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Expertise in the age of AI

moderndescartes.com

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Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#41

Post by ygouzerh »

b3kart wrote: post #3
recursivedoubts wrote: post #2

I think that the universities have an opportunity here to be the places where manual code is written so that juniors can gain the coding expertise necessary to become effective with AI. Many universities are not set up to take advantage of this opportunity because they lean heavily into theory and look down on coding, but some departments will make the pivot well. I hope that ours (Montana State) is one of them.

so universities become trade schools? one concern is where does one get theoretical knowledge required for e.g. going to graduate school and then doing research to push the state of the art. that's one of the reasons universities emphasize theory: it's seen as the first step on the academic ladder, not as a trade school

Good question! Maybe a scheme like in France: we generally separate engineering schools, which teach a mix of theory and knowledge, for getting a white collar hob; and the masters, which teach mostly pure theoretical learning, which leads to an academical career.

Both are at the same levels at +5 years after high-school, but they leads to different career paths.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#44

Post by tripleee »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #38

AI compresses the time to acquire expertise. A high schooler can become an expert very quickly with AI, that used to require years and years of education and experience. but the real expertise still will be to translate real world problems to technical solutions and iterate on design.

not really sure how you're imagining AI sidesteps education and experience

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#45

Post by righthand »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

Welcome to the next wave blogspam campaign for LLMs. Plenty of popular HN blogs have gotten good notoriety by writing about LLMs even if the content is a nothingburger. Now everyone is jumping on that trend to try to continue to normalize it.

Part 1 was flood with AI content. Now Part 2 is walk back bold claims made in Part 1 (call it a fast moving landscape) and have the evangelists flood with AI content. Extra points if you can wax on something and try to redefine it as a pro for LLMs. “What is expertise? Did you have it before? Well now it’s faster with LLMs! Forget about all the efficiency claims, expertise is the real benefit you get with statistically incorrect LLMs.”

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#46

Post by talkingtab »

Here is the fundamental issue. We use the word "intelligence" for different things. Can you follow a recipe for making sour dough bread? Pretty easy. Can you make sour dough bread? Not so easy. Does following a recipe require "intelligence"? Yes. If something can follow a recipe can it also make bread? Not necessarily.

And another question, perhaps the most important. Can you determine that a recipe is flawed? In immediate terms, if I tell you to feed your sour dough starter every day, can you determine why, how or if that might be bad advice?

My conjecture is that there are at least three types of intelligence, as outlined above. And you have to remember that AI is by definition "artificial". Not in the sense of being unnatural but in the sense of artificial sour dough bread. It is not the real thing. (at least for two out of the three definitions of intelligence).

This is not to argue that AI is not useful and extremely beneficial in some contexts. Unfortunately our whole system of education has trained us to be "follow the recipe" kind of people. Uh Oh! So if your only skill and ability is to follow recipes, you might want to focus on developing your other kinds of intelligence.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#47

Post by dakolli »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

because this is a billboard for YC companies and YC cultural psyops, this isn't an organic forum

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#48

Post by tripleee »

hopelessluca wrote: post #10

Sorry for the off-topic comment, but what happened to the front page? At the time I’m writing this, 11/30 submissions are related to AI. Maybe my comment is cliché too, but I’m honestly tired of all the AI stuff.

Even worse it that it's the same few talking points repeated over, and over, and over again - re-spun with AI

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#49

Post by k__ »

wg0 wrote: post #17

Actually - to disillusion yourself from AI, try dabbling into something you do not know. Try writing a production quality 3D engine. Trust me, a 3D engine has its own domain knowledge besides just graphics. No, seriously. And then see how helpless you feel when you yourself do not have the expertise to judge whether the direction being taken is the right or wrong. At that time, you wish if there were some pipe throug…

I tried it with embedded programming, and failed miserably.

Re: Expertise in the age of AI

#50

Post by num42 »

bijowo1676 wrote: post #38

AI compresses the time to acquire expertise. A high schooler can become an expert very quickly with AI, that used to require years and years of education and experience. but the real expertise still will be to translate real world problems to technical solutions and iterate on design.

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