In this photo-rich article, students will learn about the hidden natural treasures of wintertime. Then they will document life during the coldest season in their own communities.
The Dinner Party
Tell us a story, real or made up, that is inspired by this image.
Word of the Day: seasoned
This word has appeared in 413 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
Can Generative AI Teach You to Code? It’s Complicated
The ChatGPT hype is reaching a fever pitch: Educators are figuring out how to manage the AI chatbot in classrooms; programmers are using ChatGPT to write and debug code; job seekers are farming out their cover letters to ChatGPT, and hoping recruiters can’t tell the difference (they can). And tech giants are betting billions of dollars on the technology.
If you haven’t heard of ChatGPT before, it’s a free AI chatbot created by the research company OpenAI, that’s trained to interact with humans in a conversational way. Ask it, for example, How do I make an HTTP request in Javascript? ChatGPT will instantly oblige, providing not just an explanation, but multiple examples of code snippets that you can copy and paste. As generative AI tools like ChatGPT catch on, workers across all professions are reckoning with the possibility of obsolescence and growing curious about the types of opportunities this technology could create.
So what does ChatGPT mean for people whose jobs involve coding, or the folks who are learning to code because they want to have a technical career? Ahead we’ll explore how ChatGPT can help you learn to code, why it’s not a direct replacement for software engineers, and the AI and machine learning skills you should learn about now.
What is ChatGPT and how does it work?
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that’s powered by a type of deep learning model that generates human-like text. On a very basic level, the large language models are trained to predict the word that’s likely to come next in text using probability distributions over words. This technology is an example of a neural network, which is a programming model inspired by the human brain. ChatGPT fits under the umbrella of “generative AI,” which is any AI that creates content, like the image-generator DALL-E, for example.
The GPT in ChatGPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer,” because the AI is pre-trained with data from the internet — and that’s key to its uncanny human-like responses. “They’re trained on these massive data sets from the internet, which is how they get such a finely-tuned sense that they can respond to these sort of absurd prompts, like, Rewrite some song in the style of Shakespeare,” says Ada Morse, Codecademy Curriculum Developer in Data Science.
Learn something new for free
ChatGPT is the successor to GPT-3, a language prediction model that was released by the AI research company OpenAI in 2020. The reason why ChatGPT has been getting so much hype is because it’s the best AI chatbot that the general public has experienced. (It’s also currently free to use.)
Beyond individuals who are having fun playing around with the AI chatbot, major tech organizations are finding ways to get in on the action. Microsoft, for example, relaunched its search engine Bing adding a search-specific “next-generation OpenAI large language model that is more powerful than ChatGPT,” according to a release. Google is experimenting with a conversational AI service called Bard. Even Snapchat is adding a “My AI” feature that enables users to message with ChatGPT inside the app.
Curious what it takes to code your own chatbot? In the beginner-friendly course Build Chatbots with Python, we’ll walk you through how to build chatbots that can teach themselves. For a deeper dive into natural language processing, consider taking the path Apply Natural Language Processing with Python.
Can ChatGPT teach you how to code?
Well, yes and no.
You can ask ChatGPT to write code for you just by typing a request in plain English, and it’ll instantly spit out ostensibly workable code. That could be very handy in times when you can’t remember specific syntax and don’t have time to look up the documentation, or you need to browse some sample code. You could even ask ChatGPT to debug your code for you in a pinch. Pretty sweet, right?
Julie Jones, a Software Engineer at Codecademy, used ChatGPT recently to help her code a calendar app for personal use. Julie was building this app from scratch in Ruby on Rails, and couldn’t remember how to nest an object. “I didn’t have the brainpower at that time to think about, how do I place the object together?” Julie says. “I was like, Hey, these are my models, this is how I want it nested, and ChatGPT spit back the exact code that I literally copied in, and it worked. It was just amazing.”
“The reason we write code and we don’t write natural language is because natural language is ambiguous. That ambiguity can’t really be coded around.”
