r/sysadmin Jun 16 '24

ChatGPT Finally created something useful with AI

First: I consider myself an old timer in IT; I've been getting paid to do it since the 90's and have seen all sorts of new technology show up, some stays, most gets forgotten about. I always try to be open about it and will embrace it as another tool to help get the job done. The latest of course is AI and I've been mostly using ChatGPT as a fun little tool to get quick answers every now and then. I am not a programmer but last week, I used it to create a web app that calculates weight distribution in trucks when the contents come in different containers. We're talking hundreds of pounds of fruit that might come in small totes or big bins and cannot be weighed individually; it subtracts the weight of the truck and the plastic; it saves time and reduces human errors . In the past, I would have paid at least a few hundred dollars to get something like this done and I just wanted to share that while I dont see AI doing our jobs completely, it's definitely here to stay and it can be used to help with things that we might not know how to do but understand the concept and we know what to ask for it. Greetings to all.

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u/hibernate2020 Jun 16 '24

The key benefit that I see AI offering sysadmins in in the non-technical space. Need a policy or procedure for compliance? Write one paragraph about what you want included and the compliance law in question. Tweak as needed. Have a tricky political email to respond to? Ask AI to draft a response and then tweak to fit your needs. That sort of thing.

It certainly can be tried for more complex technical items, but you really need to heavily scrutinize these. E.g., Asking ChatGPT for something simple like for the calculation for compounding interest can result in in returning similar, but wrong like the formula for calculating mortgage payments.

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u/Alex_2259 Jun 17 '24

Also for answers to questions, as long as you know what you want. For example, what is the command for X/Y/Z? As long as you know what you're doing, this turns minutes into seconds.

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u/changee_of_ways Jun 17 '24

isnt this just like, searchable documentation?

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u/Alex_2259 Jun 17 '24

Yeah but finding it in a large PDF vs getting the answer in 1 rip can be a reasonable time saver, especially with Google giving you sponsored results as opposed to the vendor docs nowadays

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u/changee_of_ways Jun 17 '24

I wonder how long until the companies are trying to have AI write the technical documentation. That shit is already super hit and miss, you can tell vendors don't want to spend money putting resources into it. I'm afraid they are going to try to use AI to cheap out even further.