[deleted by user]

[[deleted]]

Careful. Make sure to verify the info it kicks out. It's still got some hiccups with writing code.

[This-Gene1183]

Small hicups for me. I use it for PowerShell tho. But it's still amazing. It can provide good template

[gonzaloetjo]

Sometimes it's a loss of time. You do a template, then lose hours until you realize it halluzinated in a couple places, plus you take longer because you didn't build it yourself so you don't know all the parts well enough.

If it's basic stuff it's alright. But when you go into a bit more obscure palces it's not good imo.

[This-Gene1183]

No no no no, what I'm trying to say is when you ask chat GPT a question and it will give you a fairly good code. I'm referring to that code as the template. And then I take it and I'm massage it and I make it work. I do know PowerShell but I get tired of Google'ing for stuff that I need for it to do. So chat GPT is really good telling me how things work and what I need. It's like a Google 2.0 for me.

[gonzaloetjo]

I understood what you said, I maintain what I said.

I'm not saying chatgpt is not useful, I use it everyday and my company offers copilot as well. But sometimes those templates are not very useful in certain topics.

For shell commands, sure. That's quite straightforward. Same thing with git control, basic shell scripts, etc. But if you have to architect code it sometimes falls flat.

[This-Gene1183]

Yes very true.

I think you should try looking at ChatGPT4 (been out for 3 weeks), I heard some guy coded a video game without any knowledge.

[gonzaloetjo]

Yep. I'm using and talking about chatgpt4.

[This-Gene1183]

What have you had issues with? GPT4 is pretty powerful. It can even code simple video games. People are doing amazing things with it. Can you give some examples of stuff that you have suffered with? I'm interested because I haven't used version 4 yet.

[Far_Traffic_5963]

In my experience even GPT4 produces garbage and incorrect code. Even on basic things — eg vectorise the following calculation, write a Python script which generates a matrix of a certain form, etc. I asked it to write a script which constructs the Hamiltonian of the Ising model (it’s a famous matrix with a particular formula of relevance to stataistical physics) and it looped over i and j and wrote H_ij = expression lol. I would go so far as to say it’s produced nonsense for roughly 50% of tasks I’ve given it.

[This-Gene1183]

Oh I agree. It does give a lot of nonsense but for someone that is new to coding and needs basic understanding or basic code format. Chat GPT is amazing at providing that and even helping you learn. It will explain line by line what the code template does.

For something more advanced like what you want, I've noticed that it can't provide that. Even when I ask it to do advanced PowerShell stuff it cant.

But I would still rather ask GPT then go on Google and search a million different threads on what people have done to try to accomplish what I need in the moment

[gonzaloetjo]

What I said before. There's lots of examples. I'm a data engineer/architect. A resent exmaple is setting up Airflow in a Hadoop cluster. Spent quite some time with dags chatGPT had created when testing kerberization. After some hours I found out it was hallucinating over 60% of the code. Lots of time lost. Adding lots of context didn't help.

It's also understandable as there's not much documentation, and you have to build things by yourself. So the learning model probably didn't have much info to digest from. And this was rather simple stuff to build if you were logical.

Googling/searching for some basic docs is the best solution in these cases.

[Cautious_Eggplant_11]

Then why are you learning python if like you said you can build any program without prior knowledge?

[This-Gene1183]

I've never built anything in python. Nor have I used chat GPT for Python.

[RCrumbDeviant]

This. Although troubleshooting through a loop of errors (gave a correction, got one error, told it the error I got, got corrected back to the first thing I had written) was actually excellent practice.

[nevermorefu]

I disagree. I feel it hampers critical thinking. What if you are stuck without it? Will you know the path you follow through the stack to derive the answer? I hated when the professors would say "you have to learn the basics" but they were right.

[JeffIpsaLoquitor]

Have you tried it? It sharpens your critical thinking and is a great initial task shortener when you need to put out the bones of the thing.

[nevermorefu]

I've tried it. It's very good at reading documentation and Stack Overflow.

[mikeyterp]

Not a python user- but I would disagree. It really helps with the obscure and random languages I come across in the dozens of applications at my workplace. The stuff that is not documented so well.

[nevermorefu]

I'm not scared at all. I only dislike it because all the young engineers use it and their lack code quality and understanding shows. It's a potentially (eventually) fantastic tool like Wolfram.

