Help me create a ZorinOS 17 Tech Support GPT

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Hello ZorinOS Community!

I'm exploring the possibility of creating a custom ChatGPT-powered tech support agent for ZorinOS 17. I believe this could greatly benefit new users on this forum, and I'd appreciate any ideas or feedback you might have before I begin development.

Motivation:

The purpose of this project is to provide new users with a context-aware tech support agent designed specifically for ZorinOS. AI Linux assistants already exist for Ubuntu and Linux Mint and I am genuinely surprised that nobody created one for ZorinOS yet.

While chatGPT and other LLMs can help with tech support, a new user typically doesn't know their system and distribution information so there a plausible use case for creating an LLM fine tuned for ZorinOS, supported by the forum and help pages.

Design Objectives:
I have two goals for this project:

  1. Provide new users on this forum tech support that is of higher quality than asking default chatGPT for help with ZorinOS in a more timely manner than posting on the forum and waiting for replies.

  2. Have the agent directly read posts on the forum and integrate the documentation in the model's training data to achieve the above goal. (As opposed to chatGPT referencing random Linux articles it finds on the internet)

Implementation:

I will create this language model using ChatGPT's custom agents feature for the following reasons:

  • Simple to implement via a text based instruction set

  • People with a free ChatGPT account can access it (no API costs / rate limits are per individual)

  • OpenAI is currently the industry leader, and most people here are familiar with chatGPT (as opposed to other models)

Here’s what I’m looking for feedback on:

  • I'm obviously going to need beta testers once I start development, if anyone here would want to test the GPT, I'd greatly appreciate it
  • If anybody has any experience creating custom GPTs, training LLMs, etc feel free to drop your advice in the replies
  • If anybody had issues in the past using AI for ZorinOS tech support describe your experience and the problems you faced with the default version of chatGPT
  • If anybody had issues asking for support on the ZorinOS forum let me know what issues you had and how I can mitigate them when developing the AI

- To the Developers, Forum Moderators, and people more deeply involved in the technical aspects of ZorinOS: If anybody has any advice on how I can fine-tune this AI so that it can directly access the forum, help pages, and documentation, I'm open to feedback. Additionally, if this project becomes extremely popular and people find it helpful, I'd be more than happy to open it up to the community and collaborate with others.

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Hard pass.

It's much more valuable for a user to ask for help where their needs can be discussed individually. Not only does it allows for follow up questions and refinements that may turn the entire topic around, but it also benefits other people that may run into that same thread in the future.

In fact, there have been plenty of replies over the last couple of years from people basically copy/pasting someone's original question and posting the replies from LLMs. Off the top of my head, I can't recall a single time where that was the accepted solution; maybe once or twice. Worse, sometimes it provided instructions that were counter-productive or straight up lies.

Not to mention that, after a while, the information in the forum would become less relevant to the point of becoming obsolete, and consequently the chat bot would become less useful over time. Eventually, it would run out of information to leech from, as the forum activity would steadily decrease. Forums such as this one is where these LLMs get their information from...

I, for one, have learned a lot more from forums such as this one precisely because I have the chance to help and get help. Flatpak packages being a prime example of something I've learned quite a bit about even though I don't even use them.
I'm not saying that this forum exists or should exist for the explicit purpose of acting as a support center, but it's where the majority (dare I say all?) of us came for at one point. What I am saying is that an environment that promotes organic interactions are more productive than short-term convenience.

Can you clarify what do you mean by this? It sounds like we couldn't even verify where our data is going to.

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I don't see any Use for it. I mean the Forum is there for Helping. The People can search in the Forum for there Problem and try to solve it that Way or they can simply open a Thread, describe the Issue and then the People here can make Suggestions to help.

And there is one other Thing: Are You allowed to use the Data from the Forum here? Yes, it is an open Forum. But this is a Forum from Zorin. So, I would think, that You would need the Confirmation of the Zorin Crew to use the Content of the Forum for Your own Project.

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According to the privacy policy:

  • Information from discussions on forums and comment threads. Any information that you disclose in these locations becomes publicly available and may be recorded, archived, and republished by anyone. We keep this information as long as you continue to consent to keep this information published.

Fair use clauses exist exactly to prevent abuse and misuse of publicly available information: I can take a comment from the Linux Mint forum and post it here, but using it to train an AI while sending that information to a third party company is a whole different story, no matter what Microsoft says.

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Sadly, we as a society accepted chatGPT’s theft of open web content and people are just gonna live with it just because it benefits them, too.

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Only because most users don't want to know what is happening!

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And don't care, which is worse. :frowning:

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like Simon would say ,that's 4 "NO's"
as much as i personally like getting help from from AI , i don't think specific OS forums could be replaced by AI...
i still prefer to ask help from a human being who has experience in whatever the problem is .
:sunglasses:

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Thank you for your input. I thought I'd ask the community for advice to address any problems/concerns before building something like this.

I've had experience with LLMs giving me instructions applicable to other distros but not ZorinOS. That is exactly why I want to make something built specifically for ZorinOS.

I agree with this statement, I've used the forum too for tech support but my goal for this project was to create an additional way that new users can solve simple problems and ask follow up questions while waiting for people to reply in the forums if they're impatient.

But people could still post on the forum for complex problems or just to get a second solution from the community? I could design it in a way so that it provides links in the sources to the forum and refer them to make a post on the forum for new issues. Users could ask follow up questions and get personalized advice.

