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0 pointsrecursivedoubts1mo ago0 comments

AI is extremely dangerous for students and needs to be used intentionally, so I don't blame people for just going to "ban it" when it comes to their kids.

Our university is slowly stumbling towards "AI Literacy" being a skill we teach, but, frankly, most faculty here don't have the expertise and students often understand the tools better than teachers.

I think there will be a painful adjustment period, I am trying to make it as painless as possible for my students (and sharing my approach and experience with my department) but I am just a lowly instructor.

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subhobroto1mo ago

> AI is extremely dangerous for students and needs to be used intentionally

Can you expound on both points in more details please, ideally with some examples?

recursivedoubtsOP1mo ago

If a student uses AI to simply code-gen without understanding the code (e.g. in my compilers class if they just generate the recursive-descent parser w/Claude, fixing all the tests) then they are robbing themselves of the opportunity to learn how to code.

In OP I showed an AGENTS.md file I give my students. I think this is using AI in a manner productive for intellectual development.

bsoles1mo ago

I asked my students in a take home lab to write tests for a function that computes the Collatz sequence. Half of the class returned AI generated tests that tested the algorithm with floating point and negative numbers (for "correct" results, and not for input validation). I am not doing anything take home anymore.

softwaredoug1mo ago

Honestly defining what to teach is hard

People need to learn to do research with LLMs, code with LLMs, how to evaluate artifacts created by AI. They need to learn how agents work at a high level, the limitations on context, that they hallucinate and become sycophantic. How they need guardrails and strict feedback mechanisms if let loose. AI Safety connecting to external systems etc etc.

You're right that few high school educators would have any sense of all that.

WalterBright1mo ago

I don't know anyone who learned arithmetic from a calculator.

I do know people who would get egregiously wrong answers from misusing a calculator and insisted it couldn't be wrong.

spwa41mo ago

I certainly practiced a lot on a calculator. Oh and I was very interested in how this concept, doing math using equipment rather than brains, worked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Professor

softwaredoug1mo ago

Yes but I was also taught to use a calculator, and particular the advanced graphing calculators.

Not to mention programming is a meta skill on top of “calculators”

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ndriscoll1mo ago

The sycophancy is an artifact of how they RLHF train the popular chat models to appeal to normies, not fundamental to the tool. I can't remember encountering it at all since I've started using codex, and in fact it regularly fills in gaps in my knowledge/corrects areas that I misunderstand. The professional tool has a vastly more professional demeanor. None of the "that's the key insight!" crap.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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subhobroto1mo ago

> AI is extremely dangerous for students and needs to be used intentionally

Can you expound on both points in more details please, ideally with some examples?

recursivedoubtsOP1mo ago

In OP I showed an AGENTS.md file I give my students. I think this is using AI in a manner productive for intellectual development.

bsoles1mo ago

softwaredoug1mo ago

Honestly defining what to teach is hard

You're right that few high school educators would have any sense of all that.

WalterBright1mo ago

I don't know anyone who learned arithmetic from a calculator.

I do know people who would get egregiously wrong answers from misusing a calculator and insisted it couldn't be wrong.

spwa41mo ago

I certainly practiced a lot on a calculator. Oh and I was very interested in how this concept, doing math using equipment rather than brains, worked.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Professor

softwaredoug1mo ago

Yes but I was also taught to use a calculator, and particular the advanced graphing calculators.

Not to mention programming is a meta skill on top of “calculators”

1 more reply

ndriscoll1mo ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse