
• Readwise Reader
• Saves, summarizes, and organizes information from video and text sources
⸻
3. AI for Tech and Computer Help
• Use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.ai to:
• Answer tech-related and computer troubleshooting questions
• Explain concepts simply for beginners
⸻
4. AI as Your Personal Coach
• Great for asking “annoying” or beginner questions without judgment
• Can guide you through new tools, platforms, or workflows step-by-step
⸻
5. AI Image Generation
• ChatGPT with DALL·E 3
• Generates high-quality images from text prompts
• Other tools:
• Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Leonardo.ai for artistic and advanced outputs (not always built into general chatbots)
I have used Perplexity AI for a couple of months and am completely satisfied with answers to a wide variety of questions that range from diet, recipes, health, politics and more. I particularly like that the app saves previous questions for easy access to.
I also learned it can take part in a “conversation “….kind of like Eliza, but more interesting.
One thing I don’t qui understand about AI services, is how it gets monetized by the service. It seems most require the user to create an account. Search engines don’t do that. Are there risks to be aware of, like getting more SPAM?
I don’t believe they subject you to more spam. Their monetization comes from commercial users and the freemium model, upselling users. Some offer more questions per day others, better results, etc.
I checked that answer with Co-pilot and it gave me this:
AI services monetize through various strategies, including:
I can tell you that I pay for a handful of AI services (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Straico, and Kagi though that’s technically search not AI).
Many of these services have started with massive venture capital funding, meaning they can invade the market without needing to make money initially, figuring that part out later.
The most common monetization mechanisms I see are: monthly subscriptions for more or faster functionality, and API access for third party programs that use the AI under the hood to provide their functionality. I’ve not seen any advertising as of yet for any of the services I play with, paid or free.
Initially, I decided to avoid AI all together, but recently I have been using the AI in Firefox to get answers to my questions. The results have been very useful, and understandable. I haven’t investigated into which AI service Firefox accesses, but I find that I like it a lot. To get an answer to a question I ask “How do I ..” accompanied by what I want to know how to do, and I get a response that usually includes step-by-step instructions. To get a definition of some term, I ask “Define …” followed by the term I want to better understand. For the most part, this is how I use AI, although after reading this item, I may give co-pilot a try as well … maybe 🙂
Ernie
I uses several AI websites interchangeably, mostly Perplexity or Co-pilot which runs in a sidebar in Edge which makes it easier when I’m answering a question. I have no clue as to which one is most accurate. The impression I get is that they are all working hard to upstage the others so there is no best, or at least today’s best might not be tomorrow’s.
Publicly available AI is in its infant stages. The main problem with AI is that it halucinates, invents something just plain wrong. A lot of that is because AI bots get their information from the Web, and it’s probably going to take some time before AI gets the ability to sort fact from fiction on the Web, if ever.
When I use AI to find the answer to a question, I test it out to see if it’s correct before passing on the answer. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Sorry, Leo, your suggestion did not work for me. Here’s the error message I got from YouTube: “The message you submitted was too long, please submit something shorter.” How are we supposed to know in advance what’s “too long”?
As an over 70 reader in UK my only involvement with AI is the use of Grok, within Twitter, now known as X.
I find it to be very easy to use and finds correct answers to my questions. It also creates pictures of what ever I suggest, a hippo riding a skateboard carrying a briefcase and wearing a bowler hat, for example. Yes, I like AI and will try your suggestions as an alternative.
Hello Leon,
I’m 84 now & have never fully read the ‘Terms & Conditions’ on most agreements ,etc. So I tried Chat GTP and ,WHAT!!!
I’ve been getting ‘ripped off’ for decades – not any more. Now I download any of those T&C’s, give them to Chat GPT and boy am I having fun. I cross reference them with Perplexity and have a smile on my face regularly, so thank Leon.
Who say’s ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’.
Respect
Grandpappy
I’m an octogenarian. MS in astrodynamics and mathematics, plus additional post-grad work towards a PhD (called an “ABD”). And still employed full time as a DOD contractor to the US Space Force. Many of the technical searches I do that give an AI response ARE ERRONEOUS. Why? Apparently, most “AI” is simply “data scraping.” Currently, it does not have the sense, integrity, nor lack-of-hubris to reply, “I really don’t know … but here are some possibilities.” AI? Buyer beware!
Hello, I’ve seen you never mentioned DeepSeek, which seems to be of a high quality. What is your opinion about it?
Thanks
Walter
I’ve not played with it. I understand it to be on a par with the others.
Began ChatGPT “dialog” regarding preparation of a PPA (preliminary patent application). It protects your idea for a year but after the year if a real patent is not sought idea in the PPA are free to be used by others. Anyway…the dialog became increasingly complex and specific about my concept because questions Chat proposed sequentially became more and more specific. And the responses increasingly fascinating. BOTTOM LINE? By the conclusion of the dialog I was given sufficient information (exact stuff) I’m convinced not only to go to full patent immediately but with the prompts I read I am also convinced Chat can write the patent document for me to present to my patent attorney as opposed to spending serious dollars having his firm write the patent. I have some acquaintance with the process as I own/owner several patents. Just having a dialog can be of enormous value even if you end up preferring to further enrich your favorite law firm. Either way, whatever I end up doing, my patent attorney is the Boss.
It’s good that you are giving the draft to a lawyer to look over. AI chatbots are dependent ao tne Web and they often pick the wrong information. With AI, it’s “Trust. but verify.”