Almost two-thirds of respondents to The Logic’s latest survey said they use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, with uses varying from creating first drafts of emails to generating travel plans and even helping care for an elderly parent.

Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini have become more widely used since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 jump-started an AI boom. Large language models like ChatGPT have been the source of potential leaps in productivity—such as with coding—but also present privacy risks and could aid the spread of misinformation.    

Among respondents to The Logic’s February survey, 64 per cent said they use chatbots like ChatGPT at work and 65 per cent use them outside of work. 

Of those who said they use chatbots for work, brainstorming ideas and summarizing or analyzing other material were the top uses at 68 per cent each. Research assistance and writing content like emails were also popular uses.

Several readers said they don’t use chatbots to produce a final product—instead, they chose to produce a first draft with the tools, and then refine it afterwards. “I feel they’ve enhanced my productivity and have helped me get past that initial ‘writer’s block’ problem of a blank page,” one respondent said. “Even if the output isn’t good enough for the final answer, it pushes me in the right direction.”

Respondents who used them, however, noted their concerns about possible hallucinations and a lack of reliability. “The fact-checking on the current tool (even GPT-4) is rather inadequate. There is significant improvement but there is also the whole thing being too creative with its answers—which restricts its use in fields such as law,” said one reader.

Some respondents gave more details about the AI tools they’re using, which included ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, GitHub Copilot and Midjourney. Companies varied in their approach to permitting or adopting AI: some readers said their employers had Microsoft Copilot or OpenAI subscriptions and others used custom in-house AI tools, while a small number of respondents said AI tools were restricted at their workplaces.

Of readers who used AI tools like chatbots outside of work, more than half used them for generating ideas for hobbies and creative projects and for writing content like emails. Other popular uses were entertainment, travel planning, meal and fitness planning, and therapy and personal development. 

“Instant poetry for birthdays is amazing,” one respondent wrote. In another answer, a reader said they used chatbots to create travel itineraries and seek out gluten-free restaurants.

Some answers went beyond the survey’s categories, demonstrating the wide range of potential uses. For example, one reader said they used a chatbot for “managing care needs for [an] Alzheimer’s parent,” while another said they were “seeking relationship brainstorming advice.” 

Just over a third of respondents said they don’t use chatbots for either work or outside of work, and many of those readers said they had concerns about privacy, security and reliability. “I haven’t found ChatGPT reliable enough (for software development advice) to risk using it at work,” one reader said. 

Another subscriber said they would like to provide an AI with access to their cloud drive to produce first drafts, but they are “deeply concerned about the privacy and proprietary nature of my work.” 

“I am good at what I do and I don’t want to give my work away to ChatGPT so that it can help make my competitors reach my level,” the reader said. “I want my AI tools to serve me, and I am not interested in serving up my work for the benefit of AI tools and their other users.”

Other respondents appeared determined not to work with AI at all. Using chatbots for email and basic web searches is equivalent to “using a personal helicopter to go grocery shopping,” one reader said. 

Another said: “I have no plans to use them. I think I will move to a solitary island somewhere, if there is still one above sea level in a few years, and never have to interact with an AI again.”

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Methodology

The Logic emailed subscribers a private link to an online survey on Feb. 22 and the survey closed Feb. 27. Respondents’ identities were kept anonymous. Subscribers were first asked “Do you use chatbots like ChatGPT at work?” They could answer: “Yes” or “No.” Next, respondents were asked “If you use AI tools like ChatGPT at work, what do you use them for? Check any that apply. Please select ‘Other’ and elaborate below if your answer doesn’t fit a category.” The options were “Brainstorming ideas,” “Writing content such as emails, social media posts, speeches, etc.,” “Summarizing/analyzing other content,” “Software programming (i.e., coding),” “Research assistance,” “Translation,” “Planning, such as creating schedules” and “Other.” 

Then, readers were asked “Do you use chatbots like ChatGPT outside of work?” and could answer “Yes” or “No.” Respondents were also asked “If you use AI tools like ChatGPT outside of work, what do you use them for? Check any that apply. Please select ‘Other’ and elaborate below if your answer doesn’t fit a category.” They could select “Generating ideas for hobbies or creative projects,” “Writing emails, documents or other content,” “General organizing and scheduling,” “Travel planning,” “Meal and fitness planning,” “Coding,” “Music composition,” “Translation and language learning,” “Entertainment,” “Therapy and personal development” and “Other.” 

Finally, they were asked “Is there anything else you’d like to say about how you currently use AI tools like ChatGPT or plan to use them in the future?”