As everyone has lately, I have been playing around with OpenAI’s ChatGPT research project. I have heard some interesting things about it. For example, when it writes code for people, it has been known to create methods that do not exist or import libraries that also simply do not exist. So, I decided to go easy on it and ask it to tell me how DNS works in a list format, for ease of reading and understanding. I wanted to share my results with you all and document it for future reference because eventually this chatbot AI will be monetized and no longer free with which to play around.
Recursive DNS (Domain Name System) is a process that allows a DNS resolver to resolve a domain name to an IP address. Here is a numbered list of the steps involved in performing recursive DNS resolution:
- A client device, such as a computer or smartphone, sends a DNS query to a DNS resolver requesting the IP address for a particular domain name.
- The DNS resolver checks its cache to see if it has a copy of the requested DNS record. If it does, it returns the IP address to the client device.
- If the DNS resolver does not have a copy of the requested DNS record in its cache, it begins the process of recursive resolution.
- The DNS resolver sends a query to the root DNS server, asking it to identify the top-level domain (TLD) server responsible for the domain name in the query.
- The root DNS server responds with the IP address of the appropriate TLD server, which is responsible for the specific TLD (e.g., .com, .org, etc.) of the requested domain name.
- The DNS resolver sends a query to the TLD server, asking it to identify the authoritative DNS server for the requested domain name.
- The TLD server responds with the IP address of the authoritative DNS server for the domain name.
- The DNS resolver sends a query to the authoritative DNS server, asking it for the IP address of the requested domain name.
The authoritative DNS server responds with the IP address of the requested domain name.
OpenAI. “ChatGPT, Conversational AI Chatbot.” Recursive DNS, https://chat.openai.com/chat
The DNS resolver stores the DNS record in its cache and returns the IP address to the client device.
This process of recursive DNS resolution allows client devices to access websites and other internet resources by their domain names, rather than having to remember and enter the IP addresses directly.
It is not a perfect answer or even written how I would explain it, but at a high level, it sounds quite credible. That is one of my chief concerns with AI in general: it speaks so confidently and with just enough of the right terminology, it is hard to call its bluff without having specialized knowledge of the subject that it is explaining. The answer it provided is 90% of the way there; it just needs a little more training.
Please let me know what you think about this in the comments below. Do you have any concerns with AI chatbots? Also, link to any articles or posts you have made about your conversations with ChatGPT!
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