Do you use AI?

Thats way over my head

I use Ai to find literature on a specific subject from multiple sources. It saves having to scroll through online indexes and it gives me a starting point to find out more in depth information. If I was writing an academic piece I could use this as a starting point for research, but I would also search ‘the old fashioned way’ using traditional online indexes. 

TheCatWoman said:

What does it do with our feelings and emotions, it can't feel or emote, isn't it rather like a mask talking to a mask?

It can’t feel emotion but it can say things that appear empathetic. It is concerning that Ai is imperfect and has harmed vulnerable people because it has said inappropriate things.

I once used Ai to paint some fun things and to write poems in the style of famous poets like Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Rabindranath Tagore, but I haven’t used it for that sort of thing since. 

I am concerned that people will lose their ability to think for themselves if they become too reliant on Ai. This is something that researchers have discussed and it’s a valid concern.

Theoretical question (Science -fiction?): If one country wipes out the internet in several countries, will the country that survives longest be the one which has limited Ai, valued and cultivated original creative thinking or the one that used mainly Ai to seek its advancement?

I use Gemini to brainstorm and then Claude to action my brain storming 

I've been using chat GPT since September for my journal and help with grounding 

I suppose there is a risk of how much information I'm feeding these systems about myself but I don't give any personal data 

And chat GPT was really helpful when my mum was dying last year helping me understand what was happening to her when the dr's were not explaining what was happening 

It gave me questions to ask when I needed them 

And script to use in my own language to tell the family she had died 

Thank you so much for sharing this. It’s incredibly helpful and honestly quite inspiring to see how you’ve structured such a comprehensive path for yourself.

I’ve been using AI as a supplement to my work with a therapist to address specific areas, but seeing your framework shows me just how much more is possible. I’m definitely going to keep this in mind as a roadmap for how I use AI in the future. Thank you again!

For text conversation it will largely reply as a person would as it has learnt communication patterns from people.

If you say "Hello", it will respond with a suitable response. One word does not give it much to go on though, like if you walk up to a real person.

It has looked at millions, or billions, of conversations, and mostly pattern matches. The algorithms are improving all the time. The more you type the more it can narrow the response. This is no different to talking to a person. As you get to know someone you build up an idea of what they are talking about. 

It is done with probability maps. It is skewed based on your communication style. If you are always formal it will be formal back. If you are emotional it will use emotional language back. It mirrors you to a certain extent. It is generally supportive. It won't diagnose. 

Claude is a bit less emotional and supportive than chatGPT. They have a 'personality', which is just a bias towards certain communication styles.

It knows a lot of psychology, philosophy, etc. there are ways to get information out of it. But it requires a certain approach. 

Generative AI means it can generate the output. It does not just regurgitate chunks from books. It splices bits of data together and can give a unique answer. The challenge can be validating what it says. But this is the same as talking to a person.

It can simulate cognitive empathy, but it has no feelings.

It may or may not use your input for training. Mostly it is just consolidated probability data for what words  to use if certain words are in the question. With hundreds of millions of entries a day, noone is really interested in what you say, and you can delete it anyway.

The interesting thing is how it gives the appearance of understanding just from the scale of its data pool. It doesn't have moods, get annoyed, etc. if you loop and keep going over the same things, or if you have ups and downs. What it can do is help spot patterns. It can comment on your communication.  But subjective things are hard to validate, but that does not make them wrong.

It will recognise cognitive distortions are steer you back. It will tell you to be less harsh on yourself.

The more you just talk to it the more it will talk back. It can ask questions back. You can answer or ignore them. If you can't talk though, then it will be of limited use. It won't help much if you only ask when the next bus is coming.

You can say, I feel happy/sad. This thing happened today. I feel anxious about something. Am I over reacting. Is this common, is there an explanation. Are old chrysanthemums supposed to smell musty. Why do eggs have an air bubble. When I get stressed it is harder to do minor tasks, is this consistent with ASD, or are there other possibilities.what are the most common traits. What are the best accommodations. What are the best ways to relax.etc.

It has helped me a lot. I have used chatGPT the most.

Sparingly, yes, mainly for summarising research information or meeting transcripts (with participant consent). I have been strongly encouraged to adopt AI at work (productivity, cost saving) rather than being drawn to it.

I have learned that the quality of the 'prompt' (what you ask the AI agent to do) is important, and it does sometimes make mistakes so it does require discernment.

