Comment by Larrikin
14 hours ago
I would absolutely not trust an LLM to teach me anything alone. I've had it introduce ideas I hadn't heard about which I looked up from actual sources to confirm it was a valid solution. Daily usage has shown it will happily lead you down the wrong path and usually the only way to know that it is the wrong path, is if you already knew what the solution should be.
LLMs MAY be a version of office hours or asking the TA, if you only have the book and no actual teacher. I have seen nothing that convinces me they are anything more than the latest version of the hammer in our toolbox. Not every problem is a nail.
> LLMs MAY be a version of office hours or asking the TA
In my experience, most TA's are not great at explaining things to students. They were often the best student in their class, and they can't relate to students who don't grasp things as easily as they do--"this organic chemistry problem set is so easy; I don't know why you're not getting it."
But an LLM has infinite patience and can explain concepts in a variety of ways, in different languages and at different levels. Bilingual students that speak English just fine, but they often think and reason in their native language in their mind. Not a problem for an LLM.
A teacher in an urban school system with 30 students, 20 of which need customized lesson plans due to neurological divergence can use LLMs to create these lesson plans.
Sometimes you need things explained to you like you're five years old and sometimes you need things explained to you as an expert.
On deeper topics, LLMs give their references, so a student can and should confirm what the LLM is telling them.