Using AI is a game changer!!!
 

Hello everyone,

Who else has used artificial intelligence to get quilting questions answered in a fraction of a second? I am just now experimenting with what I can do on Grok, but there are several AI engines you can use.

Case in point: I hardly ever bury threads when quilting, because the quilts are mainly for my young grandkids. I am just starting a "grown up" quilt and want to brush off some old quilting skills. I really couldn't remember the steps for burying threads, so I asked Grok to "Describe the method used to bury threads when machine quilting."

In seconds, I received a 4 page document complete with color photo examples. This information was thorough and well organized and included "Pro Tips" and "Alternative Methods". I printed this out and now I will never have to try taking notes (and missing key information) from YouTube again! I didn't think to have Grok include the sources of the information, but I am sure you can. I did that on, I think, the Edge browser AI.

If you haven't tried using AI, it really is that simple to get started!

I do use Chat GPT but haven't needed it for quilting yet, but will keep it in mind. Thanks!

Be careful, because sometimes AI “hallucinates” and gives incorrect information or just makes things up. But if you double check what it tells you with other sources, it can be a good tool.

I can't agree with this more.

I've looked at its results for basic financial information, Medicare plan information, and current sewing machine information. None of the results are correct, and several of them (particularly related to finance/health insurance) are so wrong they would cause very, very bad decisions to be made.

"AI" is not intelligence. It's learned language modeling - basically scraping existing content (whether correct or not) that its algorithm determines most closely fits the query, in some cases simply by the frequency something was posted. I had to laugh when one of my own posts from one forum was used as a ChatGPT result in another forum as a supposed "answer", but if you actually read it, the quote wasn't actually an answer but my original question in the other forum.

So true! AI is scouring the internet for it's answers. The info they find may or may not be accurate. Always double check.

Not a fan and definitely not trusting any answers showing up about sensitive issues ie. medical, financial, political, religious-- the list in my mind is endless--because it is a bunch of dehumanized algorithms that if not kept in check, will be running our world very shortly. Yes, I am a Luddite in many ways.

I've used Claude for an estimate on what size my cloth should be for the stitch count listed when doing cross-stitch and it's been accurate. Claude is a free app.

I avoid AI, if possible. Yes, AI can be very helpful - but it comes at a huge cost in terms of energy use and water to cool the computers. I care more about our environment than quick answers.

Ditto to Tinlizzy'ss comment. I would rather save natural resources and just locate infor from more reliable sources. I have a number of friends who use AI often and with success, but it all depends on what you are searching for. One quilting friend uses it for creating concise directions and messages. It works, but I would not trust AI for other areas of information.

And also be aware that any information/questions you ask a LLM become part of its database and may be shared when someone else does a similar query. So if you ask about medical/financial/job/relationship issues, etc. you don't know who might see those details. You won't be directly identified, but someone (or a scammer algorithm) could connect the dots.