Apps Are Rushing to Add AI. Is Any of It Useful?

As wired puts it: "All sorts of apps have been strapping on AI functionality... any of it useful?"

For example, email apps "like Spark and Canary are prominently bragging about their built-in AI functionality... write replies for you... generate an entire email ... summarize a long email ... or even a thread."

While it sounds good, the author thinks these features actually "make communication less efficient ... don’t expect them to change your life" - the too-many-emails problem is a social issue, and "Trying to solve a social problem with tech often only creates new social problems". He provides an example of a 'come over for beer' prompt being AI-transformed into a long email complete with superflousness (“I'll make sure to create a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere, complete with some snacks to complement our beer tasting experience.”), which the recipients then AI-summarise back to an “Would you like to come over for beers?” email.

So far, he finds ChatGPT nothing more than "an amusing curiosity", although "There are actual uses for AI, and tools like ChatGPT can improve your writing", overall we still don't know what to do with it. The problems to resolve are less technical than social.