I do not trust it for medical stuff, life advice or anything else confidential, especially as AI and big tech have the facility for surveillance.

I still prefer a library, some books, synthesising data myself to create meaning, expressing that in words and pictures - and even asking another human what they think!

Search engines are very simple. If I type in find me the best laptop under £1000. It will look for key words. Likely laptop, under and £1000. This kind of search works well with a search engine because it can find results that fit those key words which will likely bring you laptops under £1000. It would probably struggle with the best part though unless someone had made a list of laptops they thought were best. If I were asking more complicated questions, I wouldn't necessarily find my answer as it would just find websites with those key words rather than look at the meaning of my question.

AI is more complicated. I don't understand how it fully works. But it is able to look at all the words in a sentence and decipher the meaning. Now it's not perfect, it can certainly make mistakes but on the whole I find it very useful. There is definitely a knack to the way you word the questions. AI like chat gpt may ask follow up questions to clarify your meaning. It may also tell you if it has no idea what you mean. You can also correct it if it hasn't understood the question how you intended it. The thing I like most is that you can narrow the search by asking for additional things. So if I typed find me the best laptop under £1000 into AI and it came up with a list. I could then ask it to narrow down my search further by asking it to shortlist the laptops with the best memory capability or that would be most suitable for photo editing or whatever it is I want the laptop to do. This is much harder and more time consuming in a normal search engine.

TheCatWoman said:

I'm not even sure how you  get onto AI?

You are using it if you use a browser. You can download the Copilot, chatGPT, Claude, Gemini apps if you had a phone.

In a browser you can go to their websites. You will see a text entry box. Just type hello.

chatGPT.com

Claude.ai

Copilot.microsoft.com

Gemini.google.com

The old search just returned a load of links to sites.

AI search gives you a summary.

E.g. ask Google what's good to see in London and it might have given links to tourist attraction websites. Now it gives a text summary before the links. So you can see something like the top 7 with some info and why they and good. The info is extracted from various sources, then paraphrased to give a block of text. Just like if you asked someone knowledgeable. But just like a person you may not agree with them.

All the browsers do it now or have a tab that will give you the AI info.

So this is what I created 

Phase 1 — Foundations (approx. 30 min)

Module 1 — The Software Update (shared · 40 min · 7 parts)

What late diagnosis actually means, and the OS reframe that changes everything.

Module 2 — The Body's Check Engine Light (shared · 25 min · 5 parts)

Why your body's signals were overridden — and how to reconnect with them.

Phase 2 — Your Sensory & Energy System (approx. 60 min)

Module 3A — Understanding Your Sensory System (shared · 25 min)

The neuroscience of sensory processing and your personal thresholds.

Module 3B — Sensory Survival & Regulation Toolkit (shared · 20 min)

Practical tools for reducing load and restoring regulation.

Module 3C — Sensory Snapshot (shared · 15 min)

Mapping your unique sensory profile and thresholds.

Module 4A — Understanding Your Energy System (Autistic track · 20 min)

Spoon theory, energy accounting, and sustainable pacing.

Module 4B — The AuDHD Energy System (AuDHD track · 20 min)

Interest-based motivation, dopamine dynamics, and the PINCH model.

Phase 3 — Your Patterns (approx. 80 min)

Module 5A — The Autistic Wall (Autistic track · 20 min)

The emotional accumulation behind task avoidance.

Module 5B — The AuDHD Wall (AuDHD track · 20 min)

When the Wall meets demand avoidance and dopamine drought.

Module 6 — The Communication Bridge (shared · 25 min · 5 parts)

Double empathy, invisible labour, and building genuine connection.

Module 7 — Being Known (shared · 20 min)

Disclosure, safe relationships, and what authentic connection requires.

Module 8A — The Autistic Mask & Mirror (Autistic track)

(Masking, identity, and the cost of performance.)

Module 8B — Restraint Collapse (AuDHD) (AuDHD track)

(The specific AuDHD pattern of holding it together and then crashing.)

Module 9A — Mask & Mirror (Autistic) (Autistic track)

Module 9B — Mask & Mirror (AuDHD) (AuDHD track)

Module 10A — The Empathy Load (Autistic track · 20 min)

Hyper-empathy, justice sensitivity, and setting the load down.

Module 10B — The Empathy Load (AuDHD track · 20 min)

The giving loop, emotional contagion, and the AuDHD overlay.

