AI is all the rage these days, but some of us have an aversion to learning curves, and the older I get, the more that pertains to me. I had played around with AI a few times asking simple questions, but never really got my mind wrapped around it. So, I decided to do a project and seriously focus on AI just to see how much it could really help me.
I just hate shopping for computers. It is a big expense, and I don’t buy them often enough to stay on top of all the technology. I always feel like I am being sold something the store has in stock, rather than what might best fit my needs. Sales pitches like, “Gizmo 3.0 is so much better that Gizmo 2.0 its really worth the upgrade cost” – when I’m not all that sure what the Gizmo does in the first place – really make me uncomfortable.
And with technology moving so rapidly, I have trouble telling a salesperson the specifications I’m looking for, because I just don’t know all the newer stuff. Regular old Wi-Fi vs WiFi-6? Yikes! The process causes me to worry about not ending up with the right thing, and I hate to get involved with things that are going to cause me worry.
The reason I am telling you this is because my desktop computer runs on Windows 10, and its hardware won’t update to Windows 11.
My computer runs fine, and does everything that I need, but Microsoft has said they will stop supporting Windows 10 next October. Windows 10 computers will still run, but lack of security updates after October 2025 means it will be easier to get hacked as time goes on. As a result, I will be replacing my computer. I can’t take any risks with your data.
But the number of decisions needed to get a system that may last me another 10 years is where my aversion to learning curves comes in.
So, I decided to use the power of Artificial Intelligence to help me decide what system would be best for me. The whole process, including buying a new computer, was over in about 30 minutes with just a few AI prompts, getting me much better clarity and simplicity of answers than Google has ever provided. Here is how I did it.
I started with Co-Pilot, a free AI feature in Microsoft’s Bing browser. Quickly I realized that it was recommending Microsoft products, so I switched to Perplexity.ai for my searches. Perplexity.ai is regarded as a leading AI for research as opposed to having AI create images or do writing. I use the free version of Perplexity, by the way.
Here you can see the prompt I entered at the top, and the answer that AI provided. The answer is normally followed by several specific recommendations if you want to shop, which I have left off so as to not clutter up the screen.
My first prompt was trying to figure out the scope of the problem. I asked AI how many Windows 10 computers were running around the world? The answer was around 1 billion.
My second prompt asked how many of those billion computers could not update to Windows 11? The answer 30-40%. So, I did some math.
40% of 1 billion is 400 million computers that cannot upgrade. I assumed that half, or 200 million, would upgrade and half would go on in blissful ignorance of the risk they take.
In a normal year, 200 million Windows PCs are sold. If half of those not-upgradable computers get replaced before next October, that creates 200 million additional computer buyers – doubling the normal sales volume over the next 10-12 months. I took that to mean: don’t expect sale prices next year, and instead expect rising prices as demand surges. Waiting to buy will likely get expensive, in my opinion.
My next prompt was to tell AI the role I wanted it to play and ask it a question. I asked “You are a technology adviser. I need a computer, and I often have 10-20 tabs open at a time. I work with large databases and multi-page spreadsheets. I also need portability. What kind of computer would work well for me?”
I received a 177-word response which is refreshingly shorter than pages of websites listed by Google, that may or may not have my answer buried somewhere in them. Perplexity listed several options that are summarized here at the bottom of the slide:
- A laptop
- High-performance chips
- Minimum 32 Gigabytes of memory (I would have been way off guessing on this one)
- Solid State Storage (different than a regular hard disk with moving parts)
- High-end graphics
In just a few minutes, I was really getting some solid answers!
If a laptop would give me the portability I asked for, I wondered if an even lighter tablet computer could work for me? My next prompt asked, can a tablet do this instead of a laptop? Notice that I did not have to tell AI what “this” was. It knew. This is just a continuation of the conversation like you and I might have.
The answer, “yes, if it is a high-end tablet.”
As it turns out, the iPad my wife got me for Christmas last year qualifies as “high-end” – barely. I thought I just saved $1,000! Yay!
But in checking the industry–specific programs I use, my FastTrack charting program that I use almost every day will not run on the mobile operating system of an iPad, so that line of inquiry came to a quick halt.
At Costco online I searched for laptops with 32GB of memory and I found a great buy that seemed to meet Perplexity’s specs. Just to be sure, I asked Perplexity if this computer would work. Perplexity says it is an “excellent choice.” I feel like I got a gold star!
So, instead of spending several days worrying about the technical issues and tearing out what little hair I have left, my shopping is done, and I am comfortable with my choice. I spent about 15 minutes on Perplexity and another 15 minutes shopping for the computer online. That was all!
There are many free, simple to use AIs out there in addition to Co-Pilot and Perplexity.ai. In addition to those two, industry leader Chat GPT has a free version. Apple and Google, too. Check them out.
I am really digging the new technology available today. I may have to push myself to expand my horizons like I did here with the computer purchase, but the ease of AI may just postpone the date at which I truly become a dinosaur when it comes to technology.
