My First AI Blog

A person using a laptop with an AI tool open on the screen

Photo from Pexels.

Welcome to my first AI blog. I am learning this one step at a time, and I want this to be a comfortable place for other older adults who are curious about AI but may not know where to begin.

This blog will be a regular place where I share what I am learning, what I am trying, and what actually works for me. Right now I am using the paid version of ChatGPT. I started with the free version, but I quickly ran into limits that did not fit what I wanted to do. Sometimes I would research something, get interested, and then have to wait until the next day to continue. The $20 monthly version has been working well for me so far.

I am also using another OpenAI product called Codex. It is connected to my ChatGPT account, and it helps me build things without having to write all the code myself. I use Codex for programming help, and it has been especially useful for creating this website.

The biggest surprise so far is that ChapGPT and Codex does not make me feel dumb. It gives me a patient helper that lets me move at my own pace, ask the same question more than once, and keep going when I get stuck.

Why I Finally Jumped In

I have been using ChatGPT for roughly a year, mostly for research. I had not done much else with it until recently. I also tried some image creation and found that ChatGPT is not the best at every kind of image, but the tools are getting better fast.

At some point I decided it was time to get on the AI bandwagon. I had watched a lot of videos and read plenty of posts, but I was not really putting anything into action. This website is one of my first real projects. If you are reading this, you are seeing the result of that decision.

If you are an older adult and AI feels intimidating, you are not alone. My advice is simple: start small, ask plain questions, and let yourself learn by doing.

Building This Website

I originally tried doing this in a condensed version of WordPress, but I did not get very far with it. Then I decided to see what ChatGPT and Codex could do. That turned this into a fun learning process.

Even though I am a software engineer, I have never really created anything using HTML, the language used to build web pages. So in this area, I still feel like a beginner. That is part of what makes this interesting. AI is helping me learn something new without making me feel like I have to know everything before I start.

Using Codex has been surprisingly easy. I can type or dictate what I want, and Codex creates the code for me. Then I can ask for changes in plain English, like making the logo bigger, changing colors, adding pages, or updating photos.

What I Have Learned So Far

The whole process of creating this website has taken about eight hours. I have learned a lot by making small changes, seeing what happens, and then improving it little by little. If I had to start over with a new site, I could probably do it in about half the time now.

Going forward, I will keep tweaking this site to make it more useful and relevant. I also want it to help me continue learning. I will share more AI activities, experiments, and lessons as I go.

If you are curious about AI, you are welcome to follow along. You do not have to be young, technical, or fearless to start. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to try.