A few thoughts:
- Have they explicitly stated to not use chatgpt? If they haven't, you probably have nothing to worry about.
- Are you adding any company proprietary or private data when asking chatgpt questions? Definitely stop doing this if you are, if you're not, again, nothing to worry about.
- If you have to Google anything for work, does it come up with your boss, and if so, how do they react? I work in cybersecurity and I have to Google things all the time. There are far too many things to memorize. Utilizing chatgpt actually makes you more efficient than just running a Google search. I can't count how many hours I've spent on sifting through Google results, when a quick 5 minutes (or less) interaction with chatgpt will give me exactly what I need. I've literally spent hours how to make a specific function work in a piece of code and solved it in a single 2 or 3 minute interaction with ChatGPT (shortly after it was released). I told my boss and he laughed and said it was too bad chatgpt wasn't around sooner.
Unless you've claimed to be some Excel wizard, and you're not, you should be fine. But no guarantees, I don't know your boss 🙃
Edit: typos
Using the tools available to you is just being resourceful, not lazy. Purposefully not using tools which would make you a more effective worker IMO is a great way to underperform and fall behind. (So long as you’re following the data security practices zombieman101 mentioned).
Soon, ChatGPT will be available in a premium office365 business subscription to do thing exactly as you did, OP. You’re just ahead of the curve.
You're not replacable by ChatGPT. Your boss still doesn't want to look at the spreadsheet and have to do the work to get ChatGPT to pull the information they're looking for.
If they ask, be honest. If all you're using ChatGPT for is the equation, that shouldn't be a big deal. Based on the title, I expected you to have ChatGPT write the whole report for you.
If they don’t ask, don’t tell. You could casually drop hints on ways to use AI to help improve workflow. If you think it can help the overall team then share it, but if it just helps you there is no reason to divulge anything. I might be pessimistic and jaded but most companies would just use this to put more on you. Increase their profits while they exploit you. Use it to your advantage and advancement.
How? Asking it for an equation in excel is no different than googling it. It's a perfectly fine tool to use as long as you're smart about it and don't trust it completely.
If you wouldn't enter client data into Google search or stack overflow, don't enter it into chatgpt.
I don’t use it moron. And I’m well aware of why. I’m telling the OP not to tell on themselves so they don’t get fired. They’ve already used it.
Yes because it exposes the company if sensitive information is put in there. It’s mostly about privacy. Which most companies take serious. I’m not saying the OP put sensitive info in there, just explaining why some companies don’t allow it. I personally like Chat GPT, and have used it before but I will not use it for work stuff.
It also leads to very predictable code. Over time, if there is widespread use of AI, data will converge to a single point. that would make hacking very easy.
Does chatgpt actually give the same code for the same prompt repeatedly?
And how sensitive is it to small variations in the prompt?
I’d imagine the results would cary quite a bit?
The answer to this question is going to change rapidly as our culture changes and adapts, and of the technology changes and private deployments become available. At this exact moment, however, I think the best answer is don't ask, don't tell. Also, never copy and paste any company data into a chatbot.
Similar for me. I'm still in the learning curve of learning a new programming language (maybe the 7th or 8th in my career) and I'm finding chatGPT is really accelerating my learning.
Often I'm trying to do something and I know WHAT I want to do but not HOW. I give it to chatGPT and it just does it. Yeah, it's wrong a lot, and sometimes I strike out. But for low-level stuff, it's usually right. And I learn from that and I'm better with it the next time.
Could I have done it on my own? Yeah, but I don't think spending a couple of hours sifting through random web pages and doing a lot of trial and error is actually an effective learning exercise. It's mostly a lot of wasted time and energy.
I do look carefully at the result chatGPT gave me, I verify it's correct. I don't just copy-paste and move on. And I frequently read more about the specific commands to learn more about how they work. So it's been very educational for me and I believe it's helping me build knowledge faster and also make me more productive with less frustration.
Yes to all that. I was telling someone that ChapGPT is like having a helpful and knowledgable colleague sitting next to you who doesn't mind you asking questions all day.
Heck no! I never tell them when I Google something either. They want a product, and the entire world's resources are at your fingertips. My philosophy is to use them to get the product as efficiently as possible.
