Why you should be using AI

AI isn't going anywhere, so here is why I think you should embrace it

At first when GitHub Copilot came out I, like many of you, was very skeptical of any assistance it could actually provide me when I was working during the day. Add in hallucinations and I knew I had nothing to worry about for awhile. My job was safe.

Fast forward a few years and the introduction of ChatGPT and many other LLMs and now it’s a whole new world.

In this post I break down why you as an engineer, engineering leader, or really anyone should be using AI on a daily basis.

Companies and AI

Businesses will always be looking for ways to become more profitable. It’s the nature of the beast. Easiest way to make more money is to cut costs.

AI provides a new way for businesses to do more with less. This is true for every employee at a company.

From what I’ve seen online it seems that businesses are already taking the bait with AI and are happy to invest in a technology like this when there really seems like no downside from their perspective.

So why?

Businesses are already positioning themselves to take advantage of AI. Some employees will naturally be more interested in using ChatGPT to solve their problems than others.

You could argue that AI is messy and it only sort of gets the job done. This is true. So if your test for AI is type in a prompt asking it to do something and expecting a perfect result in seconds then yes AI can’t do that…yet.

That said, the folks that are able to be a bit more open minded about how to use AI and where to apply it will become more successful employees. They will get promotions, raises, all the stuff I assume you want.

Employees who can harness the complexities of AI for business use will elevate themselves above their peers. By taking the time to understand the technology, they don't just become slightly better employees — they become significantly better than those who don't use AI.

Where to start?

Below is a list of websites or tools to check out if you are looking for a few simple places to start learning more. These are 100% free open source models, tools, or websites that are very useful.

• huggingface.co - Hub of open source LLMs

• ollama.com - Download and use open source LLMs (like Docker but models)

• lmstudio.ai - Very nice desktop app allowing you to play with open source LLMs

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