chapter one

1 Artificial intelligence in IT

 

This chapter covers

  • Overview of generative AI tools
  • Addressing AI’s impact on IT jobs and professional development
  • Capabilities and applications of various AI engine versions
  • AI’s role in enhancing IT tasks, decision-making, and teamwork
  • Ethical guidelines and strategies for AI usage in IT environments

We know it’s cliche to say that something will revolutionize an industry but seriously: generative AI tools like ChatGPT will absolutely revolutionize the IT industry and knowing how to use them will become required knowledge.

"[AI] is every bit as important as the PC, as the internet."

— Bill Gates

What used to be hours-long tasks are now condensed into minutes with the right prompts. Consider the exhausting task of network troubleshooting, where identifying the root cause of a latency issue could consume your entire morning. Now, imagine delegating this task to an AI like ChatGPT or Copilot, which can sift through logs, correlate events, and suggest actionable fixes.

It’s the same for the routine task of updating a company’s knowledge base. Manually reviewing and updating technical documentation, FAQs, and best practices can be time-consuming and prone to oversight. AI can now automate this process, ensuring that the knowledge base is always current and accurate. This allows IT professionals to focus on more strategic aspects of knowledge management, like identifying gaps in the information or creating new content.

1.1 ChatGPT v4’s leap in problem-solving

1.2 The elephant in the server room

1.3 Elevating your role

1.3.1 The unexpected mediator

1.4 An introduction to generative AI

1.4.1 Large language model chatbots

1.4.2 Image generation with generative adversarial networks

1.5 Service costs

1.6 Responsible AI use in the workplace

1.6.1 Keeping your data safe

1.6.2 Bias and fairness

1.6.3 Plagiarism in AI

1.6.4 Citing prompts in your work

1.6.5 Jailbreaking ChatGPT

1.7 Good to better

1.8 Did AI write this book?

1.9 How we are using AI

1.10 Prompts used in this chapter