Brett Taylor, chairman of OpenAI, stated that despite the popularity of neural network assistants and the concept of "ambient coding," students should still pursue higher education in computer science.
He believes that university courses teach systems thinking and lay the foundation for further education and learning a variety of technologies. Taylor emphasized that computer science is more than just coding: university courses teach students about computer architecture, operating systems, memory, and other technical aspects.
While AI assistants make development easier, they simply add a new layer of abstraction. To effectively use the generated code, you need to be able to analyze it, identify errors, and understand whether it can be used in real-world projects. Without this foundational knowledge, it's impossible to verify the operation of a neural network.
Taylor noted that advocates of ambient coding often face difficulties in finalizing AI-generated code. Instead of editing point by point, they require the neural network to rewrite everything, potentially breaking working parts of the program. Without this foundational education, he believes, such situations will only become more frequent.
