Purdue University approves new AI requirement for all undergrads

I don’t really get the dismissive comments here. Universities have had gen ed requirements for years, one of which is usually something to do with computers. AI seems to be a technology that will be increasingly relevant…so a basic gen ed requirement seems logical.

These are the same people who would pooh-pooh teaching Excel and basic coding skills to non-STEM majors or have CS students take ethics or GenEd classes.

AI/ML isn't going to completely shift the world, but understanding how to do basic prompt engineering, validate against hallucinations, and know what the difference between ChatGPT and GPT-4o is valuable for people who do not have a software background.

Gaining any kind of knowledge is a net win.

Yeah, I'm still bitter I had to pass a literacy exam to get my BA and that was 28 years ago.

And I just know this is going to turn into a (pearl-clutching) AI Ethics course...

"basic prompt engineering" - Since when has writing English language sentences become nothing less than "engineering" ?

The problem is the field is changing way too fast. It's almost certain that whatever they'll learn will be outdated/wrong/poor practice by the time they graduate. Just compare with the state of things 2 years ago.

It's more about knowing the tricks to get llms to give you the output you want.

However, there's no reason to think any trick would be relevant even in a year. As llms get better, why wouldn't we just have them auto rewrite prompts using appropriate prompt engineering tricks?

> AI seems to be a technology that will be increasingly relevant

That's why you don't understand the dismissive comments. The reality is that the technology sucks for actually doing anything useful. Mandating that kids work with a poor tool just because it's trendy right now is the height of foolishness.

The same problem is in many fields. I don’t see the issue.

Yeah, sorry, but I really don’t have the patience for these kinds of comments anymore. The technology is obviously useful in many scenarios, even if it’s overhyped. College essays, for example, are an area that needs to be entirely rethought because of LLMs.

God, so many edgy experts in here. Teaching kids that the "technology sucks" (i.e. what are its limitations, for one thing there's no "understanding", only a simulation of it) is also useful.

Yeah, yeah, for you who knows better than everything, you already know what they're going to teach from this press release, you already know it all, that's why you have no use for AI.

With little apology for breaking the HN civility rules. "They did it first."