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Editor’s Note: A chatbot did not write this article, but
we did interview the three most popular free ones as well as real humans. This
was originally written by us for MoneyTalksNews.com
here.
If it seems like just about everyone on the artificial
intelligence frontier is gunning for your money, it’s because most are.
Retailers and manufacturers are incorporating AI technology
such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and IBM’s
Watson into their apps to provide personalized advice and
recommendations. The easier it is to shop, the easier it is to spend.
But you can tame the virtual Wild West with AI-powered tools
yourself. The new Bing
Chat certainly can save you time and money, according to Tia Secasiu,
Microsoft product marketing manager for global search and AI. “Bing is now the
default search experience in ChatGPT,” she told Money Talks News.
Bing Chat is free when you enter through Microsoft’s Edge
browser, where it’s built in, or on your phone’s Bing app. Sign in with a free
Microsoft account or your Office 365 subscription. Bing is a plug-in now for
ChatGPT premium users, but will soon be available to ChatGPT’s free users too,
Secasiu said.
Other AI apps and chatbots like Google’s
Bard can help you spend wisely, too. Following are some top ways to
make AI work for you.
Shopping: Do it promptly
When it comes to prompting a chatbot for help, it’s not just
what you say but how you say it.
“Tell me what you want, what you really really want,” Bing
Chat, quoting the Spice Girls song “Wannabe,” told Money Talks News when
prompted to talk about prompts.
For example, “What are the best deals on Levi’s jeans right
now?” will not work on ChatGPT (free) because it doesn’t have its own search
engine yet, and it doesn’t know anything more recent than September 2021. Bing
Chat and Bard will bring up offers and links to a variety of online stores such
as Amazon, Macy’s, Walmart and
more.
You can also specify styles and sizes, or ask for
comparisons of two or more items with a prompt like, “Compare the three most
popular chainsaws for home use.”
Bard, when prompted, presented a table showing the Stihl MS
180, Husqvarna 450 and Rancher Echo CS-400 in a table showing specs and price
side by side. Bing Chat showed comparisons of Stihl MS170, Makita XCU03PT1 and
Oregon CS1500, and it offered links to online sellers.
You can ask Bard how to track the price of a specific item
you want and alert you when it goes on sale. If you need grocery deals, Bard
and Bing can look up specific items in your area, but looking at your favorite
grocers’ apps might be more effective, they both say.
Microsoft just introduced Buying
Guides for shoppers using its Edge browser and Bing. They include
summaries of customer reviews, product suggestions and comparison tables
showing multiple items’ details side by side. It also has a Price Match feature
that offers assistance contacting retailers if an item’s price falls after you
purchase it.
You can get complicated with your prompts, and also converse
with the chatbots about more details they need you to ask to fetch the right
information.
“I’ll be there for you, ’cause you’re there for me too,” says
Bard, quoting the theme song from the TV show “Friends.”
Graphic design
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create
professional-looking posters, slideshows, party invitations, event flyers, resumes,
social media posts and more with free AI-powered tools.
Canva,
launched in 2013, can generate pictures from text and will even generate a
video of a talking head reading your text. If you’ve got kids
in school, it has thousands of student-oriented templates for creating
study projects, schedules, essay outlines, flash cards and more. Canva is free
and offers a premium version at $119.99 annually with unlimited access to 100
million-plus stock photos, videos, audio and more.
Bing Chat, which uses DALL-E, can generate pictures in many
styles such as cartoon, photorealistic or oil painting.
You can also check out these apps with free and premium
pricing:
Virtual try-on
Tools such as Sephora’s
Virtual Artist, Estee
Lauder’s iMatch and Ulta’s
Glamlab use AI to let you try on makeup virtually. Now you can conduct
an online fashion show.
Google says its virtual
try-on for apparel uses generative AI to show you clothes on real
models in a wide variety of shapes, skin tones, hair styles, ethnicities and
sizes XXS to 4XL. You can change models and viewing angles, as well as rotate
your model to get a feel for the item. Google also lets you change the color,
style and pattern and search for the item in different stores. It’s handy if
you seek a cheaper version.
The try-on tool launched with only women’s tops, but men’s
tops will follow soon, Google says, and eventually it will include more
clothing.
Meal planning
Developers have cooked up a wide variety of meal-planning
apps and websites that incorporate AI. They can take into account your budget,
cooking skills, health and nutrition needs, personal tastes, special diets,
prep times and more.
You can get started by asking your favorite chatbot to
prepare a meal plan for you with as simple a prompt as “Please give me a weekly
meal plan that is easy, healthy and budget-friendly. And can you suggest where
to find the ingredients locally that fit the plan?” Answers can include dishes
such as Vegetarian Spaghetti Squash Lasagna or Chicken Stir-Fry With Brown
Rice, with links to recipes.
