AI is actually useful!

[wildebus]

I am quite starting to like AI
Used it the last couple of days to get a whole series of images and pictures for a little fun project I am looking at (I have the ideas and images in my head, but I am no artist ).

But anyway, also asked it a cooking related question this morning ...
Last night the OH made a meal using Jackfruit and a Lidl Piri-Piri Marinade. The end result was incredible sour and actually inedible! (had to dump it and made a quick beans on toast instead ).
We're had jackfruit loads of times and had this marinade before (with Salmon) and it was fine, so what was the problem? Decided to ask AI ...


ME: "I bought a lidl piri piri marinade with garlic & lemon in it, and added it to some jackfruit and it tasted incredibly sour. what's the deal, man?" (I added the last bit for a bit of fun to see if it changed the style of response )

Co-Pilot: " Ahh yes — the mystery of the Lidl piri‑piri sour bomb. Totally get why you’re confused. You expect heat, garlic, lemon… not “my face has inverted”. Here’s what’s really going on:

So it actually knew this was a problem! And then went on to explain exactly what why

Co-Pilot: "Jackfruit + Acid = Sour Explosion
Jackfruit (especially the canned young stuff) is naturally slightly sour because it’s packed in brine or citric acid.When you add a marinade that’s already acidic, the flavours don’t add — they multiply.
Think of it like:
lemon + vinegar + citric acid + jackfruit’s own tang = whoa.

Lidl’s piri‑piri marinades are VERY lemon-forward
Their garlic & lemon version is known for being:

• heavy on lemon juice concentrate
• boosted with acetic acid (vinegar)
• sometimes citric acid too

So it’s basically a sour marinade with chilli, not a chilli marinade with a hint of sour.

With chicken, it balances out.
With jackfruit? It just goes full citrus grenade."

So a very good explanation of why the two together ended up being a total disaster, and then it went on to tell me how to avoid the problem again, still using the same two products together, plus a detailed recipe as well (which sounds very nice and will give it a go).

 

[Tezza33]

I use AI when I get a problem, it gives ideas and then asks for more specific information if you want to give it, yesterday I asked why my PC didn’t recognise my iPad, it gave a few explanations then asked for the type of PC (all in one) and iPad (A16 usb C) told me to try a different cable first, then the obvious one, try a different usb port, eventually told me not to use a usb port on the front of the PC, they don’t carry as much power, I did everything asked, still no joy, then it told me how to reset my usb ports because they had tripped out too many times and gone into safe mode.
At last, it only took 15 minutes, and it was easy

 

[wildebus]

For a lot of these things, I see the AI bots as basically time-savers, as they trawl the internet looking for information way faster than a person can.
It is akin to a Calculator ... a reasonably competant person could do everything a calculator can but it just saves time and effort to use the calculator rather than manually. The potential danger becomes the reliance factor... I bet there are loads of people - and more every year - who could just not manage long-hand mathematics and totally rely on a calculator. And that same dependence could easily start happening with AI.

 

[Tezza33]

We are lucky, calculators were not allowed in school, if the rods broke, the beads caused havoc with people slipping

 

[marchie]

We are lucky, calculators were not allowed in school, if the rods broke, the beads caused havoc with people slipping

The electronic calculator didn't emerge until some 3 years after I had started work in the Bank. The General Ledger and Deposit Account Ledgers were posted and tallied by hand, using powdered ink that had to be mixed with water, and 2 dip pens; red for debits and blue for credits. Interest for Deposit Accounts was calculated using McGregor's Interest Tables, and Debit Interest calculated using Debit Decimals Cards that had to be sub-totalled each time that Bank Rate changed, before being applied in June and December each year.

Foreign currency repurchases from customers were calculated using long division and the pre-printed semi-fixed Exchange Rates, and then checked by a second member of staff, who would, in effect, repeat the calculation independently. The check also included confirming that there were no Exchange Control Act 1947 regulations breaches such as purchasing restricted currencies {mainly Eastern Bloc] or in excess of the permitted maximum - e.g. Greek Drachmae. Not a quick process!

