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JSR_FDED 6 days ago

The e-bike analogy in the article is a good one. Paraphrasing: Use it if you want to cover distance with low effort. But if your goal is fitness then the e-bike is not the way to go.

tonyedgecombe 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

>But if your goal is fitness then the e-bike is not the way to go.

If the e-bike is an alternative to a road bike then yes. I'd argue that is almost never the case. The people I've spoken to are using them as an alternative to driving which is clearly beneficial to their fitness.

viccis 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is a good one. I'm going to keep it in my pocket for future discussions about AI in education, as I might have some say in how a local college builds policy around AI use. My attitude has always been that it should be proscribed in any situation in which the course is teaching what the AI is doing (Freshman writing courses, intro to programming courses, etc.) and that it should be used as little as possible for later courses in which it isn't as clearly "cheating". My rationale is that, for both examples of writing and coding, one of the most useful aspects of a four year degree is that you gain a lot from constantly exercising these rudimentary skills.

tokioyoyo 6 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

But there’s also something in between, an e-assisted bike, which covers a lot of distance, but you still have to put some extra effort to it. And helps a bit with fitness so. That’s how I would categorize AI-assisted coding right now.

ben-schaaf 6 days ago | parent [-]

That's what an E-Bike is. If the motor is doing all of the work it's called a motor cycle.

lazyasciiart 6 days ago | parent [-]

There are some that can switch now: pedal and it will e-assist you, or just hold the lever and it will run without pedaling.

__mharrison__ 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Bad analogy.

I ride about twice as much distance (mountain biking) after I got an ebike (per Strava). It's still a great workout.

Sample size one disclaimer...

A better biking analogy that I've used in the past is that it I wanted to go ride slick rock and have never ridden before, an ebike is not going to prevent me from endoing.

audinobs 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

To go with fitness analogies, I think it is like when lifting weights was something new but the old guard thought it would make you slow for sports.

A ridiculous sentimental idea based on limited observation and bias against change that won't age well.

karussell 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is a good analogy, also in the sense that some areas are not reachable without an e-bike and that you'll need to be prepared differently as you have to plan with charging and bigger weight etc.

layer8 6 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The analogy doesn’t work too well, in my opinion. An e-bike can basically get you with low effort anywhere a regular bike can. The same is not true for AI vs. non-AI, in its current state. AI is limited in which goals you can reach with it with low effort, and using AI will steer you towards those goals if you don’t want to expend much effort. There’s a quality gradient with AI dependent on how much extra effort you want to spend, that isn’t there in the e-bike analogy of getting from A to B.