Want to know what side dishes go with lamb chops, good
sauces for grilling chicken, or what fish you can sub for salmon? Try Ask
InstaCart. The online
grocery delivery service, which already has a ChatGPT plug-in, is rolling
out the feature blending its own AI and ChatGPT-capabilities. It anticipates
your preferences and reminds you of what you need based on your shopping
history.
Others to try:
- Mealime creates
personalized recipe menu and grocery list based on your dietary
preferences; it’s free with a $2.99 premium version.
- Paprika offers
recipe and grocery-managing tools for one-time fees, not a subscription.
- The
free Anylist app
helps you create sharable shopping lists, collect and organize your
recipes and make notes on prices and coupons.
- Foodcombo.com will
send you recipes based on what you tell it is in your fridge and pantry.
Some apps can even integrate with your kitchen. With
certain smart
Whirlpool appliances, you can send pictures of what’s in your fridge to
the Yummly meal-prep
app and get recipes based on what you already have. The app can also send
cooking instructions directly to a smart oven.
Samsung
smart appliances work with the Whisk cooking
app and its Family Hub, which can even order groceries for you when its
in-fridge camera sees you’re low on items.
Fitness training
You can give a chatbot a workout by asking it to create a
fitness program for you. Prompt it with your age, gender and goals such as
weight loss, muscle strength or cardiovascular health.
However, AI software already powers plenty of fitness apps
to create personalized workouts, says Barbi Walker-Walsh, 57, a flight
attendant, journalist and gym enthusiast living in Tempe, Arizona.
“I’ve been using FitnessAI for
years. The app uses artificial intelligence to create workouts based on input
from users,” Walker-Walsh told Money Talks News. “I let it tailor workouts for
me rather than piecing one together a la carte. Using FitnessAI has cut down on
wasted time and frustration at the gym.”
Among other AI-driven fitness apps are:
Subscriptions typically run around $80 to $130 a year
depending on the app. That is a fraction of the average
range of $250 to $400 a month for two one-hour sessions a week with a
human personal trainer.
Travel planning
Travelers are experimenting with chatbots to create
itineraries and find cheap transportation.
The Points Guy travel website’s Jordan Waller called
his use of ChatGPT to plan a trip to Lisbon a mixed bag. However,
digital-nomad coach and avid traveler Madison Rolley took to TikTok to
say the chatbot “spit out gold” for developing a two-week European
itinerary for around $1,000
a person.
Similar to Google
Flights and Bing
Flights, you can ask Bard or Bing Chat to find cheap flights for you and
they will return options and links for bookings.
Expedia, which has a ChatGPT plug-in, recently introduced
the chatbot to its own app so members can now can get recommendations
on where to go, where to stay, how to get around, and what to see and do.
Booking.com also is
adding ChatGPT to its AI-powered app.
Hopper searches
for the lowest prices and and most flexible options on flights, hotels and
rental cars. It predicts future travel prices and notifies you when it’s the
best time to book your travel.
Among other AI-powered travel-planning sites and apps to
inspire your trips are:
At work
You might be able to use ChatGPT to make life easier at
work, but should you?
Jodie Cook, founder of Coachvox.ai, says in a
Forbes article that she trained ChatGPT to answer emails in her voice.
Others use it to edit their work, summarize reports, analyze data, write
reports, brainstorm fresh ideas or substitute it for a traditional Google
search.
For example, to understand topics better, start a prompt
with “Explain [this] to me as if I’m a beginner” for instructions, or ask the
chatbot to create a marketing campaign and tell it your product and target
audience.
Your boss might wonder what you’re doing with your time,
too.
While ChatGPT can introduce efficiencies in workplace
processes, it also presents legal risks for employers, says
Karla Grossenbacher, a lawyer specializing in workplace policies. She and
others cite potential issues with data leaks, accuracy and bias.
Companies banning or
restricting ChatGPT and other bots at work include Samsung, Amazon, Apple and
major banks.
Lower your bills
If you need help negotiating rent, credit card interest
rates or car insurance premiums, the personal money-management site Cleo is
ready to lend AI aid for free.
Its new ChatGPT-powered Haggle
It feature will ask and help you answer why you seek lower rates. You
choose how serious a tone — from chilled surfer to professional lawyer — you
want to take. It will whip up a letter you can send to get negotiations
started.
For example, you can threaten your long-time credit card
company that you will transfer your balance to a bank card offering lower
rates. It suggested in a recent test telling your bank, “While I would prefer
to remain a customer of your bank, I cannot ignore the potential savings that
this option presents.”
Cleo claims 1 in 3 respondents to a survey of 1,000
millennial and Gen Z Americans successfully negotiated lower rents and car
insurance premiums; 1 in 5 got credit card rates or fees lowered.
