200. How do you get started with AI?
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Feeling overwhelmed by AI's rapid growth? 🤖 Dive into this episode with Phil and Lauren as they demystify ChatGPT, explore AI's unparalleled processing power, and spotlight tools to supercharge your business strategy. Learn to blend AI's efficiency with the irreplaceable human touch. Tune in and navigate the AI landscape with clarity and confidence! 🚀
Episode transcription
Phil
bebop bebop. I did not see that.
Lauren
I didn't either.
Phil
That was a yes. And all your years of improv?
Lauren
Yeah, yeah. It's getting an incredible experience, an auditory experience unlike anything they've ever gone through.
Phil
Can you imagine, the whole episode goes on with us just making robot sounds instead of actually giving information. I would listen to that.
Lauren
I feel like we could, if we did do that it would go on for at least 18 minutes,
Phil
Probably. We would have trouble stopping because it would be too much fun. But that's not necessarily what we're known for. That's not our competitive advantage. At least not Yeah.
Lauren
I mean, robot noises are really, really fun. But do you know what's more fun?
phil
Tell us.
Lauren
AI
Phil
Is it fun? Well, you actually do think it's fun. I also, I think it's fun. I was overwhelmed for a lot of time. And I think I, as I told you, I'm about three weeks ahead of you. As is
Lauren
Three hours ago, I decided that AI is fun, but it is still very new to me. And that's why we want to have this episode today because I'm going to basically grill you, Phil, on how to get started because I was not skeptical, but just overwhelmed about four hours ago.
Phil
So that is a feeling shared by many including me, although I've had time to absorb. These are terms that I like and that I'm using a lot when we're talking about AI, integrate into our business absorb new information related to AI, I intentionally use language as if we're at a spa because it feels ferocious. It feels dangerous. It feels overwhelming. Where do you begin? You log into ChatGPT you're like, okay, now what were the instructions? Like, what do I even type in the box? And it's what's interesting is that we already went through this. We already went through this with Google. We've already been here. I was talking to my dear friend, Kim Garst, a few weeks ago, and she is someone I admire a lot, very public in terms of thought leadership in the social media space, very early adopter. And quite frankly, her blog posts educated me when I decided to go down this career path. And now we're great friends. And she said, Phil, I haven't felt this way in business since social media came out when she launched her business. She feels about AI, the way she felt about social media back then. And that's, I think, was an eye open, eye opening moment for me to realize the magnitude of this at least that's how I'm feeling. She's feeling that way, too. And I know many other people are.
Lauren
I think that for me, I don't even want to call it skepticism. But I don't really know what other word to use. But my skepticism about AI is because there have always been these trends that kind of take cold like today's culture by storm. I think about clubhouse, which is now gone. I think about crypto, which is in the shitter, which really annoys me, because it's one of the few things I did take action on.
Phil
I think about like the threads, Instagram threads,
Lauren
Periscope. There are so many trends where we go all in thinking it's the next big craze, and then it just inevitably dies off. And that was I was projecting my like frustration with those things on to AI. And until a few hours ago, I realized that that wasn't very fair of me.
Phil
Well, numbers don't lie. So the growth of AI and Chad GPT specifically exceeds WhatsApp. It exceeds the all of the big platform growth, including the brands that you've mentioned. You might also be interested to know that as started to teeter off from the initial onset. So it's the first drop that we've seen more recently in number of users number of active users and adopters of the technology. So it is actually starting to settle. So could it disappear? I don't think so. Are specific apps and startups that have launched using AI technology, are they going to disappear a year from now? Absolutely. Because there's so many that all have access to this technology. So your offering has to be good in order for you to actually use your tool because there's just so many to choose from.
Lauren
Yes. And even if we're not aware of it or not AI is going to be like powering a lot of the tech that we use today like Intel chips in our is it even Intel chips I don't know whatever chips are in our computers. You Yeah, so AI is probably going to be there, whether you're aware of it or not. So you might as well accept that and figure out how you can use it to streamline some functions in your business.
Phil
We should talk about just for a second, why the simplest answer? Why is the speed at which information can be processed? AI can process information way faster than humans can. So any of the successful instance, I'm really trying to keep the word keeping this beginner here, and I think we should keep it beginner. Any instance where you see AI being applied successfully. It's because it's being used to process information exponentially faster than we can as humans.
Lauren
Do you remember what the first AI tool you used? Was?
Phil
Yes.
Lauren
Tell me.
Phil
Well, I actually don't remember the first AI tool by used although I'm trying to remember if it was, it would have been a brand that would have sponsored content on my YouTube channel.
Lauren
Was it Synthesia?