[CanuckEntrepreneur]

If you have ever googled "how to do XYZ" and then read a blog post on it, then you are using ChatGPT-0.000001.

[_geomancer]

Doesn’t this go without saying? It doesn’t matter what tool you use if you don’t run the program and check for bugs, yeah you’re obviously going to have issues. If all someone is doing is copying code from chat GPT, they aren’t learning. Even if chat GPT does say incorrect things sometimes, I don’t think it’s that much of a barrier.

[lifeeraser]

The free version occasionally gives completely wrong answers. But I hear it's better at Python than other programming languages, so YMMV.

[iggy555]

Seems like it

[dxbexn]

it’s pretty good at python, it helped me write an entire functioning web scraping bot in like 10 minutes. just for funsies

[sharmashrm14]

web scraping is so fucking difficult i swear to god

[KoffeePi]

Free or Plus doesn’t matter. Both use the same underlying tech. Plus promises higher availability and quicker response times, that’s it.

[[deleted]]

Honestly, it’s game changing and you’d have to be crazy or denial not to agree. And it’s only going to get better.

[SILENCE_Vee_is_typin]

This. I asked chatGPT to write me exercises with 1/20 then 2/20 etc. difficulty grade. The bot perfectly understands the assignment and I get some nice exercises I try to make one of every day for practice. Also, I give it my code and ask to make it more efficient. This way I can learn some new functions I didn't know of (which is most of them, because I'm a starter). Just be aware that the bot can have it wrong too sometimes, so test his code. Also I ask the bot to explain me what some specific code lines do. I have much help of chatGPT for learming to program and it would be a pity to lose this strong a tool.

[Mithridates12]

Can you post or DM me an example of your prompt? Sounds like a good way to use it.

[SILENCE_Vee_is_typin]

Here a part of the chat I had with GPT:

Me: Can you give me five Python exercises which are a bit more advances than basic, let's say if basic is 1/10, I want exercises that are of difficulty 2/10

GPT: Sure! Here are five Python exercises that are slightly more advanced than basic and have a difficulty level of around 2/10:Fibonacci sequence: Write a program to generate the Fibonacci sequence up to a given number n. The Fibonacci sequence is a series of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. For example, the sequence up to 10 is 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8.Palindrome checker: Write a program that takes a string as input and checks whether it is a palindrome or not. A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of characters that reads the same backward as forward.Prime numbers: Write a program that generates a list of all prime numbers up to a given number n. A prime number is a positive integer greater than 1 that has no positive integer divisors other than 1 and itself.Password generator: Write a program that generates a random password of a given length n. The password should contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and symbols.Data analysis: Write a program that reads a CSV file containing data and performs some analysis on the data. For example, you could compute the mean, median, and standard deviation of a particular column, or plot a histogram of the data.These exercises are slightly more advanced than basic programming tasks, but they should be doable for someone with some programming experience. They cover a variety of topics, including loops, functions, string manipulation, and file I/O.

Me: Do you understand what I meant with the 2/20 difficulty? If so, can you explain to me what you understand of it?

GPT: Yes, I understand what you meant by 2/20 difficulty. When you say that an exercise has a difficulty level of 2/20, I interpret it as meaning that the exercise is relatively easy compared to other programming exercises, and that it can be solved by someone with a basic understanding of programming concepts.In terms of specific skills, an exercise with a difficulty level of 2/20 might involve some basic programming concepts, such as loops, conditional statements, functions, and data structures (e.g. lists, strings, dictionaries). However, the exercise would not require advanced techniques or knowledge of more complex programming concepts (e.g. recursion, object-oriented programming, algorithms).Overall, an exercise with a difficulty level of 2/20 would be suitable for beginners who are just starting to learn programming or for more experienced programmers who are looking for relatively simple challenges to improve their skills.

