ChatGPT can be really useful

There’s a lot of muttering about the dangers of AI but there is also no denying that there are situations in which it is genuinely useful. Today I wanted to make sound on a Raspberry Pi from a JavaScript application. So I asked ChatGPT:

“How do I play audio using a JavaScript program running in node on a raspberry pi? I want the sound to come out of the Raspberry Pi device.”

ChatGPT came up with an npm module called Speaker which looked like it was just the job. I tried to install it and the installation failed. And this is where it gets proper. I asked ChatGPT:

“The npm speaker command fails with an error locating alsa/asoundlib.h. Any ideas?”

ChatGPT recognised the error and told me to install the ALSA development headers. I did that and the installation worked fine.

Now, none of this is really rocket science. ChatGPT “knows” this stuff because it has linked things together and can establish the context of a conversation and use this to find the correct items. But it is still darned useful.

My advice with things like ChatGPT is that if you have a context in which you think it might be useful you should try it. If it works, good for you. If it goes wrong you will learn more about problems with the way the technology works. Either way, you will be brushing up on your AI interaction skills, which is something you need to do.