AI can help if used appropriately.

Here is the AI policy from my current syllabus:

For the project: You are highly encouraged to use AI. It will be difficult to complete the project without consulting AI tools, and I expect you to do so.

For assignments and online quizzes: You are highly discouraged from using AI. While I recognize that I have no control over this, the assignments are designed in a way that it’s beneficial to do them in an old-school way to practice and understand the concepts better. This comes as sincere advice, as I believe it will aid your learning experience.

I’ll share my own experience. I’m learning Spanish, just for fun. (Learning languages, whether programming or otherwise, is fun for me!) My tutor gives me homework, and while ChatGPT could solve it perfectly, I choose not to use it. I could spend two minutes copying and pasting, but would I learn anything? No. Struggling through the exercises for two hours, even with mistakes, helps me grow. My tutor might say “good job” with AI-assisted answers, but I wouldn’t actually improve.

So when should you use AI when your goal is to learn? For open-ended, complex tasks like a large project, AI is a fantastic resource. It can guide, suggest, and troubleshoot. But for foundational skills, like your assignments, struggling on your own, drilling the problems is essential. That’s where real learning happens.

The question isn’t whether to use AI—it’s knowing when to use it. Use AI to assist, but don’t let it replace the value of learning through practice and mistakes.