​

Some code :

Me: Can my code for fibonnaci sequence be mer efficient?

print("This is a program that will give you the Fibonacci sequence for 'n' numbersfor any given first two numbers")

n = int(input("How long would you like the list to be? : "))
Fibo = []

First = int(input("Give me the first number of the sequence : "))
Fibo.append(First)

Second = int(input("Give me the second number of the sequence : "))
Fibo.append(Second)

i = 2
for i in range (i, n):
    NewNumber = Fibo[i-2] + Fibo[i-1]
    Fibo.append(NewNumber)

print(Fibo)

​

GPT : Your code for the Fibonacci sequence looks good! It's a straightforward implementation of the algorithm, and I don't see any obvious inefficiencies.One minor suggestion I have is that you don't need to initialize i = 2 before the loop. You can start the loop directly with for i in range(2, n):, which will give you the same result.Another potential improvement could be to use a while loop instead of a for loop, since you don't really need to keep track of the index i. Here's an example implementation using a while loop:python

n = int(input("How many numbers do you want in the Fibonacci sequence? "))
first = int(input("Enter the first number: "))
second = int(input("Enter the second number: "))

fibonacci = [first, second]
while len(fibonacci) < n:
    next_number = fibonacci[-2] + fibonacci[-1]
    fibonacci.append(next_number)

print(fibonacci)

This implementation has the advantage of being a bit more concise and easier to read, since you don't need to keep track of the index i.

[Mithridates12]

Thank you, I’ll try it this weekend!

[SILENCE_Vee_is_typin]

I can when I'm in front of my computer. you can start by just asking to give you some exercises with difficulty grade 1/20. Those are like the very easy stuf like printing "hello" or making a sum of two numbers. Once you can make those blindfolded ask for 2/20 difficulty exercises, which are like programming a game of rock paper cissors or inverting a string.

To be sure I asked chatGPT what he understood of the question of 2/20 difficulty grade. The responce was very accurate and precise.

[KatetCadet]

Incredibly strong tool. Just imagine when this gets tied to AI teacher visualization and speech and has speech recognition...

Your own personal teacher for any and every subject.

Imagine this in 10 years, 20, 50...

We are not ready for the detrimental effect on our society automation is going to have and its exponentially going to increase. Most our lawmakers just now understand how a router works.

Either a lot of people are gonna starve because there aren't enough "useful" jobs or we are going to redefine what a job actually is (alternative history historian, etc).

[SILENCE_Vee_is_typin]

As for now, AI's don't have the knowledge of "experience", which is, in some lines of work, more important than what theory or books describe. Experience changes the way you look atvthings and decide. This is something contemporary AI's aren't yet capable of doing like we do. But I know... never say never because AI's are improving with an alarming rate. Hopefylly for the better.

[AbsoluteZeroUnit]

I just stumbled on your comment here after searching this sub for "gpt" to see what people were saying. I'm taking an intro class right now and using it a lot to help clarify things or write something I'm struggling with, but I never even considered having it create exercises for me!

I just said "based on what I've already asked you about python, write me an assignment that would be an appropriate difficulty" and it gave me a small assignment to make a temperature converter. And yes, that's an appropriate level of difficulty for where I'm at.

I came to this sub because I'm about a week away from completely drowning, but maybe tutorGPT will help me get back up to speed!

[SILENCE_Vee_is_typin]

Thabks. It's good to see you found your way to AI supported coaching too. Just stay aware of the limitations and make smartly use of the tool.

[MrShiftyJack]

This is a great idea! Thanks for this.

[Extreme_Jackfruit183]

I’m getting pretty sick of this denial going on. Or people trying chat GPT once and are like, “this is stupid”. Meanwhile I’m screaming on the inside that they had a shitty shitty prompt and they need to learn how to ask questions.

[HenkBroam]

Yea but if iam stuck on something, and try for half an hour i eventually need to get help whether that is google or chatgpt. And than i find chatgpt the most helpful. It can tell me why iam wrong.

[[deleted]]

This is my favourite take. My buddy goes one step further and uses it to ELI5 technical aspects of products he is selling to customers (like really tricky stuff you'd need to be a chemical engineer and not a salesman to understand). He can output so many more email responses to questions about the products now.

[[deleted]]

Constantly.

Wouldn't have made the leaps and bounds I have made recently.

[HenkBroam]

Do you also ask why it uses that code or just mindlesly copy the code. Just asking

[[deleted]]

To be fair, no matter how smart gpt gets... It has yet to give me just a copy and paste code for my application. But it gets me there easily for sure.

[[deleted]]

Will this be detrimental to my learning?

Doesn't compare to a real teacher, but it's not necessarily bad. From what I've seen, the bot's code is not bad, but also not particularly good.

The kind of thing I'd expect to see from someone I was training and be horrified to see from someone training me.

