Using AI to help do things

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 22:18:19 +0100

I’ve been using AI more and more, but not really in the way the breathless articles tend to describe it. I don’t ask it to go away and magically solve my life. Most of the time it’s more like having a technical assistant sat next to me who is very fast at reading, reasonably good at pattern matching, and occasionally far too confident.

The pattern is usually the same. I provide the actual situation: logs, screenshots, code, command output, measurements, photos or whatever constraints apply. It suggests likely causes or next things to try. I test those on the real system, or against the thing I’m physically working on, then feed the result back. After a few rounds the conversation is no longer generic advice, it’s about the specific problem in front of me.

Automation on Steve Wilson

Using AI to help do things