Ada Morse
Codecademy Curriculum Developer in Data Science
But ChatGPT can also make errors along the way, or get tripped up by certain requests — just like humans who write code. OpenAI’s website is forthcoming about the limitations, stating: “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.” As an experienced programmer, Julie knew what types of clarifying questions to ask ChatGPT, and could verify that the code for her app was correct. Someone at the beginning of their coding journey, however, might not be able to contextualize ChatGPT’s responses, or pick up on subtle mistakes.
Programmers are trained to be precise and detail-oriented, so accuracy is a concern, even when it comes to the basics. “The reason we write code and we don’t write natural language is because natural language is ambiguous,” Ada says. “That ambiguity can’t really be coded around.”
If you’re solely relying on ChatGPT to learn how to code, you could be missing out on some crucial programming principles — like knowing how to solve problems, understanding how to read tech documentation, getting comfortable with trial and error, and building things on your own. “With coding, you need to know the fundamentals,” Julie says. “If you don’t know the fundamentals, then I don’t think the tool will be that helpful to you.”
On top of that, there are nuances to the human experience of learning that are difficult to replicate with AI. For example, research on how we learn suggests that some amount of confusion can be beneficial for learning. “So, even if ChatGPT always gave you the right answer, sometimes that would actually slow down your process of learning the concepts and being able to do it yourself,” Ada says.
Will ChatGPT replace software engineers?
People have been spooked that automation and machines will replace human workers since the Industrial Revolution. ChatGPT is already changing how engineers do their jobs, and potentially making them more productive and efficient. But that doesn’t mean generative AI is a direct proxy for a human programmer.
Neil Daftary, an Engineering Manager at Codecademy, uses Github’s code-writing AI tool called Copilot to speed up the process of writing boilerplate, scaffolding (for example, creating a new component), and tests. “It could help with learning to code, but I think it’s more useful if you’re a bit further in your journey and have some idea of why Copilot is suggesting what it does,” he says.
Just take it from ChatGPT itself:
There are countless ways that tech workers in specific roles can (and probably will continue to) utilize AI tools like ChatGPT in their work. Some practical uses for ChatGPT that we’ve heard include: troubleshooting code instead of using a search engine; using it as a coding assistant to handle simple but tedious tasks; and explaining complicated concepts in simple language. Not to mention: As adoption of AI tools continues and spreads to other industries outside of tech, the demand for engineers who understand how to build AI products will rise, too. (Want to get a headstart on learning the skills used to build these types of applications? Check out our catalog of machine learning courses.)
Even with exciting, time-saving AI innovations like ChatGPT, there are very real limitations to the technology. ChatGPT lacks a true human touch; it doesn’t understand context and it doesn’t have subject matter expertise, Ada says. (Chatbots are also susceptible to bias, which is an issue that spans across AI.) Theoretically speaking, if an organization axes all their developers and uses AI tools instead to write code, “they’re probably just going to end up introducing a ton of bugs and a ton of problems,” she says.
The bottom line
There’s so much more to coding than just knowing how to type exactly the right combination of letters and symbols into a computer. Learning to think like a programmer also means expanding your creativity, solving problems, communicating effectively, and collaborating with a team.
Even ChatGPT agrees that you’re better off “using online coding environments or tools to practice coding on your own or collaborating with a teacher or mentor to guide you through your coding journey.” Take a look at how the chatbot answered this question for us:
If you’re going to use ChatGPT as you learn to code, we totally get it, but we recommend treating it like a study buddy. “Imagine you’re taking a class with someone who’s maybe really confident about how good they are in that class, but they’re actually not always correct,” Ada says. You might appreciate your study buddy’s suggestions or ask for their perspective on things, but you take it all with a grain of salt.
That said, ChatGPT shouldn’t be your only study buddy. Don’t neglect other valuable resources like getting involved with the Codecademy community and asking questions in the forums. When you connect with other developers who have a bit more knowledge or experience than you, they can “sort of help you get over a hump without giving away the whole solution,” Ada says.
Ultimately, ChatGPT shouldn’t discourage you on your coding journey — if anything, it should inspire you to want to learn more about this technology. Codecademy has lots of courses about machine learning that will teach you how to create and work with deep learning. If you’re interested in having a career in this exciting field, check out the path Data Scientist: Natural Language Processing Specialist.