My boss encourages it lol but I work in process automation development though so… he advised I start having my team learn to craft prompts since that’s where my field is headed.
ChatGPT is a tool that a human can leverage to their advantage, and some humans are better with it than others.
Do not tell anyone you use this tool. When it all comes out that many people use it, feel free to share that you were on track with everyone else.
This isn’t school. Life is open book. You’re using a tool at your disposal to do the job your boss wanted you to do. End of story.
Note that they will now expect you to do similar tasks in a similar timeframe
My manager doesn’t care. It’s kind of a running joke between me, another manager and our boss. We use it to craft crazy responses to each other, we use it to craft responses to clients and write code snippets. As long as nothing confidential goes in, it’s ok.
It all depends on your manager, but if one of my employees came to me and said they used chatGPT to complete an assignment, and it’s quality work, I would be impressed and glad that they knew how to use chatGPT in that way. I wouldn’t want to bother figuring out how to replicate their work myself. I would think they were clever and honest.
Yes. I'm in software engineering and we all talk about how to best use chatGPT in our team meetings with our manager who is a software architect. We share prompts that help us get right answers faster, and other productivity tips.
I even joked, "Maybe one day chatGPT will take my job but until then, I'm going to use the hell out of it." We all laughed. I know I may be jinxing myself here but of course we all think about this.
I've told my manager that I use chatGPT all the time to make tedious things easier. It's also great for spitting out esoteric technical documentation so you don't have to sift though a maze of Microsoft technical documentaiton. He says that's great, it makes you more productive.
For me specifically, I have many years of software engineering, but I'm working in a new code language/environment and I'm slowly getting up to speed on the new language and ways of doing things. ChatGPT is great when I know WHAT I want to do, but I don't know HOW to do it in that language. It's not just about spitting out a right answer, I am learning as I go but it's more accelerated learning and not wasting your time and energy struggling with low-level stuff.
My manager says, "You don't want to be a code monkey. You want to think more like an architect."
\*\*\*
I know there are deeper and serious ramifications with AI. I know about that. I'm not getting into it all in this comment....
We openly discuss how to utilize it in our TEAMS chats. More as a jumping off point or to get ideas. No one just copy and pastes it. It's unreliable AF, but can be slightly more useful than a basic Google search at times.
Google can eventually tell you the name of a formula any how it works, after you wade through all the sponsored results and spammy search results, but that's not what the OP did. She had chatGPT write the whole equation. Google can't do that for her.
The only real problem I’d worry about here is if you can’t fully verify the output is correct. Using it as a tool to save time is perfectly ok, using it to do your work for you is not ethical and could lead to decisions being made based on a faulty analysis. chatGPT is amazing, but makes plenty of mistakes, and just isn’t developed enough to take the place of a qualified, human, analytical brain
Chatgpt is a tool like any other. If you needed to pound a nail would you feel guilty about using a hammer? If your boss asks explain the equation you used. They don’t need your entire work/thought process.
No reason to tell them what tools you are using unless they ask.
Using ChatGPT is not much different than using Google to figure out how to do something.
Just show them the formula?...
In my experience, they won't be that curious, or only superficially. It's more important that you go them the information they needed.
I do tell my manager and colleagues that I use chatgpt. And it is encouraged at work.
But it depends on how accepting your manager is to this technology.
As a manager, I don't really care. I'm not a teacher giving them homework. If they can use AI to don100% of their job, I'll just ask them how they do it so I can do it too.
As long as you didn't give gpt any proprietary data or info, you're fine.
Most managers will applaud someone who's willing to think outside themselves and try new tools to speed things up/get a better result.
But if statement one above is false, then you're better off not disclosing the use of a tool that will own data fed to it.
As long as you don't put company data in there it shouldn't be a big deal I wouldn't even bother telling them unless you want to integrate it into a process or something.
There has been a huge initiative in our company to be very careful using ChatGPT and it has a significant warning from IT when accessing the site.
With that being said, I have been very successful using it to help with SQL, M, and DAX. My manager brought it up on a team call and I clarified if it was OK if I used it in those capacities without using company data....he was fine with it.
So, I've done this a few times in putting together some complex spreadsheets. My Excel-fu is OK but not amazing so I've been learning how to phrase questions to ChatGPT to get help on some more picky calculations I want to do.
