> What would happen if the "AI" and web search didn't return anything? Would you have stuck with your implementation?

I was fairly certain there must exist some type of algorithm exactly for this purpose. I would have been flabbergasted if I couldn’t find something on the web. But it that failed, I would have asked friends and cracked open the algorithms textbooks.

> I'm not against use of "AI". But this increasing refusal of those who aspire to work in specialist domains like software development to systematically learn things is not great. That's just compounding on an already diminished capacity to process information skillfully.

I understand what you mean, and agree with you. I can also assure you that that is not how I use it.

Many developers use libraries effectively without knowing every time consideration of O(n) comes into play.

Competently implemented, in the right context, LLMs can be an effective form of abstraction.