ChatGPT is very useful for me to the point that I pay subscription fee. To me it IS the product.
a) Write me shell script which does this and that. b) what Linux command with what arguments do I call to do such and such thing. c) Write me a function / class in language A/B/C that does this and that d) write me a SQL query that does this and that e) use it as a reference book for any programming language or whatever other subject.
etc. etc.
The answers sometimes come out wrong and / or does contain non trivial bugs. Being experienced programmer I usually have no problems spotting those just by looking at generated code or running test case created by ChatGPT. Alternatively there are no bugs but the approach is inefficient. In this case point explaining why it is inefficient and what to use instead ChatGPT will fix the approach. Basically it saves me a shit ton of time.
I find it useful for:
* throwing ideas at a wall and rubber-ducking my emotional state and feelings.
* creating silly, meme images in strange circumstances, sometimes.
* answering simple "what's the name of that movie / song / whatever" questions
Think of it like the school and the early days of Wikipedia. "Can I use Wikipedia as a source? No. But you can use it to find primary sources and use those in your research paper!"
They google crap all the time. They're as unaware of things as we are.
The tests they have access to are much better than anything we can get our hands on though.
An expert refreshing their knowledge on Google is not the same as a layman learning it for the first time. At all.
This has happened to me 3-4 times, hasn't sent me wrong yet. Meanwhile I've had doctors misdiagnose me or my wife a bunch of times in my life. Doctors may have more knowledge but they barely listen, and often don't keep up with the latest stuff.
Maybe I'm a low-risk guy but I would never follow a medical solution spit out by an LLC. First, I might be explaining myself badly, hiding important factors that a human person would spot immediately. Then, yeah, the hallucinations issue, and if I have to double check everything anyway, well, just trust a (good) professional.
Its like talking to a intelligent person about a topic you want to learn, but they know it good enough to teach you if you keep asking questions.
Like even when you are writing code. Describe the solution and ask AI to write it, don't specify the requirements to AI and hope it will write it.
When I look for answers to specific questions, I either search Wikipedia, or ask ChatGPT. "Searching the Internet" doesn't work anymore with all the ADs, pop-ups and "optimized" content that I have to consume before I get to find the answers.