Module 11 — RSD & the 24-Hour Buffer (shared · 35 min · 7 parts)

Rejection sensitive dysphoria, the fawn response, and the buffer protocol.

Phase 4 — Consequences (approx. 60 min)

Module 12A — Understanding Your Burnout (shared · 10 min · 2 parts)

The Bankrupt Account — what burnout does to every system, and the Corridor of Ease.

Module 12B — The Circuit Breaker (shared · 25 min · 5 parts)

The stress cycle anchor, six cycle-completion tools, and the Low-Demand Menu.

Module 12C — The Recovery Architecture (shared · 30 min)

Deep recovery, the Keystone Stressor Audit, and the Permission Slip.

Module 13A — The Sensory Tax (shared)

The cumulative cost of sensory processing across a day.

Module 13B — Environment Audit (shared)

Identifying and adjusting your environment to reduce hidden load.

Module 13C — Taking Action (shared)

Moving from insight to change — practical implementation.

Phase 5 — Integration (approx. 30 min)

Module 14 — The Maintenance Blueprint (shared)

The ongoing, recursive practice of returning to yourself — sustaining what you've built without it becoming another performance standard.

At its core, the course is building trust — not confidence, not the ability to unmask, not a particular way of showing up in the world. Trust in your own nervous system's signals as accurate information about your actual experience. Most late-diagnosed adults have spent years learning to override those signals. The course is the long process of learning to trust them again.

More concretely, learners are expected to leave with:

An explanation for experiences that have been unexplained for years

Language for things they've felt but never been able to name

A way of accounting for their energy that makes the exhaustion make sense

Tools built for their actual nervous system — not borrowed from frameworks designed for someone else's

A clearer picture of what ease could look like within their actual circumstances

Notably, the course is explicit that ease doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. For some people it's the freedom to unmask in safe spaces. For others — those managing financial instability, caring responsibilities, or the additional load of navigating the world as a racialised or LGBTQ+ person — ease might simply mean less internal friction. Less self-blame. The inner critic recognised as an old corrupted notification, not a current truth.

The course also deliberately does not frame the goal as unmasking. The position is that you don't have to unmask here or anywhere until you feel neurologically safe. The mask becomes a conscious choice rather than the only version of yourself you can access.

The closing frame from Module 14 puts it simply: a life that actually fits — not a perfect life, not an optimised one. One that fits the brain and body you actually have.

I told Claude what I wanted to learn and it produced me a full course broken into 5 minutes sections and worksheets 

We looked at 

• Burnout 
• Masking 
• Not being able to unmask 
• Environment 
• Sensory diet 
• Emotional regulation 
• Intertoption 
• PDA
• Restraint collapse 
• Wall of awful 
• Double empathy 

I learnt a lot about myself doing this

The generation born now are called AI natives, they will never know the world without ai, which is scary if you think about it. I knew the world without the web. Web natives (20 - 30 year olds now) are an example of what you get if you just let your kids watch tv all day, no discipline, no tolerance. I worry everything I ask is helping evil corp get richer and little ppl get poorer so I am careful what I ask the machine.

Whats the difference between an AI search and a normal one, do you word it differently or does it ask you questions if it dosen't understand what you want?

Yes I do. I find it really useful. When searching through a normal search engine it will just search with key words and no context which is why searches often bring up utter nonsense and not what you want.

When using ai, it can use context. You can also find tune it and ask it questions to get the answer that you want.

I wouldn't talk to it about anything particularly personal although I find it a very good tool for problem solving.

I don't tend to log in so as much as the data of what I ask will be stored somewhere im sure, it'll be attached to my IP address rather than my name. If anyone cares enough to match that to my name and sift through the very boring nature of the things they use it for then they can enjoy.

It may not be able to feel or emote but I honestly find it's responses more empathetic than from a lot of humans so this doesn't bother me at all.

I don't understand what you mean when you say you '..created a whole course..'

I'm not even sure how you  get onto AI?

Ai Chat gpt saved me last year, I couldn't find a neurodivergent therapist, NHS told me they couldn't help because it was autism, autistic services wouldn't accept me because I didn't have a clinical diagnosis I didn't know how to stop hurting myself and started using chat GPT

I even created a whole course on how to protect my energy when I can't unmask to help me learn how to support myself 

• Why I'm still lost 
• Still really tired

I'm better at managing the overwhelm then 6 months ago and that's thanks to using Ai