Nothing does more for your ego than realizing you can make a better decision than a bot with all of human knowledge at its digital fingertips. Myke Bartlett shares his experience using AI for home renovations and the valuable lessons learned.
Turning to AI for DIY Help
Bartlett, who admits he is not an early adopter, found himself tasked with exploring practical applications for AI at work. He saw an opportunity to overcome his reluctance and turned to AI for help with DIY projects after purchasing an old house in need of extensive repairs. Despite coming from a family of skilled renovators, he acknowledges that those genes were not passed on to him.
He treated ChatGPT as a search engine, asking for advice on painting, building a soak well, and restoring windows. The AI was helpful in suggesting equipment, paints, and primers, and even guided him step by step. However, it also lavished excessive praise, which Bartlett found irritating. “I needed advice, not approval,” he writes.
The Risks of Blind Trust
While AI boosted his confidence, it also led to errors. For example, it recommended building a new subfloor on rotting stumps, which builders quickly identified as problematic. Similarly, it suggested he would need two tonnes of drainage gravel for a soak well, when he actually needed only about 20 kilograms. Bartlett realized that success relies on human judgment and critical thinking, not just AI’s authoritative tone.
He worries about how easily people can become dependent on AI for decisions, from trivial choices to those that might violate building codes. “Decisions can feel oppressive – why wouldn’t you outsource them?” he asks. But he emphasizes that our choices define us, and we must live with them.
Lessons for the Future
Bartlett believes that AI’s emergence highlights the importance of critical thinking, especially for younger generations who will face even more tailored information. He hopes that being misled by AI will be a symptom of old age, noting that his children mock him for asking ChatGPT for renovation advice.
Despite the pitfalls, Bartlett is grateful for the unearned confidence AI gave him. It helped him realize that he could trust his own judgment more. “Either that, or those dormant DIY genes are finally kicking in,” he quips.
Ultimately, the experience taught him that while AI can be a useful tool, it cannot replace real-world experience. “To use them effectively, you need to be able to parse these suggestions for what a bot thinks you want to hear and apply the one thing it cannot – experience of the real world.”