Phil
Synthesia was is definitely up there. It's definitely in my top three, let's say of really compelling AI brands that I tried and experimented with Any Word would be high up there. Those are two of my favorite AI tools that I've been promoting and creating content with for well over a year, almost two years, actually.
But it's not until recently where I've made a concerted effort to actually understand the technology behind it. Not from the standpoint of like code and understanding it in that degree, ne have engineers and people like that, that are fully capable of that. I will always approach AI from a practical standpoint for small businesses. That's what I know. That's what I'm interested in. That's what I love.
But yeah, I would say Any Word, Synesthesia, I think of any others, there's some that I'm sure I'm forgetting. There's cool ones, website builders, like Durable. That's certainly not the most recent one, but it's one that I really enjoy. And I'll tell one last story. First instance, of using AI in a way that made a difference in my business was the day that Adobe launched Adobe fireflies feature generative fill directly in Photoshop, a lot of people don't know this, you can download beta versions of the Adobe apps. So I actually downloaded Photoshop beta, the day that generative fill, was launched, downloaded it purely as an experiment just to play with it. I mean, God, these are, you know, it was doing things in seconds that used to take me hours of manually, using the lasso tool to draw around a person to remove them from an image. I mean, you know, I've done that you've assigned those tasks to me for client projects, or to our graphic designer, because my time is better spent doing other things.
Lauren
I don't assign those to you anymore.
Phil
And now you can assign them to me, because I can do them in less than 30 seconds with this technology. But the first instance of this making a difference in the business was client Carrie, who discovered us after hearing my interview on the Social Media Marketing Podcast, she loved her photos from her photoshoot, she didn't like the color of the red brick of the wall. And this was something you and I talked about the day that Adobe Firefly launched generative fill. So I thought wait a second, took a few extra seconds to understand how the tool worked, changed the background for her on a photo that is now on the homepage of her website. Happy to say for people that are not up to speed Adobe, Firefly, it was launched several weeks ago that it's now out of beta, which means it can be used for commercial use can be used commercially. So that was the first instance where I went holy crap, we just saved Kerry a lot of money by not having to reshoot with a photographer by just changing the background. And it was incredibly realistic and on brand.
Lauren
At minimum, at minimum, she saved $500 because you would have had to have hired someone to retouch the photo. And the results might not even have looked good. That's at minimum, the like maximum is doing a full of brand new shoe, which is not great. And took you two minutes.
Phil
That was a very cool moment. And I think a lot of people maybe are thinking right now about AI in terms of text generation. So the first aha moment for me was actually visual. It was actually graphics generation, visual creation. And I'm really excited about this transition we're making from trying to find the right stock photo for a blog post or for a slide deck to now thinking how can we actually create the perfect stock photo, the perfect piece of art that is completely unique, responsibly sourcing. Which is why I like tools like Adobe Firefly, or why I'm concerned about tools like mid journey because they're the Not they don't, you know, they're sourcing. There have already been a lot of lawsuits, where art that's created on platforms like that are sourcing images that they don't have permission to source. That's a big problem. You know, but I just love this mentality of like, well, what can I create today for what I'm working on? And I think that's really exciting.
Lauren
Hopefully. Now, I'm gonna ask him questions that are based on like my sort of hesitation with even figuring out AI. So first things first, as we mentioned, AI is so overwhelming. And most of the stuff that I was seeing online about AI was talking about how people trained ChatGPT to do things that they wanted. And I was like, I don't even have time to train myself on going to the gym five times a week, like, let alone training a robot like it was so daunting. So do you have to use ChatGPT? First and foremost,
Phil
No, you don't need to use ChatGPT. My entry point to AI was using more premium structured tools built on GPT technology, where arguably, are you paying for a subscription to get an output that you could get for free at the time on ChatGPT. Now you pay for ChatGPT premium to make sure that it works. You don't get an error message. Or just, you know, I noticed that there's a backlog of users, etc. Or too many users using it, I mean, at the same time, but I'm okay with that. I'm not the person that's trying to go ooh, how do I game the system and get this amazing result for free? I'm the type of person that owns a small business and always has a very long to do list. And I go, can I pay a subscription to help accomplish this task faster? So I've always been a big fan of tools. Like Any Word, I'll mention it again for copywriting. Because they have different styles, and templates that make getting what I need fast.
And to me, it's worth it. I actually pay for the platform, even though I've worked with them, I pay for it using my own promo code. So I got a deal. And then I got paid for paying for it. But I really believe in the platform. For a lot of things writing doesn't come naturally at least writing scratch, I love the idea of editing, and taking something and working on something that exists. And so for me, anyway, it has been an awesome tool to just dip my toe in.
