The Lazy Sysadmin: How Automox and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Can Build it, Fix it, and Automate it

If you’re anything like me, you know what needs to be done around the office, so to speak, but can barely find the time to make it all happen. So, we look for tools and resources that can help us get the job done, and even if the outcome isn’t 100% what we envisioned, we still delivered!

I’d always imagined having a member on the team who was dedicated to coding, was always available, and could help me build ideas on a grander scale than my skills alone might allow.

The newly released beta of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (GPT-3) has excited and shocked many in the tech industry. As a conversational AI, manually trained on data up to 2021, it is capable of responding to prompts naturally and insightfully.

It’s not perfect, but its responses are very compelling and have triggered big questions about the use and impact of AI in tech. Fun fact: OpenAI is the organization behind the impressive GitHub Copilot AI! Look here for details and background information on the latest generation of Chat AI.

Now, look at what this thing can do! Note: Results are hilarious results depending on what you ask…

Aside from providing hours of entertainment with the most advanced version of Mad Libs, there are many examples online of this AI providing solutions for programming challenges like the Advent of Code challenge.

IT administrators could leverage GPT to draft scripts, analyze and comment out existing code, and even convert scripts from your familiar PowerShell into python or bash!

Do this at your own risk though! The AI can be confidently wrong, but if you have any interest in scripting and automating tasks, this AI can get you started and then some!

Automox, as good as a patching solution as it is, is also a versatile and fast scripting agent. With our Policy and Worklet features, admins have been using Automox to automate scripts and tasks across their entire fleet of assets all across the globe thanks to its cloud-first design.

A big takeaway in regards to how Automox elevates automation & simplicity is how it can take a straightforward piece of code, scale it, and run it automatically – force multiplying that script into a continuous phase of producing value by saving time. It’s a surefire path to enhanced productivity.

No need to update Windows Task Scheduler & dump the script on all your devices. Instead, you can deploy your code to the Automox cloud, and watch it run where and when you need it to — even giving your end users some control so your code doesn’t interrupt their very important meeting.

Shout-out to our Worklet Catalog: Automox has a team of wizards continuously creating and updating Worklets that solve for many use cases! We also provide support and guidance to these Worklet scripts, so even if you’re not comfortable with what you can build yourself, we’ve got you covered!

Now that the advert's taken care of, let's think of it this way: If you aren’t a scripting wizard, and you’re asked to deploy a specific piece of software, silently, and you have to do it on all your MacBooks, Windows machines, and Linux servers. You have less than five days to meet this goal (since the old software license is expiring and a new software agreement was just signed). You could spend the majority of your time writing an install script for each OS in your environment, testing, and re-iterating, or…

Ask for a little help from your friendly ChatAI! Check this out…

And set your coffee or kombucha down… it instantly converts it to usable code for macOS!

These are simple examples, where it was asked straightforward questions, it is possible to have it write code for far more complex actions. But it takes a knowledgeable person to steer it and verify its code!

Do this at your own risk! Stack overflow decided to ban submissions provided by the AI since many novice programmers were supplying answers without verifying the code first. Sure, the code worked (LOL). But it does go against the spirit of knowledge sharing and sparks some debate on best practices.