LLMs is is here to stay and will change learning for the better (we will be full-scale disrupted 3-5yr from now in EDU), it is a self-guided tutor like never before and 100% Amazing, except for when it hallucinates.
I use it [Copilot / GPT / Khanmingo] all the time to figure out new tools and prototype workflows, check code for errors, and learn new stuff including those classes at universities which cost way too much.
If universities feel threatened by AI cry me a river.
No professor or TA was *EVER* able to explain calculus and differential equations to me, but Khanmingo and ChatGPT can. So the educational establishment can deal with this.
Back in the day, when I first tried college, I simply could not comprehend higher level math. We had one professor, and a couple of TAs - but it was impenetrable for me. They just said to me Go to the library and try some different books", or "Try to find some students and discuss the topics". Tried that, but to no avail.
I was a poor math student in HS, but I loved electronics, so that's why I decided to pursue electrical engineering. Seeing that I simply could not handle the math, I dropped out after the first year, and started working as an electricians apprentice.
Some years later YouTube had really taken off, and I decided to check out some of the math tutors there. Found Khan Academy, and over the course of a week, everything just fell into place. I stared from the absolute beginning, and binged/worked myself up to HS pre-calc math. His style of short-from teaching just worked, and he's a phenomenal educator on top.
Spent the summer studying math, and enrolled college again in the fall. Got A's and B's in all my engineering math classes. If I ever got stuck, or couldn't grok something, I trawled youtube for math vids / tutors until I found someone that could explain it in a way I could understand.
These days I use LLMs in the way you do, and I sort of view it as an extension of the the way I learned things before: infinite number of tutors.
Of course, one problem is that one doesn't know what one doesn't know. Is the model lying to you? Well, luckily there are many different models, and you can compare to see what they say.
In your situation where LLMs can cover most material better than the university, what benefits does the university still provide you, if any?
Exactly. I can remember 2-3 teachers in my life that were good but most were absolutely terrible.
I even remember taking a Philosophy of AI class in 1999, something that should have been as interesting and intellectual stimulating to any thinking student, and the professor managed to clear the lecture hall from 300 to 50 before I stopped going too with his constant self-aggrandizing bullshit.
I had a history teacher in high school that didn't try to hide he was a teacher so he could travel in the summer and then made a large part of the class about his former and upcoming travels.
Most weren't this bad but they just sucked at explaining concepts and ideas.
The whole education system should obviously be rebuilt from the ground up but it will be decades before we bother with this. Someone above mentioned the Roman's teaching wrestling to students. We are those Romans and we are just going to keep teaching wrestling. I learned to wrestle, my father learned to wrestle so my kids are going to learn to wrestle because that is what defines an educated person!