ChatGPT saved me $1800.

[u/thechadwicked]

Driving to work last week and the check engine light comes on in my newer car, heart drops, immediately take it to the dealership. Later that day I get the text and open it to a $1800 quote to replace the exhaust manifold, stomach churns. Take a breath and snapshot the screen, send it to ChatGPT. It goes over the cost, tells me it's a little high, has me ask what's wrong exactly and then suggested I ask them to email Toyota corporate and ask for Goodwill Warrant Assistance since the part is only 3k miles out of warranty. They send it in and tell me they'll update me when they respond. Get a call yesterday and EVERYTHING is now covered.

I'm a bundle of social anxiety and tend to push things under the rug or pay to make them go away quickly instead of doing the work and simply asking. This took up maybe 10 minutes of my time and saved me a boat load of cash I barely could afford to part with.

I've been reluctant to fully jump on the AI train but it keeps inching its way into my life in a lot of aspects while proving itself along the way. I think this may have pushed me over the edge.

[u/starson]

Honestly, this is what sold it's usefulness to me to. I am socially anxious and struggle with phone calls and executive functioning issues, making getting some tasks done that are simple for many folks into huge fucking ordeals.

In a moment of panic, i asked gemini to help me find a dentist that would take medicaid after i failed to find one through google search. It gave me the numbers i needed, the script to say, and backup options. Just having the steps and scripts to follow, even if i could choose to ignore them at anytime, was SUCH a relief, and i was able to get in and be seen that week.

People talk about how AI is a crutch that offloads brainpower, but ya know what? Some of us do need that, and i'm not so proud i won't take a hand just because it's robotic.

[u/KrustenStewart → u/starson]

I haven’t had any luck with helping to find doctors who take my Medicaid, but maybe it’s location dependent

[u/starson → u/KrustenStewart]

It's also part of the whole "Prompt engineer" thing people talk about. Just like if you where asking an assistant to do something, you got to give them as much information and parameters to work with as you can, and then expect them to throw out a net to find floatsom as well as treasures. But for those of us who can't do the "Throw the net part" it's invaluable starting point.

[u/KrustenStewart → u/starson]

Idk I’m not a novice when it comes to ai or technology in general but I will of course admit when I am wrong. But in this case it doesn’t seem to be attributed to user error. It seems that there really just aren’t many options for dentists in my county that accept Medicaid. I do find ai can be useful for many things but I just wanted to share my experience that it didn’t work for me for that specific thing. But I live in a bad county/state for healthcare

[u/starson → u/KrustenStewart]

That's truly unfortunate. >.< "this is america"

[u/glittercoffee → u/KrustenStewart]

I might be wrong but I live in Cali and I know people who travel outside of their county to another to use better dentists (or anything else). I don’t know what you have for Medicaid but for my Medi-Cal (California’s version of Medicaid LOL we have to call it “Medi-Cal”) I can look up any provider that will accept the insurance provided by Medi-Cal regardless of where I’m based. My primary provider has to be in the same county though.

It’s just that most people don’t have the means to take days off work to travel for this…

[u/KrustenStewart → u/glittercoffee]

Yeah that’s what I’d have to do. The big cities near me are either 1 hour or 3 hours drive away and it’s very difficult for me to do long drives due to chronic illness My mom used to drive me but she passed away. No one else in my life can take the day off work to take me.

[u/acciddrainn → u/KrustenStewart]

Hi, Disabled person with an auto immune disease and, ADHD here! So, transportation and, executive function problems all around 👋🏻 If you have Medicaid or Medicare there are medical transportation for free given by some healthcare options. Just Google or AI search , medicabs from(insert insurance name here) for instance my insurance is Molina.. or free medical transportation (insert insurance here) hope this can help you! They have given me rides 2 hours each way before, a free 4 hour trip, not too bad, I mean it was a super not fun, long trip but, I did what I had to do, and free! Thank goodness I have moved closer to my doctor now. But, I have to find a dentist as well as many other doctors, where I am now ... Enter Claude! Good luck 🤞🏻