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Purdue University approves new AI requirement for all undergrads

(www.forbes.com)
64 points rmason | 2 comments | 13 Dec 25 20:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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keiferski ◴[13 Dec 25 21:53 UTC] No.46258493[source]▶
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.
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alephnerd ◴[13 Dec 25 22:22 UTC] No.46258759[source]▶
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.

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1. hansmayer ◴[13 Dec 25 22:31 UTC] No.46258837[source]▶
"basic prompt engineering" - Since when has writing English language sentences become nothing less than "engineering" ?
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2. IncreasePosts ◴[14 Dec 25 00:11 UTC] No.46259536[source]▶
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?