CHATGPT
ChatGPT troubleshoots your Linux problems
Nick Peers investigates the different ways in which ChatGPT might help you maintain and fix problems with your PC.
OUR EXPERT
Nick Peers swears he didn’t get ChatGPT to write this tutorial for him. However, if he suddenly ‘produces’ a novel (or 10) in the next year, feel free to be extremely suspicious.
ChatGPT will either herald the next generation of automation or end humanity if you’ve watched the Terminator films one too many times. But when you strip away the hype surrounding this breakthrough technology, what does it actually mean – and can it be harnessed in a productive way for your Linux-related needs?
First, let’s define what ChatGPT is: it’s an artificial intelligence chatbot, which basically makes it an app designed to provide you with a means to interrogate its underlying AI using natural text-based conversation. The GPT stands for generative pre-trained transformer, which means its intelligence is derived from a combination of machine learning and human training.
ChatGPT arrived in a fanfare of publicity in November 2022, the first chatbot to be lauded for its human-like responses to questions. However, it fell flat on its face within weeks of launch when it came to its (lack of) accuracy. StackFlow mods have even temporarily banned users from posting answers generated by ChatGPT because “while the answers which ChatGPT produces have a high rate of being incorrect, they typically look like they might be good and the answers are very easy to produce” (see https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421831/).