Kids who use ChatGPT as a study assistant do worse on tests
popsci.com
popsci.com
I can see it definitely being more harm than good if you rely on it too early/heavily in general.
While that's true, my problem is something else: by outsourcing the reasoning process to a machine, my brain gets weaker. By doing less programing tasks, I become a worse programmer, even though on the surface I might look like a more productive one.
I'm not sure how bad/good the differences are in terms of getting bitten. I do think it will definitely hinder learning if you don't actually try to understand what you're doing, which I know a lot of devs will do. Not that it's entirely bad, I think there is room for devs who are just pushing out tickets in some environments, and others that care far more about the craft of software development. If it were left completely to the former, everything would eventually fall apart for lack of disciplined approach. If it were completely the latter, then every project would be on its third rewrite and second language before ever launching. I'm more of the latter, but pragmatic with age and experience.
I have a feeling that is an unintentional #2 that dominates reality.
It is interesting that it likens that to autopilot, where FAA is recommending people to minimize for a similar reason.
Since Math is known to be not a forte of Gen AI, it is a bit questionable if that contributes to the effects they are seeing. But as they claimed, it seems the effects is related to the reliance and “short cutting the thinking process” but not the ability of gen AI in that subject.
That makes me think about parents helping kids to do homework (it’s a thing in Hong Kong.) The immediate effects would enhance their results in homework grades. But now I wonder if they are inadvertently hurting their exam grades.
In order words, I wonder how this result would generalize to human tutor as well. I suppose it would too, and depending on their pedagogy (or the lack of) it would harms students in a similar way.