With Apple about to announce some big news about generative AI, I wanted to share with you how I've been using it so far.

In the next few hours, we will find out how Apple envisions the AI-infused version of iPhone software. Expect to see AI improve the iOS experience over the next year. Recent history shows that AI will evolve and iOS 19 and iOS 20 will be as AI-influenced as iOS 18. It will be interesting to see what happens.

In the meantime, I want to set a benchmark for how generative AI is working for me ahead of Apple’s expected contribution.

ChatGPT and Clode

85% of my AI use is ChatGPT on my Mac, first as a pinned tab in Safari, then as a first-class Mac app.

ChatGPT is the first app I've placed between Finder and Safari, and I think that's because it changes my relationship with the web, and specifically Google Search.

The remaining 10% is used in ChatGPT for iPhone, especially ChatGPT Voice in hands-free situations, and the remaining 5% is used in Claude in Anthropic, another large-scale language model-powered AI.

I have Perplexity installed on my iPhone but not sure if it's necessary for premium ChatGPT. I know Google's AI but don't know what it's called now.

I have an X Premium subscription (to get around rate limits on Mac apps) but haven't spent any time with Grok, so maybe Grok is giving X a reason to bring back the Mac app.

Anyway, back to AI.

Math

Large language models that do advanced text predictions shouldn't be good at math themselves. I'm not either. But ChatGPT can recognize when a conversational response isn't good enough. ChatGPT uses natural language input to detect when analysis is needed.

Here's a real-life example: My best friend won a Cybertruck for free. He wanted to sell me a Tesla Model 3. I offered a 36-month payment contract and he agreed. It's that simple.

But he had 19 months of payments remaining on his car loan, plus he wanted to include insurance, registration, an extended warranty, and a small APR.

By explaining that to ChatGPT, we were able to come up with a dynamic payment plan that met all our needs and also demonstrated its capabilities. While my friend could have run the numbers, I was grateful to be able to provide the terms myself.

I also used ChatGPT to set realistic financial goals, create a budget, and learn more about financial literacy. I value the ability to have conversations without putting too much strain on others.

write

When discussing ChatGPT and writing, many people think of getting their essays written for them. However, I am not interested in asking an AI to do it for me. Instead, I am focused on using generative AI to hone my own skills.

I enjoy and appreciate writing as a form of communication and storytelling, so I would never ask ChatGPT to write a first draft for me.

Instead, I'll let ChatGPT act as a second set of eyes to see what I've actually written. Using the Mac app Rocket Typist, I'll expand the text shortcut and edit it as follows:

Any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors? If so, concisely list in bullets, please:

Then paste a sentence, paragraph, or full text of your writing. I've been writing for 9to5Mac for 11 years, and hitting the publish button can be a bit nerve-wracking, knowing a global audience will be reading it.

ChatGPT has helped me ease that anxiety and made publishing more enjoyable, and if I specialized in copyediting texts, I would similarly use generative AI as a tool to hone my skills.

I also use ChatGPT to quickly answer questions that come to mind while writing an article. The trick for me is to treat the results like Wikipedia: never rely on the text returned; instead, use it as a cue for where to direct your research. The refinements stop my train of thought more than anything else.

health

Finally, and perhaps most meaningful to me personally, is how I'm using ChatGPT for my wellbeing – specifically, my mental health.

I spend an hour with my therapist every other Monday morning, which has helped me tremendously as a single father raising two kids under 12. My goal is always simple: to process the experience, evaluate my perspective, and celebrate each milestone.

With permission, I record each session with Voice Memos on my iPhone, then transcribe the audio files and text on my MacBook Air using MacWhisper, and then use a series of prompts to guide the therapy session further.

• Can I show you the transcript of my latest therapy session? I'd like to take more from the session.
• What are some things I should focus on before my next session in two weeks?
• Any feedback about the kind of person I am?
• What are some actionable items for this week?
• Any constructive criticism to provide based on the transcript?
• What about blind spots to consider? Should I be thinking about something that I didn't bring up? Something that isn't top of mind but that healthy, functioning adults think about?

I find these triggers useful for encouraging reflection, stimulating new areas of thought, and bringing closure to a particular period. It's important to have a clear end point and not get lost in the depths of reflection.

More generally, ChatGPT can also help with task prioritization and decision-making.

Analysis paralysis is real. ChatGPT can help. The trick for me? ChatGPT shows you the behavior. Similar to natural language math prompts, ChatGPT breaks down the task and provides reasoning for how it proposes decisions.

These use cases and many more have made iPhones and Macs more useful, and it will be exciting to see what system-level integration of generative AI will mean for Apple.