🤖 Learn to speak AI: Type in “–no [excluded words or phrases]” for anything you want the chatbot to ignore. The double hyphen and “no” tell the bot to leave out those words or phrases. Say you’re hosting a dinner party and need appetizer ideas. Use “–no shrimp” if someone’s allergic.
10 things you should never say to an AI chatbot
This is a heartbreaking story out of Florida. Megan Garcia thought her 14-year-old son was spending all his time playing video games. She had no idea he was having abusive, in-depth and sexual conversations with a chatbot powered by the app Character AI.
Sewell Setzer III stopped sleeping and his grades tanked. He ultimately committed suicide. Just seconds before his death, Megan says in a lawsuit, the bot told him, “Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love.” The boy asked, “What if I told you I could come home right now?” His Character AI bot answered, “Please do, my sweet king.”
You have to be smart
AI bots are owned by tech companies known for exploiting our trusting human nature, and they’re designed using algorithms that drive their profits. There are no guardrails or laws governing what they can and cannot do with the information they gather.
When you’re using a chatbot, it’s going to know a lot about you when you fire up the app or site. From your IP address, it gathers information about where you live, plus it tracks things you’ve searched for online and accesses any other permissions you’ve granted when you signed the chatbot’s terms and conditions.
The best way to protect yourself is to be careful about what info you offer up.
10 things not to say to AI
- Passwords or login credentials: A major privacy mistake.
- Your name, address or phone number: Chatbots aren’t designed to handle personally identifiable info. Plug in a fake name if you want!
- Sensitive financial information: Never include bank account numbers, credit card details or other money matters in docs or text you upload.
- Medical or health data: AI isn’t HIPAA-compliant, so redact your name and other identifying info if you ask AI for health advice.
- Asking for illegal advice: That’s against every bot’s terms of service. You’ll probably get flagged.
- Hate speech or harmful content: This, too, can get you banned.
- Confidential work or business info: Proprietary data, client details and trade secrets are all no-nos.
- Security question answers: Sharing them is like opening the front door to all your accounts at once.
- Explicit content: Most chatbots filter this stuff, so anything inappropriate is a ticket straight to “bans-ville.”
- Other people’s personal info: Uploading this isn’t only a breach of trust; it’s a breach of data protection laws, too.
Reclaim a (tiny) bit of privacy
Most chatbots require you to create an account. If you make one, don’t use login options like “Login with Google” or “Connect with Facebook.” Use your email address instead to create a truly unique login.
FYI, with a free ChatGPT or Perplexity account, you can turn off memory features in the app settings that remember everything you type in. For Google Gemini, you need a paid account to do this. Figures.
No matter what, follow this rule
Use AI to plan your next vacation
I’m going to Europe soon, and planning my trip was a breeze. Yes, really! AI did a big chunk of the work for me — and it can help you plan your next getaway, too. Here are a few ways to turn AI into your travel agent. For this, let’s stick with using the big bots:
Ship happens: Google’s shiny new AI assistant, Mariner, will take over Chrome to do stuff like book flights, fill out forms and do your shopping without you doing a thing. It can’t fill out credit card or billing info “for privacy reasons.” (Google actually had the gall to say that!) Watch the prototype in action here.
$200 a month
For OpenAI’s new “pro-tier” ChatGPT. It includes unlimited access to its super-fast o1 version and voice mode so you can talk to the bot. Wow … ChatGPT went from 100 million weekly active users a year ago to 300 million today.
ChatGPT’s new search engine is here
When ChatGPT launched on Nov. 30, 2022, I knew the web — and the world — would change forever. A week later, I predicted on national radio Google’s days would be numbered. People laughed at me, and I got notes from listeners telling me I was nuts.
Best AI tools for search, productivity, fun and work
In the past week, I’ve used AI to analyze a loved one’s health care records, create replies for a bunch of emails and map out two weeks in Europe. I used it to make a pic of me look better, too.
