^ This

This is what a student, who truly wants to learn rather than simply complete a course / certification, would do... Use AI tools to explain + learn, but not outsource the learning process itself to the tools.

Quick, easy access to explanations and examples on complex topics.

In my case, learning enough trig and linear algebra to be useful in game engine programming / rendering has been made a lot easier / more efficient.

The same way Google or Wikipedia enables learning.

I have some success with this method: I try to write an explanation of something, then ask the LLM to find problems with the explanation. Sometimes its response leads me to shore up my understanding. Other times its answer doesn’t make sense to me and we dig into why. Whether or not the LLM is correct, it helps me clarify my own learning. It’s basically rubber duck debugging for my brain.

> What’s your hypothesis of how AI can accelerate how your brain understands something?

What are your beliefs / hypothesis of how having a human teacher can help you understand something?

AI explanations are no longer terrible garbage. The LLM might not be doing original research, but it has definitely read the textbook. :/ And 1000 related works.

You shouldn't believe the LLM when it tells you how to micro-optimize your code, but you can take suggestions as a starting point and verify them.

An AI is never going to make me feel bad for asking a "stupid" question, nor will it ever behave as though I have to earn the right to ask a sophisticated one. The answer is, in some cases, almost immaterial. Building in students the willingness to ask questions accelerates learning.

Does one still need to read, take notes, write, act, etc? Yes. The feeling of newfound knowledge that comes from reading/watching a virtuoso demonstration is always a mirage--I suspect most of us have the memory of watching someone do algebra on the board and then having the feeling of understanding melt away later when faced with the page. That's not changing, so far as I can tell.

But we should acknowledge that allowing students to ask questions at will, even ill-posed questions, might have some value.