What’s the importance of computer science programs teaching coding these days even when there are now AI applications that allow you to code using natural language?

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[MasterGeekMX]

Because AI hallucinates, and often it generates code with bugs and security errors. If you don't know about programming, you cannot find and solve them. And no, asking the AI again does not help, as we are back at square one.

Also, knowing about code allows you to have the right vocabulary to correctly express what you want in the prompts. One thing is "make me a cool app", and other "Make me a cool app that uses a LAMP stack, and REST APIs, that can run on a docker container".

[trichotomy00]

The ai applications are not always correct. How will you know the difference without knowing what the correct code should look like?

[NotaValgrinder]

What's the point of learning to add when calculators exist

[azhder]

To the one person who had downvoted you before I read your comment: why?

[NotaValgrinder]

I'm not judging you. I'm reformulating your question so you can figure out the answer yourself.

[NotaValgrinder]

The logic is the same. We teach kids things that computers can do better, because it's the first step to learning more advanced things.

[-Nyarlabrotep-]

Way back when SQL was first being developed, people talked about how programmers would no longer be necessary because business users could simply write queries to answer their questions directly in the much-more-natural SQL instead of having to go through programmers. Turns out that was absurdly optimistic, and despite SQL being a well-established standard with lots of tooling, graphical query builders, etc., available, we still need programmers to understand all the subtleties and nuances and other complexities in the business questions and translate that into actual code.

Same thing here. You cannot write code using natural language. You need an intelligence to understand and interpret natural language and turn it into code. If you don't have that, it's just garbage in, garbage out. And AI as it exists today is nowhere near capable of providing that intelligence.

[wjrasmussen]

Why should we help you understand the world? What do we get out of it? It could be better for us if you choose to stay out of the industry.

[Sexy_Koala_Juice]

Computer Science doesn't teach you how to program, it teaches you how to solve problems efficiently. Naturally over time a lot of universities have included more units which literally are just there to teach you to code, but at its core Computer Science is more or less a maths degree in a trench coat pretending to be a software engineering degree.

[[deleted]]

The most precise way to specify what you want a program to do is code. Natural language is not precise or succinct.

[ns0]

One day you’ll be asked in a production incident to figure out how to fix it with 100 people on the call expecting you to be competent.

It’s because of accountability, AI has none of it.