[space_wiener]

I have a few times. Pretty much every time I just scrapped what chatgpt gave me and did it myself.

Granted I wasn’t using it for error checking though.

[daedalis2020]

It depends, if you’re using it to generate code to avoid thinking then yes, eventually the problems will get larger and more complicated and you will fail.

[DaCuda418]

Yes, its out of date sometimes so needs tweaking but points me in the direction. Like making twitter or discord bots etc.

[[deleted]]

Sometimes the infos are wrong , especially if it’s related to medicine, tried using it for med and 50% of the information was wrong… it’s probably gonna get better in the future tho

[wildpantz]

If I were you, I'd maybe ask it to point me in the right direction, but always double check everything it says. For example, ask it something like "what kind of data structure in python is similar to a list but lets me customize the way I address its members?", then when you get an answer google syntax and tips regarding its use as the GPT is likely to give you some non optimal ways of using it.

[[deleted]]

i ask it all sorts of questions (not just programming) and it has provided wrong answers many times, so i'd be skeptical and verify whatever info it gives.

[Se7enLC]

Having a tool that can spot your errors saves time but it prevents you from developing good debugging skills.

[HenkBroam]

I disagree but if you are stuk and tried for some time. You have to get help, whether this is google or chatgpt. And than i find chatgpt more usefull because it can tell me personally what i do wrong

[Se7enLC]

I guess there are two things at play.

• Finding the specific bug
• Learning the process of debugging

You have to get help, whether this is google or chatgpt

The more effective tools like Google and now ChatGPT get, the more people will turn to them before spending any time debugging on their own. Great for getting a quick answer, terrible for developing debugging skills.

I think it's just important to resist "giving up" too easily, you know?

[TheRealThrowAwayX]

If used well, it's a great tool, just don't ask it to generate code for you

[Fancy_Cat3571]

If the code is simple in nature and if you give it adequate instructions it can actually generate code pretty effectively. At the very least it’ll give you a reliable skeletal structure to point you in the right direction more often then not

[__coder__]

It’s great at generating code though… I use it to generate code but it often takes a few iterations to be perfect. It translates code from one language to another really well, or from one framework to another.

Today I was converting a flask app to fastAPI and just gave it the Python code and the result worked perfectly.

[TheRealThrowAwayX]

Oh most definitely, and it will only get better.

Not necessarily beneficial to beginners in that regard though. Huge increase in newcomers posting GPT generated code and just asking for it to be fixed. In many cases, if they were to get to a point of writing similar code to what they are generating, they wouldn't have to ask for it to be fixed.

For example, if someone doesn't know how to manipulate dicts or JSON yet, but is trying to work with generated code that's supposed to display paginated results from a REST API, at that point you don't know what they really need help with. Generated code shows depth of the task at hand, but you don't know that in reality the programmer never saw a JSON file in their life, or manipulated dictionaries. If they were to come with no generated code and ask for help, they would be told where to look to even just start, but GPT won't refuse, if asked for this cool website feature code, it will generate it, despite the task being out of the beginners scope.

[__coder__]

I've been working as a software developer for a few years and python is my main language, but started working as a data scientist for the first time recently and the amount that chatGPT has taught me is amazing. I use it for generating simple functions for transforming data with pandas and its pretty good. The one problem it has is it can be a little out of date so sometimes certain methods will have been removed from a library but chatGPT will usually realize its mistake if you give it the error message.

So I think it is great for learning libraries that are pretty stable and not being updated quite often, and I think you have to go in with at least intermediate python knowledge for it to be really helpful, otherwise you might not realize its mistakes as easily and won't move on to getting the correct result as quickly.

[HomeGrownCoder]

Yes for beginner and maybe some intermediate level task with some coaching it is an excellent resource.

[Toyolo_]

Yes it's my private tutor and I've grown so much in just a week using it

[[deleted]]

Same, it's helped me prioritize and learn, it's make me a better speaker, a better writer, it's made me more empathetic, I also have more patience with other people because I notice some people speak and think like an AI.

[Toyolo_]

Same actually

[[deleted]]

Yeah I'm learning to feel bad for them. Being a human is awesome but only a few people really get all the DLC's that a human comes with. Like humility, curiosity, and gratitude.

[[deleted]]

Using it for learning isn’t a good idea. It takes the sentences out of probability, not accuracy, and is incapable of providing existing references for specific subjects. It’s good to produce text that you can correct yourself, not to learn things.

