What is Knowledge?
According to the online Oxford Dictionary, knowledge is a noun, "the information, understanding and skills that you gain through education or experience".
Problem-solving Before AI?
AI is like an advanced Google search, or Stackoverflow search, right? The answer is no. Let’s assume I am getting an error or need some knowledge. Specifically speaking, in Software Engineering, consider I am getting an issue in a method in the Java Util Package. So we usually search on Google, check in Stack Overflow, anyone has already got this issue. If yes, we try to understand how they solved it, or else I end up reading a similar issue. If I am the one first getting this issue, I am forced to read the documentation, where I can’t directly find where it is documented. I will navigate the documentation pages by reading and understanding the docs, and find the exact class. Now I will go through multiple overloaded methods which I never knew, and will understand all the default parameters for the method. Once I find the possible solution, I need to try it out first.
Process forces us to do:
Find the root cause first. What is the problem actually?
Ability to find similar problems, learning from others’ mistakes.
Reading multiple comments, understanding others’ issues, ranking them and finding closer to us.
Know about the similar issue, which gives us an overall picture of the system, so that we can avoid those mistakes in future.
Reading the documentation, which we usually won’t do. We learn a lot of things naturally, which creates confidence in our skills in that system.
Trying the solutions.
Problem-solving After AI?
Hi, I am getting this issue , here is the code, here is the error log. Fix it for me.
Simple as it is, it provides the 5 different solutions, where all of them work perfectly. And I will copy and paste the one which I am able to understand easily at that time.
It made us :
Ability to create a perfect prompt that will provide a solution in a single turn.
Ability to rank the solution, which fits the current coding standard in the project and is easy to debug.
Copy, Paste and Build and Run.
Should I not use AI then?
That is so stupid, it is like asking Should I search answer to my question in a library full of books, instead of using Google search 20 years back. You will be left behind.
With every new revolution, there is a loss of skills, which is inevitable.
The point is, which skills are we willing to lose to improve our lifestyle?
With AI, we are ready to lose our thinking capability over immediate convenience; long-term brain development may be sacrificed in the process, as said here.
Usually, a revolution happens mainly to save our operating time and increase life expectancy. All those happened with our thinking capability, where the AI revolution tends to change how we think.
If we speak about the final result, with the AI, the work is done perfectly in minimal time, then a normal human can do the same. But the soulful, personal touch is missed.
Thinking about the future, if an entire generation used an AI for thinking, there would be no curiosity, no innovations, no motivation.
How to use AI then?
That’s what I am trying to find myself.
Before going to chat with AI, trying to find the solution by ourselves will somehow help us keep our thinking skills with us.
After having a base idea of your solution, you can use AI for
To validate your work.
Compare your work.
Improvise your work.
This simple change will have have huge impact on how you are interpreting the AI solution, now you see it as an alternate solution, similar to searching on Stack Overflow, but in a very organised, real-time response.
Skills to honour in the AI era?
Understanding the environmental situation before acting.
Ability to use AI to work with you, not work for you.
Ability to find the problem, because solving it becomes very easy with AI.
Ability to use your instinct to make a wise decision.
Still unknown to me!
While I am writing this, I have been using the AI extensively for my work. Which made me write this.
So, all of my perspective is based on my own experience, where I had finished my school, college and 2 years of work before the AI. Totally, I have 23 years of living experience in this world without an AI.
The children who are going to be born, students who are in the school or college, professionals who are going to start work, need assistance from their ancestors(It is us), to transfer our experience to them. It is not a simple Nostalgic moment sharing; we need a system which can solve this!
This perspective may be outdated in future or may not!
I have read this before writing this and other articles,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/knowledge-vs-ai-isabel-lopes-margarido-phd-3p0kc/
https://time.com/7026050/chatgpt-quit-teaching-ai-essay/
https://time.com/7295195/ai-chatgpt-google-learning-school/
