Artificial Introductions
20 Oct 2023Artificial Introductions
Smart Use of Artificial Intelligence
The use of Artificial Intelligence Bots such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Bard, etc. is not necessarily something to frown upon. Similar to Wikipedia, AI is not a good place to end off with, but a good way to start.
Whenever an individual is stuck upon a certain prompt or particular question, AI bots prove to be a powerful source for directions to the solution. However, keep in mind that the direct answer will most likely be the correct or most optimal solution there is. The individual using AI is responsible for using the information given by the AI.
AI with Experience WODs
Experience WODs were not structured to prove extremely challenging such as the regular in-class WODs have been. As as result, there should have been minimal to no usage of AI assistance. Instead, Experience WODs were meant to serve as a good practice source for fundamental Software Engineering practices as well as preparation for the in-class WODs. These experience WODs could have been attempted an infinite amount of times until the student felt satisfied with their knowledge gain.
AI with In-Class Practice WODs
In class practice WODs do still count as practice, but are of a different nature that is on par with the actual graded WODs held on the second class day of the week. Using AI during these times have proven to be useful when it comes with time efficiency and meeting any standard besides DNF. However, I still believe that it was beneficial to the student to complete the in-class practice WOD without the use of AI. My method was to see what I knew or did not know at the time of the in-class practice WOD so that I knew what I needed to improve on. The only times where using ChatGPT for in-class WODs were viable were if I was completely stuck and needed some type of direction to continue and just mark down where I needed the assistance of AI, or when class was over and I needed direction from AI to continue or complete the in-class practice WOD.
AI with In-Class WODs
In class WODs that are held on the second day of class is the only exception to freely use ChatGPT. Of course, we had to submit if we used ChatGPT along with what we used ChatGPT for. However, using ChatGPT proved very useful if stuck on a certain part of the code. Instead of sitting down and staring at a still screen, there is still possibilities to press on and avoid DNF’ing the assignment. To utilize ChatGPT to it’s fullest potential, I have used prompts along the line of “Implement insert the WOD prompt here”
Essays
I am a firm believer that ChatGPT or any other AI is not needed for writing essays for the ICS 314 class, although may prove useful to get a start for other classes or prompts. The essays for this class are meant to hold special for the student and their learning experience and should not need the use of AI.
Final Project
During the last stretch of the semester and the for the use of the final project, I believe that AI will be of great assistance. Unlike the WODs or Experiences, there will be new components and ideas that we must implement without having resources that sometimes give us a tutorial such as the screencasts that were shown throughout the semester. We will at least have an idea of where to begin with certain issues within our milestones and further research through other means to solve the issues. Since beginning the final project for ICS 314, I have yet to use ChatGPT. However, I can foresee myself in the very near future using ChatGPT or Copilot to help the start of my code portion. I will use ChatGPT along with the latter of experiences that we have completed regarding meteor and application development to help formulate my solutions for the issues to be solved. I have also brushed upon the fact that individuals that have participated in HACC as well as people that have previously taken this course have heavily used ChatGPT to assist them within this class, especially the final project.
Learning a Concept with AI
When it comes to learning a new concept, I am a firm believer that we must begin with the hard way first. When using ChatGPT or other AI bots for new concepts, the chat bot will most likely not give us the correct answer or display of the concept. Instead, it is better to learn the information from a professor or even trustworthy online sources. It is possible for AI to hinder our learning when learning straight from the AI.
AI and Smart Questions
Similar to the previous responses about the flaws and benefits of using AI as a tool, is that there is possible insight to gain. It is always a good starting point to grasp the general knowledge about a particular question or problem, but may not be enough for the entirety. When it comes to this situation, I prefer to asking my peers or someone with professional knowledge.
Answering a Question on Discord
When answering or even asking a question on Discord, I am not looking for an answer that can be searched up with ChatGPT. I would appreciate it more if I received an answer that I could relate to and have an elaborate answer to. As a result, I have not personally resulted to asking or answering a question with an answer from an AI.
AI and Coding Examples
I have personally done this on my own free time. This has not only proven helpful on how to use the method call, but also when to use a certain method call. A nice feature that is a part of ChatGPT code is that there are comments within the code (even if not entirely correct). This is helpful especially when reading the code library documents might be confusing at times.
Explaining, Writing, and Documenting Code
Personally I have not used any AI to explain code. The best way to code and learn code, in my own opinion, is to understand what each individual line does and comment it. THIS is where sufficient commenting and documentation on one’s code is important. Explaining, Writing, and Documenting code works hand in hand with each other at all times when programming. If a programmer must rely on AI to explain and/or document code, then their credibility as a programmer plummets.
Quality Assurance
Personally, I have not relied on AI to fix code errors. ESLint is a powerful tool to view errors in one’s code-style as well as code syntax. On the other hand, it is not impossible to use AI to fix any code errors. I believe that if you write the prompt in such a way, it is possible to receive an answer that is similar quite similar to the correct code syntax/style.
Closing
Over my college career thus far, there were minimal amounts of AI that I have used. In reality, I have only started to use ChatGPT because of this class. Although not often, It has proven on multiple occasions to be useful, especially while coding. I have tried to not rely on ChatGPT throughout my used within this class, because I wanted to hone my abilities on my own as a developer. However, no matter how demonized ChatGPT or other AI is being shown by teachers across the nation, there are many benefits when using ChatGpt as a tool rather than the absolute answer. On the contrary, the downside with ChatGPT is that the more you ask of it, the less accurate the answer becomes. In addition, there is no real reason to be using ChatGPT for class concepts, for this will only hinder one’s learning. To combat the unstable answers provided by AI, I have learned that asking prompts in sections will provide you with a more reasonable answer. One class that for sure is not good with ChatGPT, is Sciences outside of Computer Science.
Use answers from ChatGPT at your own risk!