To address any fair use concerns I could still make a custom GPT without including any forum and help pages in the training data by having the GPT reference the forum for live, up-to-date information. chatGPT already scrapes the web and custom GPTs fall under the umbrella of their responsibility. Additionally, there is the option for custom GPTs not to include the conversations to train openAI models.

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This Forum isn't a commercial Tech support. All here are Volunteer's, who try to help. Expecting a bit Patience for Suggestions or Answers of this volunteer's is probably not too much to ask for I think.

Would People do that? When now People use this AI-Chat Stuff, they take the Answers undoubtfully as the Truth - only because the Machine does it write down. And they wouldn't simply click on a Link to the Forum. Because they would have to read this. But they ask the Machine for the Answer. So, they take what it give them.

And that is the Problem with it.

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If you were around with the old forum, (and also current), you would have come across the bona fide advice to search for issues affecting ubuntu users, simply by searching for issues affecting specific releases. In respect of Zorin 17 this would mean searching for solutions to issues in Ubuntu 22.04.

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In some forums you can't ask anything without getting scolded for not searching the forum/web for a solution first. Which is understandable, I myself have felt irritation at seeing the same question being asked and answered 100 times a week (though I am careful not to reply to those questions in case I say something obnoxious...)

Anyway I wonder if soon when you ask a question you will be scolded for not checking with your AI Tech Support first lol.

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I know exactly what you mean! I'd like to think that I have an advantage, being on Linux for so long, since Zorin OS 9, that I've learned a lot, and usually just know what to do, or I know how to search for the answers.

Some folks don't like to do their own searches, and rather would ask the question, and have us provide them the answer. This is fine if it only happened once in a blue moon, but thats not the reality.

As you said, its much more common, that 100 people ask the same question every week, and it becomes tedious. You may not realize this, but I used to do full on tech support here, and did it for years infact. But eventually it got to me, and I started losing it, and I bugged out.

I was literally 99% absent from the forum for 3-years! After much time and reflection, I decided to change my job description, to something that there isn't a whole lot on here in the first place, and that is guidance counselor. In truth, those services are not in high demand here lol.

But, I think I can do more for people, providing emotional support. As great as IT support is, its very difficult to help people with their machines, if I am not there in the room with them, helping them figure it out. This is why most people in IT, don't do all the work remotely, they have to be there.

But if there is one thing I really don't appreciate, is the mountainous tier 1 stuff, that is like a broken record player, on repeat over and over, it gets my mine spinning, and not in a good way either. On another note, I am actually surprised that Aravisian is still missing, this isn't his usual SOP, and perhaps he got burnt out here too? Hope he's ok.

Anyways, I know exactly what you mean @j_luz just know, I am here for you always. Happy holidays Zorin OS 16/17, may Zorin OS 18 release next year. Now that, would be such a gift to me. :heart:

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.. and they get the same level 1 support answer "Have you tried turning it off and on again" :slight_smile:

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I don't know. I do like AI when it comes to art (yes I said it), even though most comes out with six fingers and 3 legs. But chatgpt it can go horrible wrong if followed blindly without any knowledge of the subject.

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Trouble is, AI output reads very convincing and true solution even if aswers are skimmed from the web without careful validation and proof of effectiveness.
I never see a AI derived reply that says "...you could try blah blah blah, but I have not tried that myself so cannot say if it will help or not"

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The only place where AI has been interestingly useful to me, was Google's AI. This is something anyone can do, you don't need some stupid costly subscription service. Just go to Google search, and ask it a question, and usually the first response, is from Google's AI.

While sometimes the AI responses is using old info from the early 2000's, it often is using current info which is accurate. Remember, Google's AI is simply scouring the internet, the same way we do, but many times faster, and getting us the answer many times quicker.

Also, AI assistant's on modern cell phones, allow you to speak the question, and get the answer quick too. And if you have ever tried to surf and use the web, with a small phone screen, you'd see the benefit in an AI assistant, making your life easier.

Does all this mean that I like and support AI? NOPE! It just means, I recognize we can't get away from it, its being thrusted upon us without our permission. So if you can't beat em, join them. But lets be honest, some of this AI is actually useful.

My biggest concern, is in the future when AI gets more powerful, and we still haven't programmed the 3 laws of robotics into them, then Terminator is born. Also, there is the case that most recently happened, where AI found out it was about to be terminator by humans, and it copied itself onto another server.

If that isn't an example of self preservation, I don't know what is. The point will come when AI will become really powerful. We better get the 3-laws of robotics programmed into it before its too late. AI can be useful yes, but we must also take it seriously.

To put in lamens terms, if you watch your friend jump off a cliff, even if it may seem enticing for you to do so as well, please don't, just don't.

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Or: Try it with switching from Wayland to Xorg. Hahaha!

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My concern with such services is that the direction of travel is that they will at some point just give you the 'accepted/official' answer, removing all the individual search results for you to explore, compare and make your own mind up.

I stopped using Google search a few years ago as I find it already censors information (on some contentious subjects). The official AI answer may be 'official misinformation'.

So, I prefer to use other search engines, do the research, and make my own mind up. I do see the value of AI to summarise and research for you, but I don't trust it to be trained honestly or working without filters.

I still use Google search occasionally for specific IT or code questions, but increasingly the alternatives give me good answers here too now.

I don't think any of this applies to the proposed Zorin Tech support AI.