Steve

 

[Clunegapyears]

Used Ai the other day on a train. Really liked a dress another passenger was wearing. Took a stealth photo to find out the brand!

 

[marchie]

Used Ai the other day on a train. Really liked a dress another passenger was wearing. Took a stealth photo to find out the brand!

Or, there is the old-fashioned way, pre-smartphone/AI et al, of speaking to the wearer, even if just to ask whether he was a cross dresser or did he enjoy it , by paying a compliment, and then asking politely where it was purchased. Could have started a conversation to pass the journey. Sad that we don't seem to do this nowadays

Steve

 

[Tezza33]

The electronic calculator didn't emerge until some 3 years after I had started work in the Bank. The General Ledger and Deposit Account Ledgers were posted and tallied by hand, using powdered ink that had to be mixed with water, and 2 dip pens; red for debits and blue for credits. Interest for Deposit Accounts was calculated using McGregor's Interest Tables, and Debit Interest calculated using Debit Decimals Cards that had to be sub-totalled each time that Bank Rate changed, before being applied in June and December each year.

Foreign currency repurchases from customers were calculated using long division and the pre-printed semi-fixed Exchange Rates, and then checked by a second member of staff, who would, in effect, repeat the calculation independently. The check also included confirming that there were no Exchange Control Act 1947 regulations breaches such as purchasing restricted currencies {mainly Eastern Bloc] or in excess of the permitted maximum - e.g. Greek Drachmae. Not a quick process!

Steve

It makes you wonder why they don’t still use that system

 

[marchie]

It makes you wonder why they don’t still use that system

Because the First Cashier and a clerical assistant started the calculation and reconciliation of the Deposit Account interest no later than 1st June & 1st December each year, to enable the interest to be added to the customer accounts on 21st June & December; and the Branch Manager, the Senior Securities Clerk and an Office Junior [me in 1971 ...] would be closeted in the Manager's Office for the same periods for the calculation and reconciliation of the debit interest for the Current Accounts; the Manager's involvement centred upon the Business Accounts to levy arbitrary fees for 'Management Time' expended on controlling their borrowings etc. In reality, it was a way of lumping on round figure additional charges to reach the branch profit targets, but that was never acknowledged ...

An example some 8-9 years later was a hard-pressed Coach Operator who was regularly subject to County Court Judgements; my job included phoning the Business Owner to get details of the latest CCJ, and confirmation that the debt had been settled, or suitable arrangements made to settle. Must have been a bad day, because the Coach Operator responded to my phone call with, 'Does the Bank want to know every time I bloody fart?' and slammed the phone down; at the next 1/2 yearly Charges review, my Boss got to the Coach Operator's Account, and said, 'Steve, what was it that Joe asked you? 'Did we want to know every time he farted?' - £250 extra charge - most expensive fart he'll ever have ...'

Happy days!

Steve

 

[wildebus]

We are lucky, calculators were not allowed in school, if the rods broke, the beads caused havoc with people slipping

At my school, calculators were permitted,, however NOT allowed in the 'O' Level exams. I think this was partly because the cost of them at that time was quite high and only a limited amount of students could afford them, so gave a more level playing field.
What WAS allowed was Slide Rules and I still remember that my maths teacher sourced some Slide Rule kits that you would construct yourself and actually worked pretty well.

 

[marchie]

At my school, calculators were permitted,, however NOT allowed in the 'O' Level exams. I think this was partly because the cost of them at that time was quite high and only a limited amount of students could afford them, so gave a more level playing field.
What WAS allowed was Slide Rules and I still remember that my maths teacher sourced some Slide Rule kits that you would construct yourself and actually worked pretty well.

My Maths Teacher, Biffo Cotton, stuck with Log Tables, replete with his annual joke, 'What do we use log tables for? To get the wood to make square roots ...' Biffo was not a man to whom one could point out that his joke was illogical, since we should have worked on square roots providing the wood for the log tables

Steve

 

[gasgas]

Aged 55 I changed career from electronics engineer and went to get retrained as a gas / plumbing wallah. Outside were parked all these plumbers vans. I was a fish out of water. One day the teacher said ‘we are going to calculate the required wattage of a radiator to heat this room. The formula is this: and he wrote it on the board. It was proportional to the room volume, plus a factor for windows and another for outside walls. We measured the room volume and teacher put the numbers in the formula on the board. It amounted to ‘The KW required is (6600 - 600) / 2000.’ I immediately put my hand up to answer. The plumbers, with one accord got their calculators out. At that moment I realised that if this was the competition then life was going to be easy for me.

