Life Before AI
Even though it hasn't been that long since the first major AI boom, ask anyone now if they can imagine living without ChatGPT, and they'd probably tell you no. After all, how can you, when you can now talk to AI like a friend, ask it practically any question you want, and have it generate basically anything you prompt it to? Sure, while many people still prefer doing things the old-school way, a lot more would rather, well, delegate all the hard stuff to AI. Here are 20 normal things we did before AI took over our lives.
1. Googling Everything
When was the last time you Googled something without asking AI for clarification right after? Don't remember? Well, you're not alone. Google might have been the first place most people turned whenever they had a question, but now you'd probably prefer getting a direct response from your favorite chatbot.
2. Writing Emails from Scratch
Not that emails were ever too hard to write, but most people did find them pretty tedious. Back then, though, we had no choice, so our digital letters had plenty of minor errors, odd word choices, and passive-aggressive phrases. After the AI boom? Well, now everyone just sounds the same.
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3. Doing Homework Without Chatbots
Once upon a time, students actually wrote their own essays! They relied on their textbooks and notes whenever they needed help with assignments! They brainstormed with their classmates! Above all, they actually learned. Nowadays, the younger generation is so used to getting AI to do their homework for them that they probably don't understand a lick of what they were taught.
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4. Brainstorming Ideas on Your Own
Remember when you actually came up with your own ideas? Whether you were planning a birthday party or thinking of an interesting title for an essay, you used to sit at your desk or discuss with friends until you came up with the perfect thing. These days, though, a chatbot can produce dozens of potential ideas almost instantly.
5. Using Photoshop to Edit Photos
Wanted to remove someone or something from a photo? Elongate a picture to use as your phone wallpaper? Well, editing tasks like these once involved mastering some basic Photoshop skills, which, while tedious, could be fun to do, too. But now you don't even need to know what the Healing Brush or Clone Tool does—you can simply use AI.
6. Writing Your Own Resumes and Cover Letters
Back before even tools like Canva were available, it was up to you and your brain (and skills) to make your resume and cover letter look nice. Even applying to 10 jobs would require spending considerable time! And you definitely didn't have a robotic companion to turn to whenever you needed to practice or proofread your application...
7. Learning Languages Through Textbooks and Apps
Remember having a human Spanish tutor? Or filling out pages and pages of textbooks just to get some new grammar rules down? After all, before conversational AI became widely available, improving your language skills typically required tons of manual work. Today, AI chatbots can simulate conversations and even generate entire lessons if you want!
8. Searching Through Cookbooks for Recipes
Homecooks used to have it tough: they'd have to come up with something new to bring to the dinner table every night. Missing a particular ingredient? Well, then you'd have to rely on educated guesses. Who knew that in just a few short years, you could simply ask AI to make a customized recipe with the ingredients sitting in your fridge...
9. Writing Social Media Captions Yourself
Coming up with an entertaining Instagram caption sometimes took considerable brain power. After all, you had to put in the work if you wanted to keep your posts interesting and engaging! And yet, these days, you can generate captions that'll suit different audiences with just a click.
10. Planning Vacations Through Travel Websites
The fun thing about traveling used to be about planning out the itinerary yourself! Heck, you might have even read countless travel blogs and reviews before putting together the Ultimate To-Do List. And while you technically can still do it all yourself now, most people would rather have AI organize and compile everything for them.
11. Asking Friends for Advice
Could you have imagined asking a non-human companion for relationship or work advice years ago? Probably not. Despite that, that's exactly what people do now when they run into problems or difficult personal decisions. Instead of asking a trusted friend or family member, they now prefer the path of least resistance.
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12. Writing Content Without AI Assistance
For all writers out there, it probably hurts to think about how every written thing you see out there will now always carry a question mark over its head. Was it drafted by AI? Was it assisted by AI? Can you trust someone when they tell you they wrote it themselves? Whether it's a student essay or a professional manuscript, it seems you can never really be truly sure anymore.
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13. Researching to Find Specific Answers
If Google didn't tell you the answer, you had to dig deeper yourself. That meant, for every project you did that required lengthy research, you had to peruse different sources, skimming through relevant keywords and information, having several dozen tabs open. Most people now, though, would just get AI to summarize and extract all the important details.
14. Making Presentations Slide by Slide
Kids nowadays probably can't even imagine making their own PowerPoint presentations slide by slide, but that was the work that had to be put in back then. The fun was finding a suitable template! Unfortunately, AI has now mostly replaced these presentation tools and all the creativity it involved.
15. Troubleshooting Tech Problems Through Online Forums
Laptop not working? You probably once jumped to Google or Reddit first thing ("Reddit, why isn't my laptop booting up?"). As vindicating as it felt whenever you were able to find the solution yourself, that tedious process has long been replaced ever since AI came into the picture.
16. Taking Notes During Meetings
Before AI meeting assistants became widely available, there used to be a dedicated person to jot down important notes. It'd be especially difficult whenever you had to transcribe someone with a heavy accent! Though this task is now simplified using smarter tools, some people still miss the manual work and humanness it all involved.
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17. Drawing and Designing Everything Manually
Back in the day, if you came across a beautiful art or design piece, you wouldn't think twice before giving it a like or leaving the creator a positive comment. But considering AI can easily generate hundreds of illustrations, progress screenshots, or mock timelapses in a few seconds, it's now easier than ever to trick everyone on the internet into thinking you "drew" something you actually didn't.
18. Sending Messages in Your Own Words
Believe it or not, we've now come to an era where people may even send each other AI-generated messages, all because they were... too lazy to type out their own texts? From dating apps to online forums and even YouTube comment threads, you'd be surprised how many people are now accustomed to having AI write out canned responses.
19. Summarizing Text Yourself
Another thing people used to do? Read. Yep, back in the day, we actually had to read through stuff to be able to summarize the gist of it. Now? AI tools can now produce summaries in the blink of an eye, even if it might hallucinate names or quotes in the process...
20. Relying on Your Own Imagination for Entertainment
Whether you were writing fan fiction or thinking up new original character concepts, lots of the brainstorming, again, relied on your own brain a few years ago. You might have even invented an elaborate fictional world all without instant suggestions from a chatbot! Alas, that's no longer the case, as many people have completely different processes now.