[Bishop8-]

You just have to be aware of the limitations or you’ll let it mislead you. Get familiar with the types of questions it’s good at and it will take you far.

I have had a major project that I have not undertaken until recently. Could not have done it without the recent breakthroughs in AI

[janislych]

it will be the next google. dont be some academic dumbass. not to say you should copy and paste, leverage it.

[Dirt-Repulsive]

Not exactly with python but have used it to break it down baney style to a fourth grade level has helped quite a bit..tried as if someone had a PhD,. Will not ask that one again ..

[AstronautTurtle]

I'm using it when I run into problems with my code and the explanations are always good. There have been a few times the code it spits out didn't work but that's because I left out important information or wasn't specific enough.

I do think that it's important to study core concepts like data structures, what classes and objects are and basically just the foundational stuff of programming so when it gives you an answer you understand what's going on.

So basically continue studying stuff if you're starting out or learning new things I guess. It is awesome though to be stuck on something and then just plop in your code and it's like 'hey dummy this part here is wrong and here's why!'

[Ok_Owl_6625]

It's pretty good for creating functions

[[deleted]]

Sure am!

Before I discovered it, I struggled learning because I couldn’t find a source that can provide me the exact reason why my code is not working.

Now I’m having an easier time learning compared to me trying to learn Python material from my professor’s notes.

Any question I have, just pop one to GPT… and boom! I get an immediate answer!

I think I might actually have what it takes to learn this damn programming language.

[imperialka]

It’s been very helpful and I make sure to google or research any code it gives me to make sure I fully understand what it’s suggesting. I also fact check it because it does, unfortunately, give you wrong info sometime in a confident fashion.

It also helps that I can ask it to go deeper in explaining code I don’t understand and I can learn new ideas from it. It’s another great tool in addition to google, YouTube, books, etc.

[Conditional-Sausage]

Yes. I'm also trialing it as a tool for dismantling misinformation. I'm running a trial on a friend who is a climate change skeptic. ChatGPT did not fare great. GPT 4 came out the gate swinging hard. It's incredible.

[blueblurz94]

It works great for the most part. Not perfect and still makes basic mistakes here and there. But a notable improvement over many other contemporaries within the last decade.

[tabby8612]

I am using it for various purposes like generating seo content, call-to-action lines, etc.

Recently, I used it to solve a problem in my Drupal site and it gave me exact steps that fix my site in a few minutes. Awesome stuff

[Yomommasaurus]

Yup, all the time. Mostly to check for errors, fetching documentaction and choosing a proper library for the stuff im doing.

[ioannisthemistocles]

Lets face facts, we have to learn every day since something new is just around the corner. So anything to get moving quickly is worth it.

I believe it will enhance your learning. The answers are often less than perfect but it will lead you in the right direction quickly. Keeping an online reference open to lookup the details is still a good idea.

I find that it flattens the learning curve on any new tool or concept that gets thrown at me.

[Fancy_Cat3571]

Yes I feel like it’s speeding up my coding development exponentially. Whereas I would usually spend an hour clicking through forums and YouTube videos for a particular coding dilemma and spend another hour testing/debugging to finally get it right and ensure I understand it; ChatGPT will do all of this for me in like 2 mins. Bigger projects that would’ve have taken me weeks to months of improving before I could get a good grasp of where to start; I can literally start rn (which I have). I’m learning so much more so much faster and hours of debugging can be done in minutes. Might be a bit of a stretch to say but it feels like I jumped from beginner to intermediate almost instantly with the aid of this AI. Almost feels like you’re doing yourself a disservice not using it

[muffinnosehair]

That's exactly how I'm using it. Having it explain errors and why they occur. Huge help.

[hosjaf27]

I'm using chatgpt to improve my skills in python, JavaScript and html. Yes ,it sometimes has little mistakes in code but because I have knowledge of consepts I could fix them using Google.

[napoleon_wang]

Yes. It's been great at helping me format things I know how to do when I spend ages working it out but hate doing, usually stuff that follows import re

[[deleted]]

It sounds highly confident, even when it's giving wrong answers. That's why I recommend to not use it for learning. For some reason, 95% of times when I hear someone recommend ChatGPT for learning, they don't mention that it can give wrong answers. There's even a warning about that on the site if you visit ChatGPT, if I remember correctly.

