1.2. AI in learning programmimng

Lately we’ve been witness to a massive increase in popularity and usage of large language models (LLMs), in particular ChatGPT. Here we would like to encourage you to use LLMs such as ChatGPT in a responsible way while learning the basics of programming.

Fig. 1.7 ChatGPT logo.

In this book, we are building the foundations of your programming skills - this is analogous to learning the fundamentals of calculus, such as multiplication table, which you did a long time ago in elementary school. Notice that while there are calculators readily available on your computer and cellphones, you still learned by heart how to do multiplication. Translating this to programming, the concepts you will learn in this book are the very essence of programming. While it is possible to take shortcuts and find (parts of) the code available online and/or with LLMs, if you skip learning the basics, you may hit the ceiling when it comes to programming skills rather quickly.

Why is that?

• Critical thinking and problem solving require practice. If you skip learning the basics and practicing on your own, you will not develop these critical scientific skills.

• More practically, LLMs often don’t provide (entirely) correct solutions. It will always be up to you to understand and improve solutions, which you won’t be able to do if you don’t learn how to code independently.

• In science, we’re exploring the unknown, whereas LLMs are trained using the text available online and can only reproduce what they’ve already “seen”. Therefore, LLMs won’t always have solutions to your (thus far untackled) questions.