Oreos are food, but only good in controlled quantities. During covid, many of my co-workers cited putting on extra weight as they were unconsciously snacking on junk food when working at home. It was just to easy to have another bite when the plate of food was next to their mouse.

For learning, I think having an Oreo cookie (using AI) is OK once in a while, especially if your hitting a wall and can't get through, but it's a really, I think, a very steep slippery slope that leads to avoiding the learning process altogether.

I remember as a co-op student spending three days solving a particularly subtle bug in a C-based word processor. My grit was rewarded. On day three, I vividly remember staring at the code and the solution just popped into my head. That was one of the most formative experiences in my earlier years as a developer and feeling of elation never left me. I worry that AI will take these moments, especially early in ones career.

Our brains have not changed in hundreds of years, and I agree that the in person experience is actually the best. Humans learn best from humans. I'm trying to learn French, and Duo has been sad for a few weeks due to my absence, but its not having the same effect on me if it were a human French teacher was was sad with me.

Regarding failing students, I personally had to take summer school twice and still ended up failing grade 12 and repeating the entire school year. Why? I was too focused on computers and nothing else. In retrospect, taking summer school and repeating grade 12 actually helped me catch up at time when the stakes were low. If I hadn't, I would have definitely failed later in life when the costs were higher.