Now the other thing that I would recommend to someone if you're overwhelmed by logging into ChatGPT, don't log in, ChatGPT, here's what you should do. There's a great Google Chrome plugin, if you're not comfortable with plugins yet get comfortable because it's a lot, a lot of technology and apps and tools that you use and love, and that's how you get them integrated into what you're doing. So for example, there's a really popular one called Web ChatGPT. And what I love about this is it brings the power of ChatGPT to your Google search. So it does a lot of things. It allows you to toggle in a single click between the popular AI text tools. So ChatGPT, Bard, Claude, those are the most the most popular ones, you can just jump between the different ones.
Don't worry too much about those if you don't know what they are, if you've tried them, don't worry. The best thing about it is that it displays the results of your Google Search next to them in the right hand column, so that you can start to train your mind or what kind of results you'll get from Google versus what you'll get from ChatGPT. And a lot of times I've I've now because I have a point of comparison. I'm like, damn, Google results sock. The first four or five, six results are all sponsored, not answering the question that I just asked yet. I look at ChatGPT results and it goes three summarized resources for you. It's web ChatGPT. So it's plugged into the Internet. And then it'll go step one, step two, step three, step four, step five, to do the thing that you just asked about. It's amazing right now. And I love that it's training my mind to know when to go to ChatGPT as a resource.
One more little toe dipper idea. There's a great app called Sidekick by a company called jigsaw. So this brings the power of ChatGPT 4.0 to Slack for free. So if you're comfortable using slack, or maybe you use this with your organization, that's a great way to start to get comfortable typing in prompts in using it beyond the other things that it offers Sidekick, once you install it, it will actually give you auto reminders of things that it interprets as important. And by the way, it's always right. Phil, it looks like you forgot to reply to this message from Lauren in this channel. Do you want me to resurface things like this?
Lauren
Does it make you nervous to integrate AI into something that could write on your behalf. I See those Tik Tok videos about integrating AI into your inbox, for example, like your Gmail and it can start to write messages for you. And I just I don't know this, maybe I've watched too many like cyberpunk movies, but I just worry about it like taking over. Is that a concern for you security wise?
Phil
No, I think it's wonderful. It means that it's going to make my life more efficient by sending emails that I don't have to write. I love it. I'm still going to be the one to click Send. Yeah, I suppose I don't I don't worry about it. Clicking send on my behalf. I don't think there's going to be this unified world war three of AI versus humans, although some people argue and it's I think it's a valid concern, but it's not something I worry about. I think the technology is being built to complement human workflows.
It was interesting, there was this study by Goldman Sachs, that said 7% of jobs will be eliminated because of AI 63% of jobs will be complemented by AI, which I think is wonderful. 30% of jobs will be unaffected by AI, which I think is also great. I think it's great that AI isn't going to be in absolutely every element of our lives, at least not yet. But I think, yeah, 7% of the market is going to be eliminated. You're right. Those are entry level jobs, or administrative jobs. They are task things that technology can do better than humans. So we need to evolve.
Our work is more important now than ever before. From the day one of starting this business. We've said, build a business based on something you love to do, paired with something others need, and are willing to spend money on. If your job is purely administrative, pushing papers, then guess what? Look at this, there might be some temporary discomfort, but look at this as an opportunity to lean into something that is based on what you love to do. No one loves pushing papers, or doing administrative type work technology should be doing those jobs for us. I get all fired up.
Lauren
No, it's great. It's great. So here's what I was thinking in terms of how I could start dabbling in AI, because I still do find it overwhelming. As mentioned, as of three hours ago, I think it's really fun, I started doing something it was fun, but it was still really overwhelming. So what I'm doing is I'm making a list of things that I don't like to do, and things that I might delegate to someone, but I'm kind of wondering if I could instead just use that as a launching point to dig into AI and figure out how I could use that.
Phil
Can I make a suggestion?
Lauren
Yeah, please.
Phil
I love what you're thinking. But I don't think you should be in charge of identifying what you don't like to do. I think we need to use technology for that. So we've always been a proponent of tracking our time. And in fact, we do it. That's how our contractors get paid. I track my time so that you know how long I spend on client projects. And so that I know how long how much I'm working, and how long things take so that we can estimate accurately in various aspects of the business.
The truth is, until I started using and implementing AI, I never once looked at my summary on Everhour and you can use cloudify there's a variety of time tracking tools, if you want. If you're if you don't want to use technology, then then yes, do what you're doing. And that could be a notebook where you write down the list. But I'd rather you as a human not be in charge of collecting data. I think technology collects data better than we do. S
So what I'm saying to you is lean on technology, which you're already using, which is Everhour to summarize your week. And I want you to go through that summary at the end of the week you to listener and go, What do I love to do? Highlighted in yellow, it stays and where do I make the highest impact in the business, those two things should be highlighted in yellow or something bright or green, we'd love green because green means go green means stay.
