AI Usage

Following the AI manifesto's idea of sharing publicly how you use AI, this is my page to do so.

Tooling

I use LMStudio for running open-source models. Currently, I am using Claude code for development work, Copilot for quick edits, and Claude for general work.

For image generation, I use MidJourney and Grok.

I also use Grok to summarize news from X and send it once a week to my email(easier to keep track of general trends vs having to be online all the time).

How I Don't Use AI

Anything I write, I write myself. I like writing; most of the writing I do is right after I wake up and have a good cup of coffee. Most often, I will write an article after months of thinking about it in one quick session. Most articles that I leave to write on a later date I end up never finishing.

I don't see much of a point of using AI to write the articles, as my goal has always been to share things I've learned with others. AI can't talk about what I've learned better than me.

The closest to "AI" I use is grammarly to fix grammar errors, but most often I forget to even do that. It distracts me to keep Grammarly open while I type, so I turn it off and will often only remember to turn it on again after the post has been published and sent to people's inboxes.

Also most of the creative writing I do is on my remarkable tablet, it is my driver for writing because it has no distractions, I couldn't use AI even if I wanted to.

How I use AI

I talked a bit on the Tooling section but this is the deep dive.

LM Studio

I ask to explain me things when I'm offline, or when something is deeply personal and I don't want to share any data with llm providers.

Claude Code

"Set up a project locally that does X, Y, Z", "Read this repo and explain to me how X, Y, Z works", "Give me a markdown file with a plan to implement this feature", "Check this pull request's review comments and tell me what X,Y, Z Means".

In summary, asking about things I don't know and where to find them, asking to find root problems in third party libraries (like recently finding out that torchrl doesn't have strong typing) in a quick manner.

I like using it to create markdown plans as well so that I can read and edit what I think should and shouldn't be done, ask more questions and sometimes do a quick first draft that I can edit later on.

Claude

With memories, I generally write boilerplate text about my own professional background for summaries in websites that want me to, I brainstorm ideas for stories, brainstorm ideas for things that I want to do. Mostly generating text that formats my professional experiences into a desired format(like resume, bios for newspapers, etc).

I use it also to train me to think in a certain way. I created a prompt that shares all my personal character flaws and ask it to in each message understand that so that it can give me answers that help me overcome those.

Like being overly self critical, I ask it to give me straight answers without enabling the deep self critical ruminations and pointing me to direct actions I can take right now to solve a particular personal problem. It's surprisingly efficient at that, you can have Earl Nightingale constantly remind you of your stated goal and if you are deviating too much from it(especially good if you are someone interested in way too many things).

With regards to writing emails, if it is for bureoucratic stuff I 100% use AI to give me a first draft before I edit it. I hate bureoucratic stuff and if I can't type with grammar errors or without caring if I'm offending you or not, then I just use claude to type the email for me. I'm not good at not offending people or writing with perfect grammar, this is my 2nd language after all.

Newest Cowork feature

I loved using Claude's Desktop Cowork feature to organize my downloads folder.

Grok

Generating funny images and creating news feeds on topics I care about(robotics, ai, biotech, etc).

Midjourney

I might not publish them, but I'm always writing stories to pass the time, I have about 60 pages in on a fantasy book I started writing when I was 14, 30 pages on another detective novel, 70 pages on a recent novel I wrote in 3 days because I thought it was funny. So I sometimes brainstorm with images how the characters might look like(before AI I used to simply google actor's images online and use those as inspiration).

Most of these novels I wrote in plain google docs or most recently my remarkable tablet during my diet-breaking escapades to the nearby coffeshop.

Let me know if you want an early preview on them.

In Summary

I use AI for doing things I don't care about doing and that I'm okay having mediocre results in.

I care about great apps, great products and great writing, and so I reserve the right to be less efficient while building/creating those.

If I don't really give a shit, then I use AI to get stuff done faster.