GoKawiilMontana State professor Carson Gross argues students must still learn to code despite AI
Carson Gross, a computer science professor at Montana State University, says he tells students that even though AI can generate code for assignments, they should write it themselves. He argues programming is fundamentally about problem-solving and managing complexity, skills he believes remain valuable despite AI tools, while warning that junior programmers who rely on AI-generated code risk never developing the ability to read and understand code.
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Gross's warning suggests that over-reliance on AI code generation could leave a generation of programmers unable to debug or control systems they didn't truly learn to build, which he likens to a 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' scenario. His rejection of the comparison to the assembly-to-high-level-language transition implies he sees AI coding tools as qualitatively different from past abstraction layers, a distinction that could shape how computer science curricula adapt to AI.
- Gross tells students not to let AI generate their assignment code, insisting they write it themselves
- He frames programming as fundamentally about problem-solving and controlling complexity, not just producing code
- He disputes the analogy comparing AI code generation to the historical shift from assembly to high-level languages
Source: htmx.org, 2026-10-08
Published there as: “Yes, and”
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