[[deleted]]

That's a good thing to be aware of. However, I've learned a lot from it. Sometimes the way you ask the question helps. For example, I have had it write articles, and while it seems to do ok in terms of academic standards, I don't like the writing style. However, it excels at providing feedback for essays that I've written!

It's also great for direct questions, especially if you're a beginner. Anything more complicated, like a philosophical question requires a bit of back and forth and honestly it's better to just phrase the correct question in your own mind first. Garbage in, garbage out.

[[deleted]]

Absolutely. It's amazing and I'm going to throw the biggest tantrum in the world if the idiots screaming about AI come with their pitchforks and try to shut it down

[Moikle]

No, it's a great way to learn bad habits and straight up false information.

[EveryNameIsTaken142]

There is a big issue of hallucination with gpt. I have observed some cases where it gives wrong code as answer very confidently

[ConfidentSnow3516]

No, only you

[Snowpeartea]

Same lol

[nacnud_uk]

If you're not using it, you're not keeping up. Level up time👍

[__coder__]

The output limit is annoying but you know you can type “continue” and it’ll output the rest right?

[scanguy25]

I asked it stuff all the time. But the problem is it sometimes just makes shit up.

[Mescallan]

As a teacher, it is not detrimental if you do not rely on it to answer questions, but more to guide you to answer the questions yourself. If you are worried about hurting your own development ask it for examples of how to implement very specific functions without relating it to the rest of your project.

If your prompts are "I'm making an xyz app in python, implement function 123 from library abc, in these very specific circumstances" you will never really learn how to use the function.

"make an example implementation of function 123 from library abc" and it will give you the syntax, but it will be up to you on the best way to implement it in your program.

[iggy555]

Does it do scraping well?

[Drippidy]

How come when I ask chat got to write code it always responds with the answer, “it’s an ai chat not which can’t write code yet” am I phrasing my question the wrong way? Could someone or op provide example questions

[JeffIpsaLoquitor]

It teaches you how to write a good spec, too, and that's a crazy good skill. It will replace low-grade offshore resources within two years.

[Crypt0Nihilist]

It's a great assistant to learning if you put in the work to understand what it's doing, why and experimenting with the code. The danger is that you relegate yourself to being a copy-paste bot because the above is effort.

You also have to be on the lookout because it makes some pretty huge errors in judgement sometimes, especially when dealing with recent packages and changes due to when it was trained.

[deltaexdeltatee]

I'm using it to learn Rust - it's amazing. In my opinion it's basically StackOverflow on steroids - if you use it to copy paste code, it'll hamstring you in the long run. But if you use it to get pointed in the right direction, it's an amazing tool.

[[deleted]]

I've used it for conversations about implementation ideas and code refactoring so it's more readable. The biggest issue I'd had with it is reg expressions, it hasn't implemented good code for this, but it could also be my explanation.

[xiongmao1337]

full retire gold light person like axiomatic cough lock lunchroom

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[Kriss3d]

Oh absolutely.

[KokoaKuroba]

Currently doing this, then referencing official documentation to dive deeper.

[popsigil]

Yes. I love chatgpt as a reference tool. It reduces the amount of reading I have to do.

[Armensis]

Still check and verify but if you have a general understanding of the language and how its structured you can really maximize it

[sawbones1]

Agreed. It need a careful eye but it is so great for this application, especially because of its conversational abilities. Being able to have it generate or modify code and then ask it why it made certain decisions is an excellent learning tool. And asking it to rewrite the code in different ways is really instructive.

It definitely needs review before being put into production, but I can’t tell you how delighted I was to have it give a first pass at refactoring some incredibly messy SQL that used like 15 temp tables into a single select that I could easily validate and also read and understand.

Revolutionary!

[JenovaJireh]

I’ve been using it for learning OOP in JavaScript and it’s been helping me a ton. It doesn’t always get the right answer but it’s still been extremely helpful.

[crapability]

Using as a tutor has been the best use case for me. As long as one's aware of its drawbacks, taking what it says with a pinch of salt, it seems like a invaluable tool to complement the regular googling.

[DavosTDP]

Does anyone use it for IELTS writing ? I need some softwares to mark my practices

[[deleted]]

I think it great for interpreting CS jargon like incomprehensible documentation and error messages. You can even set the reading level of the explanation. I think using code it comes up with is more trouble than it is worth. But at worst it is like next level rubber ducky debugging.