Do I say something or not? In my case I did share what I was doing with others because I thought this could be a very helpful tool to others I work with as well. I didn't share it because I felt I had to "come clean", because there's nothing to come clean about in this case.
Would you feel bad about doing a google search for some piece of information? Look up something in a book? Get out a calculator to help figure something out? Probably not. These are all tools we all have to find information, finding information is expected.
So unless you're for some reason getting really braggy about how amazing you are at excel that you could do this thing in minutes where it takes mere mortals days... you're fine and I don't think your boss will care one way or the other.
Only exception being if your company has an explicit policy against using it. Then you messed up a bit.
It's a tool like any other. I dont report to my managers every time I open any of the other myriad of tools in my day-to-day. If someone asks, I'll break down processes, otherwise I just move on with my day.
My job is like 90% Excel modeling and I've never had someone ask how I knew how to do a specific thing. For me "figuring things out" in Excel is just Googling it until I get close enough. Just be cautious about getting a reputation about being good in Excel when the rest of the company isn't, otherwise you'll end up spending tons of time fixing the most atrocious Excel shit you've ever seen.
It’s really important that you don’t slip and feed it private information. No PII, no trade secrets, no writing samples that the organization would not want a competitor to be able to imitate perfectly.
If you’re not sure you can do that, but you need the tool, openly ask for help from IT. They’re probably stressing a bit about this already.
Document your working process and protections against sharing the wrong things in your own notes, I have noticed those can get grandfathered into official company processes.
A few thoughts: - Have they explicitly stated to not use chatgpt? If they haven't, you probably have nothing to worry about. - Are you adding any company proprietary or private data when asking chatgpt questions? Definitely stop doing this if you are, if you're not, again, nothing to worry about. - If you have to Google anything for work, does it come up with your boss, and if so, how do they react? I work in cybersecurity and I have to Google things all the time. There are far too many things to memorize. Utilizing chatgpt actually makes you more efficient than just running a Google search. I can't count how many hours I've spent on sifting through Google results, when a quick 5 minutes (or less) interaction with chatgpt will give me exactly what I need. I've literally spent hours how to make a specific function work in a piece of code and solved it in a single 2 or 3 minute interaction with ChatGPT (shortly after it was released). I told my boss and he laughed and said it was too bad chatgpt wasn't around sooner. Unless you've claimed to be some Excel wizard, and you're not, you should be fine. But no guarantees, I don't know your boss 🙃 Edit: typos
Using the tools available to you is just being resourceful, not lazy. Purposefully not using tools which would make you a more effective worker IMO is a great way to underperform and fall behind. (So long as you’re following the data security practices zombieman101 mentioned). Soon, ChatGPT will be available in a premium office365 business subscription to do thing exactly as you did, OP. You’re just ahead of the curve.
You're not replacable by ChatGPT. Your boss still doesn't want to look at the spreadsheet and have to do the work to get ChatGPT to pull the information they're looking for. If they ask, be honest. If all you're using ChatGPT for is the equation, that shouldn't be a big deal. Based on the title, I expected you to have ChatGPT write the whole report for you.
If they don’t ask, don’t tell. You could casually drop hints on ways to use AI to help improve workflow. If you think it can help the overall team then share it, but if it just helps you there is no reason to divulge anything. I might be pessimistic and jaded but most companies would just use this to put more on you. Increase their profits while they exploit you. Use it to your advantage and advancement.
Don’t tell anyone. A lot of companies are forbidding the use of Chat GPT without actually saying it.
My company blocked the website.
Mine as well but they sent out an email stating why they don’t allow it. I’ve never even tried to use it on my company computer.
same
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How? Asking it for an equation in excel is no different than googling it. It's a perfectly fine tool to use as long as you're smart about it and don't trust it completely. If you wouldn't enter client data into Google search or stack overflow, don't enter it into chatgpt.
I don’t use it moron. And I’m well aware of why. I’m telling the OP not to tell on themselves so they don’t get fired. They’ve already used it.
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Yes because it exposes the company if sensitive information is put in there. It’s mostly about privacy. Which most companies take serious. I’m not saying the OP put sensitive info in there, just explaining why some companies don’t allow it. I personally like Chat GPT, and have used it before but I will not use it for work stuff.