Should Classic Children’s Books Be Updated for Today’s Young Readers?
New editions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and other Roald Dahl books have been altered to eliminate words deemed inappropriate. Is that OK?
Pasta Puffer
What items of clothing do you wear that inspire strong reactions, whether negative or positive? Do you prefer to stand out, or blend in?
Word of the Day: incipient
This word has appeared in 30 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
International Women’s Day
Women make the world go round. They are leaders. Be it in the home, communities, the sports arena, arts, and culture, or even leading Fortune 500 companies, there is no limit to what women can accomplish. For years and throughout history, women have been blazing trails and making incredible and life-changing contributions to their worlds. The impact of these reverberates across the world to this day. Many have come and gone, paving the way for today’s generation of women to carry the torch in their own fields. On International Women’s Day, we celebrate and recognise the amazing contributions of some of these women.
International Women’s Day
Every year on March 8th, we celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD). This day is set aside annually to celebrate the social, cultural, economic, and political achievements of women across the globe. It’s also a significant day to highlight the advocacy for women’s rights globally.
It is through the collective efforts and actions of everyone globally that International Women’s Day can be impactful. This year, the focus is on #EmbracingEquity.
Equity means treating every person fairly and according to their respective needs. Where the needs may be different, the rights, benefits, and opportunities available should be equal.
Celebrating (some) inspirational women
‘Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.’ – Maya Angelou
We thought we should share some of the courageous acts by women throughout history. From the famed history-makers to lesser-known names, here are some wonder women who have done incredible things. Be inspired:
- Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Marie Curie, a French and Polish chemist, and physicist is a two-time Noble laureate. The only woman to achieve this incredible feat. She moved to Paris, France to continue her education and pioneered work in radioactivity and cancer treatment protocols. She discovered radium and polonium, and through this discovery and developing radiology and other treatments was able to save countless lives of cancer patients. Marie is also lauded as being the creator of portable x-ray machines and which were used to save the lives of many soldiers on the front lines of World War I.
- Bessie Coleman (1892 – 1926)
Bessie, a black woman in the US, was prevented from acquiring her pilot’s license because she was black and a woman. This did not stop her dreams. Bessie moved to France and soon became the first African American woman of Native-American roots, to earn her aviation license.
- Maria Montessori (1870 – 1952)
Maria Montessori is the creator of the Montessori style of education. Here, she spearheaded the thought that children deserve not only the best education but a choice in their learning. Her education system, which has been adopted in many countries, focuses on the science of child development and sets this classroom apart from traditional teaching methods.
- Coretta Scott-King (1927 -2006)
Coretta Scott-King is the wife of the late American civil rights movement leader, Martin Luther King Jr. She held her own as a leader in the 50s and 60s as an author and fought for the rights and dignity of all victims who were discriminated against.
- Katharine Graham (1917-2001)
Katharine Graham, Pulitzer Prize winner for her autobiography, Personal History in 1998, sat as the editor and chairman of the Washington Post for 20 years (1963-1991). Under her leadership, the Post broke the infamous Pentagon Papers and the Watergate scandal, making it one of the most highly regarded publications in the world. She is also the first-ever female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She broke the glass ceiling and let all women know that they can reach the pinnacle of their dream. Her life was inspirational and her story, played by Academy award-winner Meryl Streep, can be seen in the hit movie The Post.
- Wangari Mathaai (1940 – 2011)
Wangari Mathaai is a Kenyan-born social, environmental and political activist. Wangari was the first woman in Central and East Africa to obtain a PhD and in 1977, she founded the Green Belt Movement. This NGO encouraged women to be part of the fight against deforestation and environmental degradation. Since its inception, the Green Belt Movement has planted over 50 million trees. Wangari shone the African flag high as the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. She was also appointed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From her time on the bench, she advocated for women’s rights and supported various LGBT initiatives and movements against racial equality.
