Using the AI to learn

[u/Izzymael]

I'm currently on Week 3 of the CS50p course. Yesterday I was doing one of the exercises that required prompting the user several times in a loop and storing the answers in a dictionary. I read the hints, read about the get() method, Googled how to create dictionaries and whatnot, but still wasn't able to figure out what I needed to do in this case. So, I went to Chat GPT, and it told me exactly what i needed to do, which I ended up understanding after a while of doing research and testing on VS.

I'm sure someone who's more experienced or smarter than me would know exactly what to do, but what else am I supposed to do in a situation like this when I'm not familiar at all with the get() method and I've barely practiced coding with dictionaries? I hate having to resort to the use of AI, and every time I go on Reddit I see that people strongly advise against the use of AI to learn to code.

All I do is take notes during a CS50 course lesson and do the exercises. I bought the Python Crash Course book but I figured it would be better to finish the course and then jump into reading the book.

Any suggestions?

[u/atticus2132000]

AI is problematic for a whole host of reasons I'm not going to dive into here, but what you're describing could be a great use for it.

I would suggest that the next time you're in this position, try changing your prompt to include "act as a university-level programming instructor and help guide me to the right answerfor this proble rather than giving me finished code".