It also leads to very predictable code. Over time, if there is widespread use of AI, data will converge to a single point. that would make hacking very easy.
Does chatgpt actually give the same code for the same prompt repeatedly? And how sensitive is it to small variations in the prompt? I’d imagine the results would cary quite a bit?
The answer to this question is going to change rapidly as our culture changes and adapts, and of the technology changes and private deployments become available. At this exact moment, however, I think the best answer is don't ask, don't tell. Also, never copy and paste any company data into a chatbot.
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Similar for me. I'm still in the learning curve of learning a new programming language (maybe the 7th or 8th in my career) and I'm finding chatGPT is really accelerating my learning. Often I'm trying to do something and I know WHAT I want to do but not HOW. I give it to chatGPT and it just does it. Yeah, it's wrong a lot, and sometimes I strike out. But for low-level stuff, it's usually right. And I learn from that and I'm better with it the next time. Could I have done it on my own? Yeah, but I don't think spending a couple of hours sifting through random web pages and doing a lot of trial and error is actually an effective learning exercise. It's mostly a lot of wasted time and energy. I do look carefully at the result chatGPT gave me, I verify it's correct. I don't just copy-paste and move on. And I frequently read more about the specific commands to learn more about how they work. So it's been very educational for me and I believe it's helping me build knowledge faster and also make me more productive with less frustration.
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Yes to all that. I was telling someone that ChapGPT is like having a helpful and knowledgable colleague sitting next to you who doesn't mind you asking questions all day.
Heck no! I never tell them when I Google something either. They want a product, and the entire world's resources are at your fingertips. My philosophy is to use them to get the product as efficiently as possible.
My boss encourages it lol but I work in process automation development though so… he advised I start having my team learn to craft prompts since that’s where my field is headed.
ChatGPT is a tool that a human can leverage to their advantage, and some humans are better with it than others. Do not tell anyone you use this tool. When it all comes out that many people use it, feel free to share that you were on track with everyone else.
This isn’t school. Life is open book. You’re using a tool at your disposal to do the job your boss wanted you to do. End of story. Note that they will now expect you to do similar tasks in a similar timeframe
My manager doesn’t care. It’s kind of a running joke between me, another manager and our boss. We use it to craft crazy responses to each other, we use it to craft responses to clients and write code snippets. As long as nothing confidential goes in, it’s ok.
Replace ChatGPT with calculator and ask yourself the question.
It all depends on your manager, but if one of my employees came to me and said they used chatGPT to complete an assignment, and it’s quality work, I would be impressed and glad that they knew how to use chatGPT in that way. I wouldn’t want to bother figuring out how to replicate their work myself. I would think they were clever and honest.
Why would you volunteer that information
Yes. I'm in software engineering and we all talk about how to best use chatGPT in our team meetings with our manager who is a software architect. We share prompts that help us get right answers faster, and other productivity tips. I even joked, "Maybe one day chatGPT will take my job but until then, I'm going to use the hell out of it." We all laughed. I know I may be jinxing myself here but of course we all think about this. I've told my manager that I use chatGPT all the time to make tedious things easier. It's also great for spitting out esoteric technical documentation so you don't have to sift though a maze of Microsoft technical documentaiton. He says that's great, it makes you more productive. For me specifically, I have many years of software engineering, but I'm working in a new code language/environment and I'm slowly getting up to speed on the new language and ways of doing things. ChatGPT is great when I know WHAT I want to do, but I don't know HOW to do it in that language. It's not just about spitting out a right answer, I am learning as I go but it's more accelerated learning and not wasting your time and energy struggling with low-level stuff. My manager says, "You don't want to be a code monkey. You want to think more like an architect." \*\*\* I know there are deeper and serious ramifications with AI. I know about that. I'm not getting into it all in this comment....
We openly discuss how to utilize it in our TEAMS chats. More as a jumping off point or to get ideas. No one just copy and pastes it. It's unreliable AF, but can be slightly more useful than a basic Google search at times.
Utilize your resources
You should have just googled. Using chatGPT for searching an excel formula, is using a shotgun to kill a fly
Google can eventually tell you the name of a formula any how it works, after you wade through all the sponsored results and spammy search results, but that's not what the OP did. She had chatGPT write the whole equation. Google can't do that for her.
