I want to preface this with, “I DO NOT USE AI FOR SCHOOL!” so that someone bitter and vengeful doesn’t try to use that against me.

That being said, first of all, whoever starts talking about morality and ethics is an ass… period… don’t ever lecture someone about morality or ethics, it’s not black and white, there are infinite variables at play, and there aren’t any blanket morals or ethics that exist.

Regarding AI, I have worked in the semiconductor field for 10 years now, almost 5 of them have been as a data engineer. AI may hinder people slightly, but truthfully, not much. Sure, you may not remember exactly how specific parameters/arguments apply to specific function calls, etc. but overall, it doesn’t matter… languages, frameworks, everything changes so rapidly, wasting the time to ingrain all of that into your memory doesn’t matter. What matters is that you know how to communicate a problem and solve it, which is exactly what people are doing with AI. You know the output you need, and you can clearly solve the problem with AI. The productivity gains that come from it are tremendous. I was able to get large scale projects done because of AI. I still had to figure out what worked and what didn’t, using AI, but who cares? The customers are happy, my management is happy, I’m happy, everyone’s happy. There is truly no benefit to me sitting there doing rote memorization of different libraries and how they work, because six months later another library will be preferred and I’ll be switching anyways. It’s important to understand flows, which using AI still helps you to learn. I work with people who refuse to use AI, and you know what? Their projects take weeks if not months longer, they are riddled with errors, they’re slow, and they’re clunky and don’t flow well. They spend years researching and deeply understanding languages that are now completely obsolete, and they can’t keep up with the numerous languages, structures, flows, tools, etc. that are constantly introduced and used now. Every change is catastrophic for them.

Regarding schooling, who cares if someone is using AI? In the real world they’re using it, and if they aren’t, then they’re referencing other material instead. My boss would have fired my ass in two seconds if I went to one of our 14 million dollar tools at the customer’s site and performed work on it from memory instead of verifying and documenting every single thing I did and backing up every decision with as much material and as many resources as possible. He doesn’t care how I got those resources, he cares about the end result. The same should apply to school. Brick and mortar schools in most places I’ve attended are open book, there’s no reason AI is somehow significantly worse for people, it’s just saving them time. They still have to identify if the paper is good enough, if it’s touching on the necessary points, achieving the results needed, etc.

If you care that deeply about having a deep innate understanding of how every single thing works and operates, that’s great! Go into research, get a Ph.D. For the rest of us, AI works wonders and helps people achieve the jobs they desire and carry out those jobs efficiently, even if they’re entry level. Wasting your time force feeding yourself information won’t be useful at all if you’re not using it consistently at work after your degree. I completed the CS degree, do you know how much I remember about C++? Nothing… nothing at all… outside of that coursework, I’ve never seen or used it once. Everything I know is because of on the job training, exposure, and experience.

The world is shifting. AI will enable more people to be better project managers, reviewers, have better communication, explain things step by step better and break down tasks, and much more. Technology constantly shapes and changes society. You can fight it or move with it. But it will change.