How AI has opened up my hobbies in ways I never expected
People sometimes assume AI is primarily a work tool, something for writing emails or looking things up quickly. That is true enough. Some of the most joyful reactions I see at my sessions, though, come when people discover what AI can do for the things they love most.
What follows is a run through the hobbies that come up most often, with a real example you could try in each. You do not need to read it all. Find the one that catches your interest, and start there.
New to this? How to use the examples below.
Throughout this post you will see lines written in italics inside quotation marks. Those are examples of what you might type, or say out loud, to an AI such as ChatGPT. They are starting points rather than magic words. There is no wrong way to phrase a question, so please do not worry about getting it exactly right.
Change them to suit yourself. Swap in your own team, your own garden, your own situation. Where you see something in [square brackets], that is simply a gap for you to fill in with your own details.
You decide how deep to go. If an answer is too complicated, say “explain that more simply”. If it is too basic, say “tell me more about that”. You can keep asking follow-up questions until it makes sense, and nothing is ever waiting on you.
Gardening
This is an area where AI shines. You can describe a plant you have found and ask what it is, or photograph it and ask directly. You can explain a problem (yellowing leaves, unusual spots, something eating the flowers) and get a thoughtful diagnosis with several possible causes rather than one guess.
It is just as good at planning. What to plant in a shady corner, how to improve heavy clay soil, which shrubs cope with salt wind on the Norfolk coast, what needs doing in the garden this month. It will also work to a budget and tell you which jobs can wait.
‘I have a north-facing border about three metres long that gets almost no direct sun. The soil is heavy clay. I would like something with year-round interest that does not need much attention. What would you suggest?’
Painting, drawing and sketching
AI can suggest techniques, recommend supplies, explain the difference between approaches and help you work through a creative problem when you are stuck. If you have never understood why your watercolours go muddy or how to mix a convincing shadow, it will explain it patiently and in plain English.
It is also good at the theory that art books tend to assume you already know. Composition, perspective, colour temperature, why a painting feels unbalanced when you cannot say why.
‘I paint in watercolour and my skies always end up flat and lifeless. Can you explain what I am probably doing wrong and give me three things to try next time?’
Knitting, sewing and needlecraft
Patterns are full of abbreviations and assumed knowledge. AI will translate any of it into plain English, explain a stitch you have not met before and help you work out where a pattern has gone wrong. It can also adjust a pattern for a different size or a different yarn weight, which is the sort of arithmetic that puts people off attempting it.
‘This knitting pattern is written for double knit yarn but I want to use aran. The jumper needs to fit a 40 inch chest. Can you help me work out how to adjust the stitch counts?’
Family history and genealogy
Another area where AI can save hours. It will explain what a particular record actually is, help you understand old occupational terms, make sense of historical context and suggest where to look next when a line goes cold. It can also help you get the sense of an old document when the handwriting is defeating you.
One word of caution worth stating plainly. AI can be wrong about specific names, dates and places, so treat anything factual as a lead to verify rather than a finding. Use it to understand and to plan your search, then confirm through the records themselves.
‘My great-grandfather is listed on the 1881 census as an “ag lab” in Norfolk. What did that involve day to day, and what other records might mention someone in that occupation?’
Photography
Whether you use a proper camera or just your phone, AI is a patient teacher. It will explain aperture and shutter speed without the jargon, suggest how to photograph a particular subject and talk you through why a shot did not work. It is also useful for the practical side, such as what settings suit a bright beach or a dim church interior.
‘I want to photograph the sunset at Cromer with my phone. What should I do to get a better result than just pointing and hoping?’
Music
A great many people played something years ago and would like to pick it up again. AI will build you a gentle practice routine, explain music theory at whatever pace you want, suggest pieces suited to your level and help you understand what a chord symbol means. It will not replace a teacher, though it fills the gaps between lessons very well.
