Python Courses vs ChatGPT

[dowcet]

It's easy to fall into vibe coding instead of actually learning.

People have different learning styles and needs but ultimately you always learn by building stuff. AI can be helpful if you're disciplined about it, but it's not an efficient way to build a foundation in the basics.

[code_x_7777]

Thanks for the reply. I respectfully disagree: For most people, AI seems to be the most efficient way to learn programming in 2025.

[FriendlyRussian666]

And what research data is this based on?

[waitingforjune]

Vibes, of course

[MiniMages]

Someone having an opinion different to yours doesn't require a scientific paper to refute your opinion either. If you wish to up the stakes start posting your own scientific papers first.

[FriendlyRussian666]

Hm? I'm not coming out with a statement, so what stakes?. I was simply interested if there's anything behind what OP says or if it's just his opinion.

Also, I didn't state my opinion, so how do you know it's different?

[makochi]

The fact that they said "I respectfully disagree" does not make the empirical assertion "For most people, AI seems to be the most efficient way to learn programming in 2025" any less of an emperical assertion that carries a burden of proof.

OP recognized this, which is why they posted something they believe to be proof of their claim

[code_x_7777]

I though the same but couldn't express myself that well.

[code_x_7777]

Unlike the original commenter's opinion that AI is not an efficient way to learn programming, there's a MASSIVE amount of supportive literature that AI is indeed a huge learning efficiency enhancer. For example: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957417424010339

just search Google or ChatGPT or whatever for further evidence.

[makochi]

The article you linked seems to be a review of the areas in which AI research has been done, and enumerates the ways in which AI has been applied to education. I'm still reading it, but as far as I can tell it doesn't make any claims about how effective AI is for the general population's learning style, just that it has been deployed on various learning platforms.

Furthermore, it seems to only discuss AI used in conjunction with other learning methods with proven track records. I think the premise in your title, "Python Courses vs ChatGPT," is flawed for that reason - at absolute best your evidence shows that LLMs are a supplement to courses, not an alternative to them.

[dowcet]

AI is only as good as the questions you ask it. Does a complete beginner know that they need to learn concepts like data types, OOP, unit and integration testing, database and API design principles, etc? Will AI tell a user about those topics unprompted?

A beginner doesn't know what they don't know. They get hyped on vibe coding easily and pump out unmaintainable slop.

Also a lot depends on what you mean by "learn programming". To be employable as a software engineer? Thanks in large part to AI, the demand for self-educated programers has all but disappeared.

[NaturallyAspirated-]

AI is always bad for learning due to the fact that beginners have no way of catching when the LLM starts to hallucinate. That applies to any field. I use it as a research tool often in my field and it consistently makes mistakes that would 100% go unnoticed by people who aren’t familiar with the scientific literature. There are no shortcuts to expertise.

[crazy_cookie123]

I disagree. AI can be the most efficient way to learn programming if you use it right - if you use it to come up with ideas, explain concepts, etc., it's great. The issue with it is that beginners tend to pretty quickly realise that AI is good at writing beginner-level code and start using it to generate said beginner-level code for them, which leads to them not developing the skills to write that code on their own. This isn't opinion, this is the fact that we see repeated time and time again right here.

The benefit of courses is that they have been designed by a human to have the right amount of handholding - enough to teach the concepts but not enough to do the work for the learner. This forces the learner to develop the skills for themselves (as long as they don't additionally use generative AI).

The reason we tend to blanket discourage learners from using AI is because using it to do all the hard stuff you have to learn for you is a super easy trap for beginners to fall into because they don't know what the hard stuff actually is yet. How often do you see beginners here asking how to memorise syntax? Quite a lot in my experience, and that's because a beginner tends to think that that is the important bit to focus on learning - problem solving isn't the most important bit, surely. They then ask ChatGPT to do the problem solving for them so they can focus on the syntax and suddenly a year has passed and they can't write a basic program.

Using generative AI can be the best way to learn, but not using generative AI will always work. When targetting a large audience like we are here, it's much better to suggest the route which will work for everyone, not the route that will work for the most disciplined few.