ChatGPT has been getting a lot of attention for its ability to formulate reasonable responses to questions and inquiries. There have even been examples of ChatGPT being able to pass college exams and write up readable articles.

ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI. It was launched in November pf 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models and it has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. 

So it is a somewhat practical example of AI being applied to a common proglem… communication.

Being the mainframe zealot that I am, I decided to ask ChatGPT why I should use a mainframe. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I am delighted with the response that I got. 

Me: Why should I still use a mainframe?

ChatGPT: There are several reasons why you might still want to use a mainframe for certain applications:

  1. High Reliability: Mainframes are designed to handle massive workloads and to provide high levels of reliability and availability. They are built with redundant components and features that allow them to recover quickly from failures, making them ideal for mission-critical applications.
  2. Security: Mainframes are known for their robust security features. They have been used in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government for decades because they offer features such as hardware encryption, advanced access controls, and secure connectivity options.
  3. Scalability: Mainframes can scale vertically to handle large amounts of data and processing power. They can also scale horizontally by adding more processors or servers to a mainframe cluster, making them a good fit for organizations with rapidly growing or fluctuating workloads.
  4. Cost-Effective: While mainframes are expensive to purchase, they can provide a cost-effective solution for certain applications. Mainframes are designed to handle large workloads with high efficiency, and they can consolidate multiple applications onto a single platform, reducing the need for additional hardware and software.
  5. Legacy Systems: Many organizations have critical legacy applications that were designed to run on mainframes. Replacing these systems can be expensive and time-consuming, and in some cases, it may not be feasible to migrate these applications to modern platforms.
  6. Integration with Modern Technologies: Many mainframe systems now offer modern connectivity options, such as APIs and web services, which make it easier to integrate them with newer technologies and applications.

In summary, while mainframes are no longer the primary platform for many organizations, they still offer unique benefits and advantages for certain applications. Mainframes provide high levels of reliability, security, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, making them an attractive option for organizations with specific needs and requirements.

This seems like a  reasonable response to me. What do you think? With technology this good, I can only imagine how much better it will get as the models are honed over time.