My Journey with Co-Pilot – The Beginning

Co-Pilot… Chat-GPT… Grok… Gemini… and gee-wilikers, all the AI Chat-Bots and more that are coming out so fast and furious.  Each and every one is surely better than the rest and what we all GOTTA have, or we will fall behind and lost by AI / Artificial Intelligence.  

What’s a person to do?  Especially an obsessive-compulsive programmer (yes, that would be me).  Even with well over 40 years of Information Technology (IT) experience it can seem daunting… or like a big marketing scam… just not sure!

I had an idea… and yes that should scare you.  I thought, what if I tested and documented my experiences with Co-Pilot?  Heck, I have 3Deers.com, and it has a blog spot (though, it has been quite some time since I wrote anything new).  I’ll use that, and here we are.

First step was to do a little reading and study.  Tons of classes and blogs out there, all saying a lot and many trying to get some of your hard-earned cash.  I’m not gonna do that but wouldn’t mind you clicking on my Amazon Affiliate Link. 

I decided to pick one product and chose Microsoft’s Co-Pilot.  This is part of Internet Explorer / Microsoft 365 subscription.  I have it on my laptop and on my phone.  I found that they are in sync together, too, which is very convenient.  I am not discounting the merits of any other product, i just needed to pick one and see what it could do.  Good, bad or ugly… I selected Co-Pilot.

Here’s the basic concept of an AI Chat, such as Co-Pilot.  

• They are not search engines… you are not getting a list of web pages to review.
• Think of the Chat Bot as a person you just met.  You know they are an expert (or think they are) about everything, and they will be more than happy to share. 
• Explain briefly who you are or the prospective of your questions.  Then ask your question.
• From there, you can actually RESPOND to the answer with more details or a refinement of your question… just like you are speaking to a real person.  

Now… Sometimes you’ll get great insight… Sometimes you get a bunch of hot air with Co-Pilot echoing back your statements along with cliches.  

My plan is to just free flow my thoughts and queries, often sitting and watching TV.  I’ll have a question about a show we are watching, or maybe I got bored and my mind wanders.  Sometimes I may need help on a project around the house.  No matter the situation, each becomes its own “conversation”, so easy to go back and forth on different issues.