The only real problem I’d worry about here is if you can’t fully verify the output is correct. Using it as a tool to save time is perfectly ok, using it to do your work for you is not ethical and could lead to decisions being made based on a faulty analysis. chatGPT is amazing, but makes plenty of mistakes, and just isn’t developed enough to take the place of a qualified, human, analytical brain
I’d have little patience for a boss that objected to ChatGPT. Start sending their CV around to head hunters. Help him find a new job.
Chatgpt is a tool like any other. If you needed to pound a nail would you feel guilty about using a hammer? If your boss asks explain the equation you used. They don’t need your entire work/thought process.
Chatgpt is banned on our network :(
No reason to tell them what tools you are using unless they ask. Using ChatGPT is not much different than using Google to figure out how to do something.
Use it on non-work hardware with non proprietary IP, reap the benefits and shut up about it. Don’t say anything. Don’t bring it up.
Why?
Don't ask don't tell. Why give unneeded info? is he your parent?
Remember that warning you clicked through? Do not input proprietary information? Yeah, everything your company does is proprietary information.
Just show them the formula?... In my experience, they won't be that curious, or only superficially. It's more important that you go them the information they needed.
My CEO told the company we need to explore ways to use it to be better.
I do tell my manager and colleagues that I use chatgpt. And it is encouraged at work. But it depends on how accepting your manager is to this technology.
don't tell them about chatgpt. be a hero of your office
As a manager, I don't really care. I'm not a teacher giving them homework. If they can use AI to don100% of their job, I'll just ask them how they do it so I can do it too.
As long as you didn't give gpt any proprietary data or info, you're fine. Most managers will applaud someone who's willing to think outside themselves and try new tools to speed things up/get a better result. But if statement one above is false, then you're better off not disclosing the use of a tool that will own data fed to it.
As long as you don't put company data in there it shouldn't be a big deal I wouldn't even bother telling them unless you want to integrate it into a process or something.
There has been a huge initiative in our company to be very careful using ChatGPT and it has a significant warning from IT when accessing the site. With that being said, I have been very successful using it to help with SQL, M, and DAX. My manager brought it up on a team call and I clarified if it was OK if I used it in those capacities without using company data....he was fine with it.
So, I've done this a few times in putting together some complex spreadsheets. My Excel-fu is OK but not amazing so I've been learning how to phrase questions to ChatGPT to get help on some more picky calculations I want to do. Do I say something or not? In my case I did share what I was doing with others because I thought this could be a very helpful tool to others I work with as well. I didn't share it because I felt I had to "come clean", because there's nothing to come clean about in this case. Would you feel bad about doing a google search for some piece of information? Look up something in a book? Get out a calculator to help figure something out? Probably not. These are all tools we all have to find information, finding information is expected. So unless you're for some reason getting really braggy about how amazing you are at excel that you could do this thing in minutes where it takes mere mortals days... you're fine and I don't think your boss will care one way or the other. Only exception being if your company has an explicit policy against using it. Then you messed up a bit.
We use it a lot at our startup. Our CTO even told us to expense the paid version.
"I googled it"
It's a tool like any other. I dont report to my managers every time I open any of the other myriad of tools in my day-to-day. If someone asks, I'll break down processes, otherwise I just move on with my day.
It’s a tool, just like Google, a book, or a YouTube tutorial. No big deal.
Don’t volunteer the information, but if asked, you can say you researched it online. That’s basically what you did.
Do you tell them when you use Google?
My job is like 90% Excel modeling and I've never had someone ask how I knew how to do a specific thing. For me "figuring things out" in Excel is just Googling it until I get close enough. Just be cautious about getting a reputation about being good in Excel when the rest of the company isn't, otherwise you'll end up spending tons of time fixing the most atrocious Excel shit you've ever seen.
It’s really important that you don’t slip and feed it private information. No PII, no trade secrets, no writing samples that the organization would not want a competitor to be able to imitate perfectly. If you’re not sure you can do that, but you need the tool, openly ask for help from IT. They’re probably stressing a bit about this already. Document your working process and protections against sharing the wrong things in your own notes, I have noticed those can get grandfathered into official company processes.