My father went into a corner store. Wrigleys gum was 20p a packet. He picked up five packets and went to the till and put his £1 on the counter. The girlie mis-swiped the packets and the till said £1.20. “That’s one pound twenty” she said. Dad said no it won’t it’s £1. Five packs at 20p is one pound. Girl said “no it’s £1.20. The till is a computer and it’s £1.20.” Dad said ok cancel the till and I’ll buy one at a time. Here’s £1 I want one pack. Swipe. 20p please. Dad gets 80p change. I’ll have another pack please, here’s 20p. Swipe, 20p. And so on for the five packs. Then dad says “How much is each pack?” 20p. “And how many packs have I got?” Five. “How much money did I start with?” £1. “And how much have I got left?” Nothing. So five packs at 20p totals £1.”

Girlie thinks a bit. Then says, loudly “YOU’VE CHEATED ME!”

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I was and am crap at maths, so when we went decimal, I was a lot happier.

 

[marchie]

I was and am crap at maths, so when we went decimal, I was a lot happier.

I could never see the point of decimalisation, Kev ...

Steve

 

[wildebus]

AI doesn't always make sense.

A conversation from earlier today ....
I asked a question about a function that I thought the Victron Cerbo should have but couldn't find.
AI replied "On Cerbo GX firmware 3.73, the Programmable / Rule‑based relay system does NOT exist yet.
It was introduced later (GX 3.90+ and fully in 3.10x/3.20x)."
And told me all the extra features available in 3.90

But when I said "the latest victron firmware is 3.73. when did v3.90 come out?"

AI then replied "Short answer: Victron has never released a Venus OS “3.90” — that version number doesn’t exist.
That’s why you can’t find it, and why your Cerbo GX shows 3.73 as the latest.
Here’s the real situation, based on Victron’s published firmware history.
What Victron actually released
Victron’s Venus OS firmware versions go like this:

v3.70 → v3.71 → v3.72 → v3.73 (current stable line)​

v3.80 → v3.81 → v3.82 (beta/large feature updates)​

v3.90 does not exist"​

Watch what you ask and only believe half what it tells you

 

[Pudsey Bear]

What pees me off is that you ask AI a question, tell it you want the simplest method, it answers, you elaborate based on that, and on it goes, then 5 minutes later it asks you if you'd like a simpler method.

 

[marchie]

What pees me off is that you ask AI a question, tell it you want the simplest method, it answers, you elaborate based on that, and on it goes, then 5 minutes later it asks you if you'd like a simpler method.

But not really much different from a discussion between 2 humans, Kev, say Novice & Expert:

Novice: How do you make a sponge cake
Expert: Get eggs, flour, sugar, butter and blend together until smooth, then grease a baking tin, heat oven to Gas Mark 6 or 180 Celsius and cook for 30-40 minutes; or nip to the corner shop and buy a factory-baked version; Mr Kipling cakes have a good reputation, more convenient but more expensive per 100g of baked cake weight ...

Steve

 

[Tezza33]

When Victrons 3.90 firmware is released and contains what you are looking for then you will owe AI an apology, well, that is what Siri just told me.

 

[marchie]

When Victrons 3.90 firmware is released and contains what you are looking for then you will owe AI an apology, well, that is what Siri just told me.

As Benny Hill's Japanese stereotype comic character might have said, after the obligatory 'Ahso, the audience are crapping', 'siri irriots' . I have a yen for this type of humour ...

Steve

 

[Rumour]

I use AI a bit. I have the Google Gemini and it is great. I asked it to make me some cards, like business cards, for the steam fairs we do. It came up with some great designs, including the avatar we are using. I ask it lots of questions and it has helped me many times!