Jerreth Diaz

The Importance of AI

21 Nov 2023

AI is Here to Stay

As AI continues to improve more people will learn about it and use it. Many believe that AI is detrimental to students’ learning which can be the case, but it can also help by assisting students understand difficult concepts. I did use AI such as ChatGPT or Github Co-pilot. I have used AI in various scenarios such as explaining code to even producing code given a set of instructions.

Usages within 314

  1. Experience WODs: From my experience, I tried to do the experience WODs on my own but if I was nearing the DNF category I would then try to use AI to attempt to finish the WOD. I distinctly remember using it during the Jamba Juice WODs.
  2. In-class Practice WODs: In-class practice WODs were different because I had tablemates whom I could rely on to help me with any confusion that May have occurred during the allotted time. While AI is a powerful tool I believe that talking with peers whenever possible will lead to a better understanding of the content overall.
  3. In-class WODs: Half of my In-class WODs were completed using AI, I had Various results where It either gave me not what I was looking for or allowed me to finish the WODs in time. For the WOD that was on underscore, I ended up using what it provided for me and It provided a solid enough answer to pass that WOD. However, when we did the WOD on IntelliJ I failed the WOD because I relied on AI too much.
  4. Essays: With Essays, I like to write out my thoughts on the topic at hand and from there ask AI to reword my essays so that It makes it sound and look more presentable to readers. I also reread to ensure that the AI does not take away from the meaning that I meant.
  5. Final project: Using AI helped me with fixing the code whenever I got errors or when I forgot how to do certain things during the Final Project. If I couldn’t solve the problem then I would ask my peers for help because they also have their parts to do.
  6. Learning a concept/tutorial: Generally, I don’t use AI for this kind of task. Personally, for me, I am a visual learner so watching videos on how to do things or why things work best for me. If there was code that I didn’t understand I could ask ChatGPT to break down the code and what each part is doing.
  7. Answering a question in class or in Discord: I didn’t answer questions that people had in Discord because If I had to rely on AI to answer someone else’s question then I shouldn’t answer them at all.
  8. Asking or answering a smart question I didn’t ask questions because I tried to solve the problems on my own either through AI or through video tutorials.
  9. Coding example: I did use AI to provide examples on how to structure code usually when I couldn’t find an example online. Especially when I do code that involves react-bootstrap components because it’s hard to edit the components to the style that you are looking for.
  10. Explaining code: Like I stated above I have used AI like ChatGPT to break down code and it proved to be helpful to help me understand what is happening within code I didn’t understand.
  11. Writing code: As I mentioned I had AI write the code for the in-class WOD for underscore, it worked like a charm however for other WODs it was the reason I failed. AI is a powerful tool however I don’t understand the underlying context so you have to be exact in what you’re describing.
  12. Documenting code: I haven’t taken advantage of this. I still need to document code so that people understand what’s happening within each block of code.
  13. Quality assurance: This saved me a lot of headaches because I could find where an error was and how to fix it or at least lead me in the right direction to fix the problem.
  14. Other uses in ICS 314: I Did Not use AI elsewhere relating to ICS 314

Impact on Learning Comprehension

I think that AI enhanced my knowledge of the topic while also diminishing my problem-solving skills. The reason for this is that I am learning more about different software engineering topics, however when I become stumped I find myself using AI to find the problem as it’s like an easy way out.

Challenges and Opportunities

Like all things, AI will continue to get better as we feed it more datasets for it to expand its knowledge base. Right now AI is fairly decent with the way it can code and understand things however it isn’t perfect and still requires more training to get accurate answers from them.

Comparative Analysis

I think that traditional teaching methods are important for students to grasp any content. AI cannot replace actual conversations and teamwork that you get in a classroom setting no matter how close people may think it can be. That doesn’t mean that AI should not be used. I think that using AI can benefit certain students because it allows them to dive deeper into topics that the professor may have been vague about.

Future Considerations

AI is a part of society now whether you like it or not. We should embrace its technical marvel in being able to assist whenever needed. However, It should be noted that AI should only be used for assistance rather than completing tasks on their own because then we will have future generations of software engineers who don’t know concepts and rely solely on AI.

Conclusion

AI is a powerful tool that should be used in software engineering classes. It provides students with valuable information regardless of the task at hand from explaining code to providing solutions to fix them. However, if we rely on it too much it can be detrimental to students learning overall. So we need to find a happy balance between using AI and traditional teaching methods.