Professor is all but demanding we use AI
Hello everyone.
I'm a sophomore enrolled in a C Programming class and still processing last night's lecture. The title says it all. For the duration of the hour and a half lecture, he essentially waxed poetic about how AI was the "great equalizer," stating that "where once only a rich kid had access to a tutor, now poor kids can have their own private tutors as well." He spent more time explaining how to prompt Copilot within Visual Studio Code than any fundamentals of C, even getting the sample code he wrote wrong: "is it <stdio> or <stdio.h>? It's been so long since I wrote code, this looks right but ask ChatGPT if you're unsure." Effectively any and all questions are to be routed through ChatGPT. He then went on to explain how he's "only" adjunct at the college and is even using ChatGPT to author an entirely new course, citing "push back" from administration, and encouraged us to subscribe to a model of our choice!
I understand the rationale behind "modernizing" his students for the workforce, I truly, begrudgingly do. But I also can't help but to feel somewhat discouraged by his attitude, because I love programming and want to improve my actual skill and knowledge. What will happen if agents are down and work still needs doing? I want to grow into a great programmer in spite of AI, not because of it. I spent my lunch break yesterday watching a Linux kernel developer write a USB mouse driver from scratch because that sort of thing genuinely interests me (link below if it interests you too). If I'm being naive, please set me straight. That lecture just left a bad taste in my mouth.
Thank you.
https://youtu.be/IXBC85SGC0Q?si=OXhOe3kujyXGSWK_
Edit: Apologies, he's writing a driver for an Apple Xserve front-panel meter!