I don't want to just be focused on where you make high impact because that's not necessarily fun or fulfilling. You know, you might make highest impact selling, but you still that should be and you might not like selling so that should be balanced with things you enjoy to do. I still enjoy being involved with website projects. And I feel like being involved keeps me in the game and then I can speak on stages about it because it's something I'm still involved with. That's important to me.
So I balance what is it you love to do what we've preached for all these years with Where do you make highest impact in your business? Then take a highlighter to a different color and highlight what you do not like doing and highlight what could be delegated or better yet automated. And so people are like so worried oh my god AI is going to take it's going to replace jobs? Yes it is. And as a business owner, I'm kind of excited about it because I think people in general should be focused on work that technology can't replace. And there's a lot of work that technology can replace. But I also I would much rather have a subscription, a specialized subscription that can do something and automate that have to hire another human that's inefficient to do something else. Yeah, you know, and so I think, delegate and or automate, I think it could be a combination of the two. So that's your lens. But don't just make a list of the things you don't love. Do you don't love to do also make, have technology make the list for you, this is what I love. This is what I don't love. This is what I can automate. And this is where I make highs impact those, I think, are the the series of questions you want to be asking yourself.
Lauren
Yeah, I think that thinking of technology instead of as a replacement, and thinking of it as a tool, or a potential like new member of your team, and in a way makes a lot more sense. And it makes it a lot more approachable.
Phil
And we even think about, you know, these premium AI tools, someone could say, well, I can get the same result on ChatGPT and not pay for it. Well, that could be true, but it also is the time it takes to get the output. A paid tool, even if it's $100 a month for a really premium AI tool is still arguably a lot more affordable than hiring a human to do that work, which is what we're used to and what we're trained for.
And I think that's maybe why entrepreneurs are particularly invested in this this frontier, because of the cost savings and just staying on top of it. But I think what I love most right now about the industry is that I could have a conversation with you about the AI tools that you're loving and the opportunities in your business that you've identified by tracking your time, and then I can have a conversation with someone else. They'll be equally excited. But they will have had a completely unique experience in terms of the tools they're using, and the workflows they've created. And it's just one big happy information sharing ecosystem. And I love that. As you can see, I have strong opinions on this.
Lauren
Totally. And I feel like this is a good place for us to kind of like cap this, how to get started with AI episode. But I do think I mean, I know we're going to be talking about this a lot more like a lot more. What I did this morning is like a sneak peek. As Phil sent me this Instagram reel the other day of how to write an SEO optimized blog post using AI on ChatGPT. And I followed the instructions. And once you go through those instructions, you kind of start realizing how to communicate with ChatGPT. And what to do and what to say. And what I really loved about it is I could not worry about hurting ChatGPT’s feelings by saying what wasn't working it actually you have to be direct in order for it to work. And my challenge whenever I've been editing, or managing the copywriting of other people is I don't want to hurt their feelings. And that that's not the case of AI. So it was actually really, really enjoyable.
Phil
There's just this whole new way of gathering and curating information. And maybe and on this note, I think technology will continue to evolve. I say this all the time, technology we were talking about a decade ago, Facebook, Twitter, is technology that we are honestly not talking about anymore. It still exists. But we're not talking about it in the way that we used to. But the thing that has not changed is is the human connection in all of this. And I think that's really the most evergreen thing in business is that we as humans, at least if we're in in charge, you know, we will always connect human to human. And so as you think about your business and the viability of you know, staying in business, you're going to be replaced with AI, there's still things that AI cannot do. AI does not have the breadth of experiences and stories and relationships that you have a lifetime of in your brain.
You could of course feed some of that information as context into an AI tool, but it's never going to be what you're able to recall and infuse in everything you do from a storytelling standpoint. So do not come to me and say humans are going to be replaced by AI. I don't think so I think if anything is AI movement is going to allow humans to focus on what they do best. And that excites me. Great. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. I'll thank the listener for hanging out with us on this one. You'll definitely hear more from us on this. If you enjoyed this episode, drop us a DM @philpallen.
Lauren
I'm @theaurenmoore.
Phil
Also since you're listening he made it this far, leave us a review five star, five star that helps other people discover our podcast we work hard to create. More chats about AI and some great chats with some upcoming guests. Some creative ones, these are people I really like. We'll see you back here next week.
Lauren
Bye bye