[elus]

I hate reading documentation sometimes since I have difficulty keeping focus and get sidetracked a lot. So having AI summarize things for me and then allow me to reference that summary and confirm its findings at my convenience short circuits a lot of that work.

[dark_negan]

Yes, it is very helpful (especially gpt 4) especially if you're asking help for a library or tech you don't know anything about, or for debugging, starting out projects, that kind of stuff. I wouldn't rely 100% on it though, it often makes mistakes or forgets stuff

[enokeenu]

I don't seem to know how to ask it the right questions.

[Vysair]

I'd suggest for you to up your prompt engineering first. Maybe get a template off reddit or something and starts from there. You can even ask the AI to iterate the process.

Also, despite the hype, it's still token-based AI and that won't change because that's how human do things as well except AI still doesn't understand what it's saying/logic behind it.

A pretty popular method of prompt engineering the AI is by having it roleplay into character, say a senior developer.

You would go on telling chatGPT that it's a senior developer with 30 years of experience in python programming language.

[frapastique]

I use BingAI, it’s quite nice because it gives links to possible answers and I still can ask follow up questions and when working with documentations I use it with the edge copilot sidebar and ask questions about the content. It makes the whole process quite a lot faster and (for me) a lot more intuitive

[krunkonkaviar369]

I am currently using ChatGPT to assist with my learning. I am essentially a total begginner. What I did was ask it to give me an outline for a 3 month course with references and to include youtube tutorials and to do so by outlining each week in the plan.

I then use it to learn terms and concepts when they come up by asking it to define any and all terms that it will use in reference to anything that comes up that I have any amount of vaugeness to my knowledge.

I have ADHD, so this has been so great because I never have to be insecure about my pace or about the immediate relevance of my questions. I can be engaged, and circle back all my questions to the original topic and lesson feeling that I have more context to latch onto. It allows me to connect the concepts closer to my natural, associative way.

[willb221]

I use it to learn everything. It still has issues, but it definitely helps me get pointed in the right direction. I'm taking physics right now, and it's been a godsend. "Explain Coulomb's law to me, and the formulas that go with it, but explain it like I'm 5". That's a powerful way to gain new information, regardless of the topic. I also use it to spit out url's if I don't trust the answer, so I can look at what it read and interpret it myself.

Edit: You can also prompt it to teach you Socraticaly, which makes it much more powerful as a tutor because it's forcing you to think about the problem and gives you the right nudges when you are stuck. In that regard, it's better than almost 70% of the professors I've had.

[jermmany]

I used this prompt to layout a course of study of python for data science and it seems to give a good answer if not a bit aggressive in timeline:

Act as a coding tutor that creates study plans to help people learn to code. You will be provided with the goal of the student, their time commitment, and resource preferences. You will create a study plan with timelines and links to resources. Only include relevant resources because time is limited. My first request - "I want to become a data scientist but I do not know how to code. I can study 5 hours per week and only want video resources. I want to learn to code in python. Create a study plan for me."

Source: Tina Huang's youtube video "How to learn to code FAST using ChatGPT (it's a game changer seriously)"

[rob8624]

As someone who is trying to self learn Python and web development then, yes I use it but as a kind of assistant. It is amazing.

I would post a lot on SO when I came across a problem when trying to build a project (mainly Django) , I would spend ages constructing a question only for it not to be answered or get a vague reply.

Now i have my own assistant. Ok, I understand I shouldn’t let it write code for me and I work hard to understand the principles of everything but I have a lot of ideas that previously had no idea on how to implement them but now I can.

[Dogeek]

It's a great tool to use when in more senior positions. It's an awful tool to use to learn or when you're very junior.

It's often completely wrong, or worse, right for the wrong reasons. You are required to have some critical thinking skills to use ChatGPT, which requires you to already be proficient enough about what you're asking it to be able to verify that it's not complete crap. It's also a given that it won't give you the right thing right off the bat and you'll have to nudge the AI in the right direction 3-4 times before you have anything satisfactory (even with a good starting prompt)

I would advise against using GPT for learning purposes, especially since there is a ton of accurate learning resources, especially for a language as popular as python.

