🔍 In a recent MIT experiment, three student teams were asked to write software code in Fortran, a programming language none of them knew. The results were pretty interesting:
🥇 The team using ChatGPT finished the fastest
🥈 The team using a specific AI coding assistant (Code Llama) came in second
🥉 The team using just Google search finished last, breaking down the task into components and solving it the old-fashioned way.
However, when tested on their ability to recall the solutions from memory, the situation was reversed. The ChatGPT team remembered nothing and failed, while half of the Code Llama team passed, and every student in the Google Search team succeeded.
📚 This experiment underscores a crucial educational lesson: hard work, sweat, and some measure of frustration are essential for learning. Spoon-fed solutions don’t stick, and it is the process itself of struggling through problems where the value is.
🤖 As AI coding tools become more available, the demand for developers who can effectively use these tools will grow. But it’s clear that solid computer science skills are essential before you can make good use of AI. You will have to learn these the old-fashioned way.
💡 The conclusion from this experiment is simple: there is no substitute for hard work 😊 Don’t just rely on AI tools; learn to code, crash, debug, and repeat.
Your coding future depends on it.
