My Thoughts on AI Tools

I recently read a short post on “Why I stopped using AI code editors” and I just wanted to share some short thoughts on this topic as a student. First of all, I don’t want to come off as someone who is against AI tools; however, I personally believe that relying on them hindered my ability to both write code and English. But more importantly, it hindered my ability to think.

First of all, I want to start off by saying that this article is written without the help of any LLM; I did not feed it into chatGPT for proof-reading, which is what I often find myself doing nowadays.

It felt weird to not rely on a LLM to check my writing because I have become quite accustomed to it. It seems crazy that only a few years ago, we were able to write confidently without AI tools, but now - we can’t imagine life without them.

To get back into the concept of coding, I first started coding by learning Web Development through a free online curriculum called the Odin project.

There were no LLM to ask questions if I was stuck doing an assignment or if I was confused with a concept. One of the things that the organizers recommended was to read the documentation, go on Stackoverflow, reddit, and ask in their Discord channel to discuss any confusions, which is exactly what I did.

And I think a lot of learning came out of that experience. Most of the technical skills and knowledge that I have today about the web and programming in general, comes from the hours spent trying to find a solution that a random stranger posted 5 years ago on Stackoverflow.

It just feels different compared to asking a LLM. The ability and experience of finding and exploring solutions for a new problem is what makes us unique but we have slowly been transfering that task to AI tools.

I still remember most things that I learned from doing my own little research until this day but struggle to remember the things I have learned recently.

I know this might be a bit of a stretch but as I learn more about reinforcement learning, I am reminded of how special we are in terms of our ability to adapt and solve new problems that we haven’t seen before.

Howevever, if we are outsourcing the answers to our questions to AI tools, I’m not sure if we are using our unique abilities to the fullest. I often wonder whether we actually think about a problem anymore or simply ask a LLM to explain it.

And I think talking and discussing about this is really important because we’re still students. Our job is to learn new things and if AI tools are preventing us from learning, I’m not sure how much we are using it as a tool anymore.

But more importantly for me, it spoils the idea that brought me to engineering in the first place, which is that learning can be enjoyable. Obviously, learning is difficult. I’m not going to say that I enjoyed every course and did well on them. Even the courses or subjects that I really love, are difficult and challenging.

But learning is supposed hard. That is what makes it worth it. Using AI tools takes away the difficult part of learning by spoonfeeding us a potential answer.

For those who do any form of music, art, or sport, you would be familar how frustrating and difficult the first few weeks, months, or possibly years could be. However, for those who consistently practiced and became good at it, you would also know how satisfying it is to actually be good at it.

I personally don’t see studying or coding to be much different.

Yes, AI tools can make work quicker and more efficient but at what cost? Isn’t struggling and trying to figure out a problem the fun part of learning? Is being fast really what matters at the end of the day? Do we really need to make everything quicker and efficient all the time as a student?

This doesn’t mean that I’m not going to use AI tools anymore. I don’t believe moving away from AI tools is the future. But at the same time, I also don’t see the future of people blindly using AI tools to make everything.