“I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes,” tweeted the author Joanna Maciejewska last year. Which might perfectly sumise your thoughts on generative artificial intelligence. We were promised The Jetsons, yet we seem to be teetering towards The Matrix. Black Mirror, if we’re lucky.

Only you could look at it another way. Yes, the next generation of ChatGPT or Claude AI might do your job better than you. But – for now, at least – we’re the boss. So, delegate.

“It’s like having a really clever colleague who’s instantly on call,” says the broadcaster, speaker and coach David Baker. “Henry Thoreau, the 19th-century American philosopher, had a very good phrase: ‘Men have become the tools of their tools’.” Baker’s advice: use the tool, don’t be one.

With that in mind, here’s how AI can improve your life right now. In the workplace, in the home – even in the kitchen.

Aside from the environmental costs, one of the biggest issues around AI centres on copyright law and the ethics of trawling, replicating – stealing, essentially – the work of artists, musicians and writers. It hardly makes it better that much of the material AI then spits out is what has been politely labelled “slop”.

If you are plotting that novel, however, or just playing around with Midjourney, AI can be a valuable tool for creativity and world building. “My recommendation to all writers is to start using AI deeply,” as the LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman recently put it. “It is a huge intelligence amplifier.”

Just make sure to keep it out of view. “With AI-generated content, I have a simple rule,” says the digital marketing expert Will Francis. “Nothing that sees the light of day was created with AI. Lots of the back-end work is done by ChatGPT et al. This is where it excels – that research and analysis role. But you should step in and put your face in the video, pick up the phone, write an imperfect, but interesting post. This is your difference, your leverage.”

When asked for career advice for the future he helped usher in, Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI”, famously replied: “Become a plumber”. And yet, rather than threaten your job, AI could actually help you get one. “Tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly useful for job seekers, but only when used in the right way,” says the careers coach Hannah Salton.

While there’s the temptation to let ChatGPT do the thinking for you, many recruiters report being “swamped with identical applications from candidates who rely on AI to generate entire cover letters, without making any personal edits themselves,” Salton says. “One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is writing generic, uninspiring cover letters that fail to showcase their unique value.” She suggests plotting this first, “then use AI to help refine the structure and wording. While ChatGPT can help with research, it can’t generate genuine enthusiasm, so make sure you’re clear on this before drafting your application.”

Once you have that dream job, the encroachment of AI is far from over. In fact, this new technology is increasingly a reality in many workplaces, so you need to adapt. Again, though, don’t think of it as a replacement for human expertise, rather a “co-pilot”, as Hoffman pitches it.

“I treat it like a tireless intern that is always ready to do research, sift through documents and data, put together reports,” Francis says. “Stuff that I find tedious, but also things that I just wouldn’t be capable of.” (Full disclosure: all the interview transcriptions for this story – the least-enjoyable bit – were done by AI.) Francis points to a recent study by Harvard and the academic Ethan Mollick. “They found that people who treated it like a teammate got tangible productivity boosts.”

You could even find yourself being the “go-to AI guy” in your office, Francis says. Make use of free courses – for example, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has recently launched its own academy. But don’t limit yourself to ChatGPT, Francis says. “Some of the biggest productivity gains are around automation and AI. Platforms like Make and Zapier are worth mastering. Any processes where people are just doing boring data-entry work or moving information are prime opportunities to implement AI automation.”

Back in 2022, Paolo Rosson created The AI Cookbook, a collection of recipes generated entirely by GPT-3, with images by DALL-E. It served up some unlikely fusions, including tikka masala tacos, sushi lasagne and, um, bratwurst ice cream. While Rosson highlights that AI models have been greatly refined since then, his sense of experimentation hasn’t dimmed.

“You could take, let’s say, 10 recipes [and ask] what variations can I make to the recipe that would change the flavour?” he says. “You could even think of ways a dish should be plated. Get AI image-generation models to plate it in five different ways, then the chef can choose and serve it like that.”

In a domestic setting, AI tools can also be helpful for suggesting recipes based on the ingredients you have to hand. Or assembling shopping lists for the dinner you want. In fact, purpose-built software, such as SideChef AI, exists precisely for this reason.

At its best, AI can be a tool to rid us of drudgery and grant us more time to paint, write or play music – and even help out on that front. But perhaps the greatest service that it can provide is as a reminder of what makes us human in the first place, and how valuable that is.

“We mustn’t lose sight of the value of real human connection,” Salton says. “Having more real conversations with people. We should learn how to use AI to our advantage, staying mindful of its limitations and potential downsides.”

“We humans have a lot of really good skills,” Baker says. “We understand authenticity. We understand that emotionally when people are being fake – we can see through it. The skill that we’re going to have to develop is a healthy scepticism about what computers produce.”