I’ve been around for awhile in the tech media space so I’m always weary when the next new “shiny object” emerges on the scene. Google Glass, VR, crypto and NFTs were mega hyped by influencers only to fall way short when it came to mass consumer adoption.
Over the last several months the chattering influencer class has shifted focus almost entirely to artificial intelligence (AI) driven by the very rapid advancements in Large Language Model (LLM) chatbots like ChatGPT. I haven’t heard a peep about NFTs in months!
I approached this new technology with a healthy degree of skepticism. While it certainly has a “gee whiz” factor to it could it actually have some real utility in my day-to-day life?
I decided to pony up the $20 monthly subscription fee for ChatGPT Plus to see if it could save me some time and make my workflow more efficient. And surprisingly – it did. You can learn more in my latest video.
I’ve been using ChatGPT to help write these blog posts based on the transcripts of my YouTube videos for the last month or two. Last week ChatGPT became even more useful through the introduction of plugins that allow ChatGPT to perform tasks that go beyond its pre-existing knowledge cutoff of September, 2021.
One of the plugins I’ve been using is VoxScript, which can pull down full video transcripts from YouTube which the ChatGPT can use to produce summaries for this blog and my email newsletter.
Here’s how it works: I provide ChatGPT with the URL of my YouTube video and ask it to write a summary in the first person in a journalistic, neutral language style. ChatGPT uses VoxScript to pull down the full transcript from the video and starts writing the summary. The result is usually a well-written summary that captures the key points of the video, saving me about 30 minutes to an hour of writing time.
The AI does an impressive job of interpreting the automatically generated YouTube transcripts, even correcting inaccuracies and presenting the information in a coherent manner.
Of course, it’s not perfect, and I do have to tweak some parts to ensure it aligns with my voice and style. But overall, it can generate anywhere from 75-90% of the post depending on what the topic is. This post, for example, needed a little more work done to it by yours truly but the framework it provided was a great time saver.
As AI technology continues to evolve, I’m excited to see how it can further enhance productivity and efficiency in various fields. And AI is more than just chatbots. For example Tesla’s full self driving system is an artificial intelligence neural network running locally on their cars trained to drive a car.
As always, I’m interested in hearing about your experiences with AI. If you’ve found a practical use for AI that has improved your workflow definitely head over to YouTube and share your experiences in the comments section of the video.
