Roma Amor Malasarte

No AI? No Sushi Robots

07 May 2024

I. Introduction

About a year and a half ago, I went back home and took a visit to my uncle’s house. His son, who worked in IT and in the software developing field had asked me, “where do you go to college and what are you studying?” This question was not new to me, but his response left me with confusion. As I was describing my college experience, he replied back saying that AI was going to steal CS jobs since everyone is using ChatGPT. At the time, I had never heard of ChatGPT, so his mention was competely new to me. Today I find myself actively using the AI tool to describe concepts to me or to even generate puns. It is surreal how this tool that I knew nothing about not so long ago has been integrated into my weekly tasks.

I have enjoyed ICS314 in many ways due to how well the structure of the course is and the freedom in being able to create. I appreciate that AI is encouraged in this course (if used responsibly of course).

II. Personal Experience with AI

I have used AI in class this semester in the following areas:

  1. Experience WODs e.g. E18: I have not used AI in the experience WODs mainly because I viewed them as a trial for me to test whether I understand the concept. The Experience WODs simply taught me how to follow intstructions and if I continued to do so, I would be successful. I did not think that AI was needed in the Experience WODs as there were tutorial videos which I much rather prefer.

  2. In-class Practice WODs: I rarely used AI in the In-class Practice WODs. AI was used when neither my partner or I were sure of how to move forward in the WOD. Often, one or both of us knew how to start the WODs off and we would jump off each others’ ideas.

  3. In-class WODs: I have used AI for the In-class WODs mainly to debug my code. I figured that utilizing AI was efficient especially since it was under a time crunch. My strategy for In-class WODs were to try and attempt the instructions myself for about 10-15 minutes in. If I have bugs or if nothing works, I would consider using AI to help me figure out what I am stuck on. AI had helped me stray away from the evil DNF time.

  4. Essays: I do use AI for my essays, specifically Grammarly and Notion. I have been using grammarly since high school and even then, I had little to no knowledge about AI and was not educated on its capabilities. Along with grammarly, I write my rough drafts on Notion which also utilizes AI to provide me with grammatical recommendations. It is very convenient writing while getting edits to my essays simultaneously.

  5. Final project: I have used AI in my final project. I use Github Copilot to debug my code right from intelliJ. Other times, I use ChatGPT to ask clarifying questions on what a specific line of code means. At one point I wanted to understand more about the schema collections and so I was able to ask ChatGPT for a quick and simple explanation on that concept.

  6. Learning a concept / tutorial: I do use AI to give me more examples on how to use a specific function as mentioned in the previous point.

  7. Answering a question in class or in Discord: No, I have not used AI to answer a question in class or in discord.

  8. Asking or answering a smart-question: I also have not used AI to ask or answer a smart question.

  9. Coding example e.g. “give an example of using Underscore .pluck”: I use AI to provide me examples on different functions to refresh my memory aside from looking at the documentation. For this class, all the documentation we need is provided and accessible

  10. Explaining code: I have used AI to explain code the same way I ask it to generate examples for my to strengthen my understanding on concepts.

  11. Writing code: Yes, I have asked AI to write example code or code that is relevant to what I am working on. When we would go between CSS and HTML classes, I was confused on how HTML functions could be designed through the CSS classes and AI was able to show me that using id’s in the div or containers, allowed me to edit through the CSS style class.

  12. Documenting code: No, as it is easier to cater documention to my own understanding.

  13. Quality assurance: Aside from ESlint errors, I do use AI to ensure that the quality of my code is up to par, similar to how I use AI to debug my In-class WODs

  14. Other uses in ICS 314 not listed above: other than what has been listed above, I have no other uses with AI.

III. Impact on Learning and Understanding:

I am still trying to figure out where I stand with the incorporation of AI in my day to day learning experience. I would like it to become a valuable resource, but I do not want to take advantage of it and lose my values in true learning. AI does help me apply what I learn in an efficient manner, but it does not help me retain much. In my case, I prefer reading the documentation, looking at examples, and testing out the code. The stucture of how AI helps me retain information is less effective than reading documentation for me. Because of its efficiency, an indiviudal could be tempted to not read the documentation.

IV. Practical Applications:

Outside of 314, I use AI when I unlock my Iphone or when I am texting and my messages are autocorrected. I also use Maps and navigation apps to commute/ look for a bus and that is another source of AI in which I incorporate in my day to day life.

V. Challenges and Opportunities:

AI embodies “Think smarter, not harder”. Just like any other tool or resource, we have much to learn about AI- how it works, what are its different components, and how to maximize its utilization to benefit ourselves. It does have its own challenges such as not being able to produce the correct answer sometimes, or being repetitive. On the bright side, it shares the opportunity of making decisions faster, which is its trade off.

VI. Comparative Analysis:

Traditional teaching methods are still important. Writing, reading, looking through textbooks and taking notes will be elemental when learning. AI enhancement can be used concurrently to help provide extra examples and guidance.

VII. Future Considerations:

I believe that AI should not be prevented from software engineering education, but it should be encouraged and taught in an ethical way. AI ethics is a foundational topic to cover and learn to use AI for the betterment of an individual and not as a cut to the chase method. Just like the ethics debate we had in class, if you as an individual who has the skillsets and experience in SWE industry, it would be sad to be robbed from a position only for it to be given to a person who only knows how to use AI. Sarah deserved better…

VIII. Conclusion:

I want to learn more about Artificial intelligence until I am no longer able to do so. As the use of AI is on the rise, I can see that it has potential to improve the human decision and create accessible ways to create and innovate, just like how sushi restaurants have robot servers.