It's exactly like when you cheat by copying someone else's homework. You don't learn much. If you want to write well, you have to practice lots of writing.
Another place AI will screw you is math. You can now cheat on math problems by looking for a site that will do them for you and "show your work." It won't teach you how to do math. But it does offer one very handy aid: for when you don't actually need to do math, you just need to pass the fucking class. Then you can push your homework grades high enough to compensate for the lower test scores and hopefully scrape by. Useful if you suck at math for innate reasons no matter how much you study.
However, it's not the same with reference apps, which often use AI. For instance, if you use an app to ask, "What is this bird / plant / rock /whatever?" it will give you a list of the closest matches, which usually give you a descriptive entry when you select one. If you read that entry, you learn more about that thing, so you're more likely to recognize it later. Useful if you don't have access to a class or mentor on the topic, and a bit easier to use than a field guide. Where it shorts you is learning to use field marks to identify things -- so make a point of studying that if you want to do it yourself.
The Merlin app for identifying birds is fun because it will let you port your sightings to somewhere else. We've had folks on birdfeeding post their Merlin results and those are cool to look at. The program generates a list with names and thumbnail pictures.
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6/25/25 09:50 pm (UTC)Another place AI will screw you is math. You can now cheat on math problems by looking for a site that will do them for you and "show your work." It won't teach you how to do math. But it does offer one very handy aid: for when you don't actually need to do math, you just need to pass the fucking class. Then you can push your homework grades high enough to compensate for the lower test scores and hopefully scrape by. Useful if you suck at math for innate reasons no matter how much you study.
However, it's not the same with reference apps, which often use AI. For instance, if you use an app to ask, "What is this bird / plant / rock /whatever?" it will give you a list of the closest matches, which usually give you a descriptive entry when you select one. If you read that entry, you learn more about that thing, so you're more likely to recognize it later. Useful if you don't have access to a class or mentor on the topic, and a bit easier to use than a field guide. Where it shorts you is learning to use field marks to identify things -- so make a point of studying that if you want to do it yourself.
The Merlin app for identifying birds is fun because it will let you port your sightings to somewhere else. We've had folks on