Possibly unpopular opinion follows: We all know that #ChatGPT and other #AI sometimes generates complete bullshit, and you have to cheack everything it says. You would think that asking other humans for advice would be better, and sometimes that's the case. But, sometimes you want an answer in a hurry, or sometimes you just want to not have to search the web for six hours to try to figure something out. Or sometimes you have a question about #Linux, or the Linux version of a specific product, but if you ask a question in one of their online forums you are likely to get a reply from the forum "resident expert" (read: resident asshole) who delights in telling you what a slacker or moron you are, but his "help" is incomprehensible and useless. And then he gets upset that you didn't thank him! A few of those guys I'd like to thank with a brick upside the head!
Anyway, if you're sick of that, I'd suggest giving ChatGPT a try, again with the caveat that sometimes it generates bullshit. But if, for example, you need a quick script to do some task, you can ask it to write one for you, and you may find that it's 99% or even 100% correct. I have found that occasionally it will make up a command or option that doesn't exist, but still it is usually easier to then just look up that one thing rather than have no idea where to start. For example the last time I used it, it wrote a script for me that centered around one command I had not even known about, but when I looked up that command I found that while ChatGPT had given an argument that would have worked, it was not the absolute best option for what I wanted to do. So the point is that you do have to check ChatGPT's work, but remember that it is still fairly new and will probably get better over time.
But the thing that is so great about it is it never gives you attitude, calls you lazy, says you could have easily found it on Google (yeah, if you knew what to search for) or throws any of the shade at you that the Linux grumps or asshole moderators in some other forums are fond of throwing (#Reddit is a particular cesspool in regard to this, in my opinion). It just tries to answer your questions! And even if the answer it provides isn't 100% correct, you at least will have a better idea of what it was doing because if you ask it to, it will explain particular sections of the code or script to you (sometimes it does this anyway).
After using it a few times I am starting to get this "Where has this been all my life?" feeling whenever I use it. Again, I know it is not perfect, but damn, it sure is nice to have something that will give you answers and not attitude. And for those who say I just want to be spoon-fed everything, I will just say that not everyone wants everything in life to be hard, or some kind of puzzle to be solved. If you think it is somehow virtuous to figure things out on your own, you are more than welcome to do them the hard way if that's what floats your boat, but the rest of us will be enjoying not have to put up with your cranky attitude! :)
Unfortunately I can't post this where it really needs to be heard because the "resident expert" or his friend the moderator will probably delete my post and ban me, not that I would conider that any big loss. What those guys don't realize is that it is EXACTLY those kinds of actions and attitudes that drive users TOWARD using AI rather than interacting with tempramental humans. But it seems that when you give a human a position of authority, no matter how small (and a forum or Reddit moderator is pretty small, in the grand scheme of things), they think that gives them license to start abusing other people and thinking of them as inferiors. While it appears that at least some AI's can be goaded into doing that if you give them the right input, that is not thir default position if you are just asking a technical question.
My point is, if you don't want people to turn to AI's for answers, then we need better forum moderators (ones who don't think every post they censor is a notch in their belt, but who are still able to keep out the spam and repeat trolls) and we need to muzzle the forum participants that get their jollies by going full Don Rickles on other forum participants. But somehow I suspect that's never going to happen (especially on Reddit) and that is exactly why AI's are becoming so popular so fast. It is just so nice to be able to ask a question and get an answer without any extra helpings of attitude or insults!
(For the young'uns going "Don WHO???", he was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story movies, among other roles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rickles)
