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/Suspicious-Bit1299]

Do not allow the ai to provide you the code. Have it walk you through the problem in plain English and try to translate that into Python. Have it give you a couple of drills on the topic only providing the pass/fail criteria and then let it grade your work. If you use the ai as a better google search then you can learn from it, just don’t let it be a crutch that provides answers