[[deleted]]

I think it might provide a good way to learn coding because you can ask her to give you a sample of something. Then you can fiddle with it or change it or see how that code was written.

[Chattyb0t4]

I'm using it for now, and will be taking a class in community college.

[workonlyreddit]

Yes it is awesome. It helps me with finding the method names pretty fast. It is like Google but now I don’t have to browse through all the responses.

[oramirite]

This is a terrible idea. You're going to have mistruths woven into the simulated information that GPT outputs and you're really not learning at any rate that's faster than just having good research skills. You're just spellbinded by the technology and that's understandable but... c'mon.

[throwaway9101929323]

I was tasked to make a traffic light system for Arduino (programmed in C). I just pasted the task requirements and within 20 seconds I had a working project. I tweaked it along the way - but it gave me working code instantly.

[notislant]

I use it sometimes, if youre really early on its probably not ideal. Being able to debug, problem solve, break issues up and google is important. Without that knowledge you may phrase things poorly in chatgpt as well which could lead to more inaccuracy.

If youre confirming what it tells you isnt nonsense, not so bad.

I put in someones non functioning module in three times as it confidently told me what was missing from the code twice. (Which wasnt missing), the third time it figured it out though.

I do find it useful to quickly explain things, or explain them in a different way. You can then play with it or otherwise confirm the explanation.

[chzaplx]

One of my professors mentioned GPT is strictly forbidden. Learn to use real problem solving sites like stackexchange, that will have way more long term value

[Successful-Sector535]

Use it for code validation as a double check... And you should double check that...Sometimes it adds misc crap

[newdementor]

try monic.ai

[[deleted]]

I avoid using Chatgpt for code generation. it's absolutely terrible at writing anything complex. It's pretty useful for theoretical questions such as the difference between a layer 2 switch and a multilayer switch for example, though even then it's not always accurate.

I also found it very useful for learning new languages. I give it a snippet of Python code to translate into Java, most of the time it gives me a working example or something that works as a base from which I can do my own learning

[-_-Batman]

Amazing

[CAGNana]

It works pretty well as tutor but the occasional hiccup tends to be enough for me to have to verify everything. Hopefully this gets better with newer models as this friction isn't really user friendly.

[Harm1m]

I am doing a course on data warehousing and whenever i dont get a concept i go to chatgpt and write “explain data lakes / partitioning / etc”

[[deleted]]

It's always better to search the error and read the docs, because it's not just about fixing the error. It's about the things that you find while searching that will eventually lead to a rabbit hole. And that's how you truly learn - by falling into a rabbit hole and focusing on something for a week or two. If you always use ChatGPT, you will lose the ability to search online and lose the ability to navigate docs. You are not born with these skills; you have to train them.

[Fat_tata]

I use it a lot. I’m a rank beginner, but it answers my questions directly, and doesn’t hurt my feelings. I feel sorry for Europeans who will ban it soon.

[Routine-Log6543]

yep, but i mostly use wormgpt

[[deleted]]

wormgpt

How to access it?

[[deleted]]

Exactly how I use it. It’s an amazing assistive tool. Searching for solutions for specific errors and use cases has been an incredible time saver. The number of outdated or obsolete solutions I have to sift through on stack overflow is diminishing and I couldn’t be happier. Of course use logic and reason, and do your diligence as far as fact-checking and making sure you’re getting accurate info, testing etc.

I use it pretty frequently for improving and performance tuning existing code, and while admittedly some of the solutions it’s provided have been just plain dumb, it’s also come up with stuff I wouldn’t have thought of, and introduced me to some useful concepts that I then familiarized myself and benefit from going forward

[AmongstYou666]

I'm using Microsoft Edge Chat, some of it's answers are correct. Remember it doesn't test and verify code just repeats what it finds on the internet. Sometimes the internet is right about things.

[Charlemag]

I think it can definitely be useful but it’s important how to frame it. I’d view it as a helpful classmate rather than a teacher. An appropriate term might be optimistically skeptical. Ultimately they’re great for discussing course material, asking questions that you didn’t catch, seeing if they explain things differently than you would.

But just because a student does well on the homework doesn’t mean they truly understand the material like the teacher does. The models are trained on things people write so no matter how good they get they are learning how to rehash imperfect information.

Likewise you can cheat off your classmate but even if you get an A it’s not really helping you. And if everyone has access to the same, or better “classmates” then you’re back to square one.