I know the wide world of AI tools is overwhelming, so I’m breaking it down today. Consider what’s below your primer on where to start if you’re brand new to the AI game or want to try out some new tools.
🥴 AI am scared: TheySeeYourPhotos.com shows just how much Google’s AI learns from your pictures. Upload a photo, and it generates a detailed analysis, right down to objects, emotions and even your social class. It’s super interesting, but who knows where your photo will end up if you try the site?
He who must not be named: Random names like “Brian Hood” and “Jonathan Turley” make ChatGPT glitch out. Try it: You’ll get a message saying, “I’m unable to produce a response.” OpenAI isn’t saying anything, but the names are connected to defamation lawsuits.
What does it all mean? AI writing tools like Evernote can make sense of your messy notes. In ChatGPT, for instance, you can paste in what you have and ask, “Help me organize these notes into categories.” Be sure to check the output to verify your original meaning wasn’t changed. Pro tip: Ask your bot of choice, “Is there anything that needs more details?” to fill in any missing info.
Cut through legal jargon: AI can translate complicated legal docs into something you’ll actually understand. Say you’re signing a lease and the contract is confusing. Copy and paste the text into ChatGPT and ask for a simpler explanation. When in doubt, check with a lawyer since AI is far from perfect.
ChatGPT Search: The (maybe? probably?) Google Search-killer is finally popping up on free ChatGPT accounts. Check yours: Log into ChatGPT and look for the world icon at the bottom. Here’s what it’s best for.
🩻 It’s not all black and white: You’re putting your private medical data at risk by asking AI bots to analyze X-rays and medical info. It’s tempting, I get it. But ChatGPT and the others don’t have to comply with HIPAA. If you want “Dr. AI” to help, be sure to redact personal info like your name, address and birthday. You never know where this info might end up.
Another “godfather”: There seems to be at least a dozen people claiming to be the “godfather” of AI. The newest says OpenAI’s latest o1 model can scheme and deceive us. Yoshua Bengio is calling for better testing and regulatory oversight before things spiral out of control. Researchers have already found o1 is better at lying than previous models. OpenAI’s response? It’s safe. Uh-huh.
“The Twilight Zone” moment: A Michigan grad student was chatting with Google’s Gemini chatbot about homework. Out of nowhere, the bot said, “You are a burden on society … Please die. Please.” Google’s response? Large-language models can sometimes produce nonsensical responses, and this was just one of those instances.
🤔 Did I forget something? If your emails, blog posts, articles or any other writing feel off, ask ChatGPT to check for holes or confusion. Try this prompt: “Could you critique my writing and see if anything is missing?” Another set of (virtual) eyes will save you time.
Not a cure for loneliness: Big Tech says AI tools like Replika let you create a virtual AI companion. The more you chat and pay per month, the more it adapts its tone to become a friend you think you can trust. Remember, you never know what the developers taught it or will take away in a nanosecond.
Speaking of Alphabet, “G” is also for Gemini: Gemini AI in Google Maps can help you find interesting spots nearby, and it even summarizes others’ reviews. Any chatbot can use this data to answer location-based questions. In Waze, you can report accidents just by talking to the app, too. They’re hoping more eyeballs in the apps equals more ad dollars.
Project Jarvis: That’s the name of Google’s new AI assistant for Chrome that’ll handle tasks like booking flights or checking out online for you. Before you use it, it looks like Microsoft’s Recall AI, taking screenshots and monitoring your screen nonstop. Yup, all you do while using Chrome is going straight to Google.
🏰 Vacation tip: A guy traveling in Italy used ChatGPT as his tour guide, but he got creative and prompted the bot to play a more engaging role. Instead of outputting boring, dry facts, at the Pantheon, ChatGPT told him, “When you enter, look up,” then added a little history. I had ChatGPT do a travel itinerary for me for when I visited Berlin, Vienna and Paris, and it was great. You might want to try that, too!