What About AI?

We hear a lot today about artificial intelligence (AI). This is a big topic, and there are many aspect of AI that are useful in physics and astronomy, for instance, in classifying data and finding patterns. Most of you have been exposed to ChatGPT and similar tools—these fall into the category of large language models (LLMs). These are tools that are trained on vast datasets that then predict output past on a query.

While LLMs can be useful for programming, it is important to first understand the concepts behind programming, including how to organize data, create logic, write tests, and more. This is because LLMs make mistakes (sometimes confidently) and you may not realize it. So tools like LLMs may help with writing some initial code, but shift the burden onto verifying that the code is correct and writing tests.

Some research shows that using AI leads to longer code reviews and more mistakes.

Important

In this class we will not use LLMs for writing code. This extends to your homework assignments.