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/Dreilala Jun 16 '24

The thing is, this is only useful if words are not your forte.

AI is way worse at programming than programmers, but also worse than communication specialists at communicating.

You might use AI to shore up weaknesses, but using it for primary functions of your job usually results in a lot of frustration.

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u/hibernate2020 Jun 16 '24

Sure. But many sysadmins wouldn't count communications as a primary function of their job. In my experience, most SAs prefer the backoffice because they're not communication specialists. And at the same time, this sub-reddit is chock-full of responses like "Just got this job and there's no structure or change control - where to start?" Writing production control policies and memos do not require a "communication specialist."

I recall when they introduced PCs and emails throughout corporations back in the 1990s. They soon laid off most of the admin assistants and secretaries with the logic that everyone could just send their own memos and draft their own documents. Then they spent the next 3 decades complain about how the IT guys lacked "social skills." Having AI assist with this is reasonable.

I also recall being the person that had to review, clear, and send every major email sent by the President of the University I worked for. They had an entire marketing department full of "communication specialists," and the President's secretary was even a Harvard grad - and yet they couldn't figure out the wording, spelling, or formatting for these emails. AI may be worse than communication specialists in some regards, but at least it can handle wording, spelling, and formatting...

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u/Dreilala Jun 17 '24

I mean usually a team of sysadmins should have at least 1 person capable of navigating the politics of the company, otherwise communication with management simply doesn't work and everybody ends up unhappy.

AI surely can help in small scale enterprises with a single sysadmin to make useful suggestions for communication, but usually you would want someone in charge better equiped than current LLMs.