There's a famous story Jeff Bezos tells about how coming across a statistic in 1994 led him to quit his high-paying hedge fund job and ultimately start Amazon.

Here's how he told it to Bloomberg years ago:

What else has shown similar growth levels since then? Smartphones maybe, app downloads, and sort of hiding-in-plain sight: artificial intelligence.

I say hidden because AI is already so entwined with and behind-the-scenes on things we're already using. I think we'll someday look back on right now as the very start of widespread A.I. adoption, the same way we look back on the late 1990s as the start of widespread Internet adoption.

For most people, the obvious way they're interacting with AI now is via free and low-cost A.I. chatbots and generators, such as ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, and the like. So, I had the idea recently to ask around (including asking myself) to find a bunch of ways that "normal people" -- I use the phrase intentionally, and I just mean "people who aren't going to dedicate their lives to studying AI" or trying to become the next Jeff Bezos -- are already using it effectively.

Because words are basically my life, a lot of this might skew toward language and communication ideas. But I hope you'll find it interesting -- and share your own ideas here, for a future edition. In no particular order, mostly (and generated without the use of AI), here we go:

1. Reduce messaging risk by querying whether words might have unintended meaning in other languages. (Example: The story of the Chevy Nova automobile, where no va means "doesn't go" in Spanish.)
2. Improve your writing by querying for an overall critique of your style on a specific document.
3. Come across as more professional by using A.I. to proofread. Important: Don't simply accept the A.I. output. Prompt for an itemized list of suggested changes, so that you can make your own judgments.
4. Make yourself funnier and more attractive by querying for a witty joke to include in a speech. (Real-life example: "Once upon a time we were told that a million monkeys with a million typewriters would eventually produce the full works of Shakespeare. Then we disproved that idea, by inventing the Internet.")
5. Query for the best ways to open meetings or begin conversations. (Example: Don't start with a question like "How's everyone doing?" unless you really want to hear the honest answers. The better route is a statement: "Good morning!" or "Thank you all for being here.")
6. Query for related synonyms to discover more precise words that can hone your message.
7. Improve relationships by querying for better language alternatives to saying "sorry." (Examples: "I apologize" or "Please accept my apology.")
8. Learn to say no more effectively by querying for firm but polite ways to decline invitations and requests.
9. Improve your leadership by explaining how an employee needs to improve, and prompt ahead of time for constructive ways to share criticisms that are less likely to inspire a negative reaction.
10. Make your presentations more memorable by using a the Winston Churchill trick I shared recently: prompt to turn a prosaic speech (one written in prose) into poetry, so that you can deliver with beauty and emotion. (Sample query: "Here's a speech I have to give. Don't change any major words or phrases, but rewrite it as poetry for delivery.")
11. Improve your confidence and performance by explaining a strategic plan, and directing the interface to critique it and poke holes. (I've had a lot of fun lately doing this with an app idea I've been working on.)
12. Become a better active listener by explaining a situation and requesting questions that a human audience might be likely to ask.
13. Query with a narrative description of a disagreement or confrontation, and request ideas on how to resolve it amicably.
14. Query with a description of someone you'd like to buy a gift for, and request ideas. (Can vouch for this one personally.)
15. Use A.I. chatbots to learn new skills. For example, query for 10 one-hour study sessions for a new skill you'd like to acquire.
16. Query for mnemonic devices to help you remember important things.
17. Query for a "rough draft" itinerary for a place you'd like to travel to, identifying your budget, tastes, and travel dates.

7 things worth knowing today

• Maybe this is kind of what I mean ... Forbes AI statistics. By their compilation and best guess: The AI total market was $86.9 billion in 2022; projected to be $407 billion by 2027. AI will account for 21% additional growth of US GDP by 2030; 10% of cars will be self-driving by 2030; 50% of U.S. mobile users already use voice search daily, etc. (Forbes)
• Google got smacked with a class-action lawsuit Tuesday accusing the search giant of “stealing everything ever shared on the Internet,” including copyrighted works and millions of people’s personal data, in order to train its AI. The company recently changed its AI privacy policy to say it reserves the right to scrape all the internet’s public information to fuel its artificial intelligence projects. (Gizmodo)
• Elon Musk launched his long-teased artificial intelligence startup xAI on Wednesday, unveiling a team made up of engineers from the same big US technology firms that he hopes to challenge in his bid to build an alternative to ChatGPT. The startup will be led by Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of Twitter, who has said on several occasions that the development of AI should be paused and that the sector needed regulation. (NY Post)
• "Political ads have never been known for accurately portraying the candidate’s opponent — and now artificial intelligence threatens to make misrepresentation more realistic than ever. Rather than waiting for AI to cause chaos in the 2024 election, regulators, lawmakers and political parties should act now." I don't usually share editorials, but how relevant is this one today? (The Washington Post)
• More or less ethical: How to use AI to make money right now (a broad discussion of freelance work, tutoring and entrepreneurship use cases). (CNBC)
• More or less unethical: On YouTube, the ChatGPT gold rush is in full swing. Dozens of videos offering advice on how to make money from OpenAI’s technology have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Many of them suggest questionable schemes involving junk content. Some tell viewers that they can make thousands of dollars a week, urging them to write ebooks or sell advertising on blogs filled with AI-generated content that could then generate ad revenue by popping up on Google searches. (WSJ)
• And one more: Anyone like Chipotle? The restaurant says it's developed a new robot that can cut, core and peel avocados used in its guacamole as the restaurant industry faces a sustained labor shortage. Today, it takes roughly 50 minutes to make a batch of Chipotle’s guacamole. But the Autocado unveiled Wednesday could cut the prep time in half. (CNBC)

Thanks for reading (thanks again!). Photo by Werclive 🇺🇦 on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this once upon a time on Inc.com. See you bright and early tomorrow.