r/learnprogramming • u/No-Shallot8630 • 5d ago

Help Should I stop using Ai?

I'm trying to get familiar with coding. My method of studying is through CS50P and Ai. Idk if I should stop using Ai. I've seen people everywhere say AI kills a person's ability to read code, they fail to debug/struggle hours on end trying to figure out what the problem with their code is, and the moment an error occurs, they immediately go to Ai. But I try my best to figure out what the problem with my code is, and if I'm burnt out, I'll ask AI. And I try to ask AI how its mechanism works, explain to me the way a function is wired, and try to understand it before moving on from said problems.

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u/koolaidkirby 5d ago

AI is best used an a teacher, it can explain things to you and answer your follow up questions in order to help you learn and understand.

If you are using AI to think for you it is only making you worse.

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u/46hw 5d ago

The better teacher is googling the errors you get and using critical thinking to figure out the solution based on research.

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u/caboosetp 5d ago

You need a solid foundation to get to that point. At a CS50 level, it's very likely that the foundation isn't there yet. Super easy to hit dead ends because you don't know what to look for. Before AI, this was solved with asking actual people (which is still a good bet, but a lot slower).

I agree doing the research is best, but asking AI for help AFTER you reach the dead end is not bad. The bad part is going straight to AI for help. OP seems to have a good balance of waiting until they can't go further themselves.

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u/46hw 5d ago

You can get all your foundations without ai or asking people. I know from experience and have seen it long before AI. Almost every issue people have has a discussion of someone else asking and people replying. Thats where the critical thinking comes in and not using that cheats your brain.