‘I played the piano to about grade four as a teenager and have not touched one for forty years. I have twenty minutes a day. Can you suggest how I should spend the first month?’
Birdwatching and the natural world
Describe what you saw, where you were and what it was doing, and AI will narrow it down for you. It is good at the follow-up questions too, such as what to listen for or where a species is likely to turn up locally at a given time of year.
‘I saw a medium-sized brown bird on the marshes near Cley this morning, long curved beak, making a bubbling call. What am I most likely to have seen?’
Baking and cooking
Beyond finding recipes, AI is useful for the things that go wrong. Why a cake sank, why bread did not rise, what to substitute when you are missing an ingredient. It will scale a recipe up or down, convert old imperial measurements and adapt something to suit a dietary requirement.
‘My Victoria sponge keeps sinking in the middle. I use a fan oven at 180 degrees. What are the most likely causes and how do I test which one it is?’
Woodwork, models and making things
AI will help you plan a project, work out a cutting list, suggest which joint suits the job and talk you through a technique step by step. It is also good at the awkward maths, such as working out angles or how much material to buy.
‘I want to build a simple bookcase, roughly one metre wide and 1.8 metres tall, from pine. Can you give me a cutting list and tell me which joints would be strong enough without needing specialist tools?’
Reading and book groups
AI can recommend your next book based on what you have actually enjoyed rather than what is being promoted, explain the background to a novel, or generate discussion questions for a book group. It will also remind you where you had got to if you have put a book down for a few months.
‘I have just finished a novel with a strong sense of place and slow, careful writing, and I loved it. Can you suggest five others with a similar feel, and say briefly why each one might suit me?’
Fishing
Bait, tackle, tides, conditions, what is likely to be feeding and when. AI will talk it through with you and explain the reasoning rather than simply issuing instructions, which is how you actually learn something.
‘I am sea fishing from a Norfolk beach in October. What am I likely to catch, and what bait and tackle would you recommend for a fairly inexperienced angler?’
Collecting
Whether it is stamps, coins, china, records or postcards, AI can help you identify an item, understand what affects its value, explain the terminology dealers use and suggest where to research further. Do treat any valuation as a starting point rather than a figure to rely on.
‘I have a piece of china with a blue crossed swords mark on the base. How do I go about identifying the maker and roughly when it was made?’
Local history and walking
Ask about the history of a village, what a ruin used to be, why a footpath runs where it does or what a place name means. It turns an ordinary walk into something more interesting, and it is a good way of discovering routes you did not know about.
‘Can you suggest three circular walks of around five miles within half an hour of north Norfolk, and tell me something historically interesting about each route?’
Puzzles, chess and card games
AI will teach you a game from scratch, explain a rule you have always been vague about, work through a strategy with you or settle a dispute about how something should be scored. For crosswords it can explain how a clue works, which is far more useful in the long run than simply handing over the answer.
‘Can you explain how cryptic crossword clues are constructed, using three simple examples, so I can start to spot the patterns myself?’
The trick that works for every one of these
If you take one thing from this post, make it this. Before AI answers, ask it to question you first.
‘I would like help with [your hobby]. Before you suggest anything, please ask me whatever you need to know about my experience, my situation and what I am hoping to achieve.’
The difference is remarkable. Instead of a general answer that could apply to anyone, you get something shaped around your garden, your skill level, your budget and your part of the country. It takes an extra minute and it is almost always worth it.
Anything you love
The pattern I have noticed is this. Whatever someone is passionate about, AI finds a way to make it richer. It is curious, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about almost every subject, and that enthusiasm turns out to be rather infectious.
Your hobby does not need to be on this list. If it matters to you, it is worth asking about.
Want to try this with your own hobby?
Sitting down with your own interest, on your own device, and working through it properly is exactly what one-to-one sessions with Kevin are for. Bring whatever you are passionate about.
Kevin also runs free library presentations across Norfolk. Come along, see AI in action and ask about anything you have read in the blog, including this.
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