- Malala Yousafzai (1997 – )
Malala Yousafzai was just 15 years old when she was shot in the head by terrorists while on her way to school. As a young activist, she was vocal about the prohibition of the education of girls imposed by the Pakistani Taliban group. She survived the assassination attempt and two years later, at age 17, she was jointly awarded the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her sacrificial and continued efforts to fight for education and children’s rights. This award made her the youngest recipient of the award.
- Kalpana Chalwa (1962-2003)
Kalpana soared into the headlines in 1997 as the first Indian woman to be named a mission specialist by NASA and orbit into space on the Space Shuttle Columbia. This journey orbited the earth over 250 times over a two-week time span. Her second trip to space in 2003 completed over 80 experiments over 16 days. Unfortunately, she and her entire crew of astronauts did not make it back to earth when their spaceship disintegrated when it attempted to reenter earth’s atmosphere.
- Katherine Johnson (1918-2020)
Katherine Johnson is now globally recognised as the brains behind the calculations that propelled John Glenn (astronaut) into orbit in 1962. She also went on to do the computations that sent Apollo 11 to the moon. Her story was made into the 2015 box-office hit, Hidden Figures, and she went on to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former US president Barack Obama. After her death in 2021 at the age of 101, the Northrop Grumman group named a spaceship after her.
These women, across different generations and in different streams, did what the world told them they couldn’t. They defied the odds, overcame unique challenges, and cemented their place in history for women to follow. They and hundreds of other women whose names we don’t know are reminders of what is possible and to be celebrated for years to come.
How you can celebrate IWD
Women should be celebrated every day but for this marked occasion, you can get involved in several ways.
- Attend a virtual IWD talk/event.
- Donate and/or help raise funds for a charity.
- Go out for drinks or lunch with the women in your world and celebrate each other.
- Share an inspiring post on social media and hashtag #EmbraceEquity, in line with this year’s global campaign theme.
- Have hard but important conversations about the need for equal and enough opportunities.
- Show up for yourself and other women – we rise by lifting others.
- Buy an inspiring woman’s autobiography and read their story.
These activities are a great way to shine a light on IWD, but they are short-term. What the IWD movement needs are long-term initiatives that will keep the spotlight on the value of uplifting from every background and having worthwhile discussions that will lead to changed mindsets. Because, as G.D. Anderson rightly puts it, “Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength”.
Here’s to strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them. To everyone, everywhere, International Women’s Day belongs to you.
How I Went From Youth Support Worker to Web Designer in 8 Months
Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life.
Today’s story is from Kailie Arbeau, a 25-year-old WordPress Developer at a digital marketing agency, living in New Brunswick, Canada. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here.
Why I chose to learn to code
“I went to a local college where I studied traditional art and design, and I was a youth support worker at a group home for a year and a half. I worked alongside social workers, and I was responsible for supporting the client. I got to teach a lot of my art there, because my client was very artistic.
I took a UX design course — but I actually didn’t finish it. When I got to the end of my first project, and was starting my second project, I was like, Okay, but I want to build it. I want to build what I’m making. I didn’t want to stop with just the design. That’s when I found Codecademy and I was like, How can I build a website right now?
So, on January 1, 2022, I signed up for Pro and just committed. I finished the HTML course that day, and I literally printed out the certificate of completion* and hung it up on the wall. Then I did Learn CSS and Learn JavaScript, and I followed the Front-End Engineer career path.”
* Here are some ways that you can use Codecademy certificates in your job search. We also just launched new Codecademy Professional Certificates that you can earn when you pass all the exams in select career paths.
How I made time to learn
“My schedule was weird because I worked from 4 p.m. to midnight. Basically, when I got up in the morning, that’s when I would learn. I’m not very disciplined, but I’m also a runner, and I’m always on a training program. When I have a program, I stick to it. So that’s really why I liked Codecademy’s career paths.”
Learn something new for free
How I saved up money to switch careers
“I had saved up before I left my job: I paid off all my credit cards, I paid my bills and everything. I have my husband, and thankfully he’s so supportive. I was like, I’m going to get a job, no question. I’m going to do it. I was not working for a few months, and I had money, but I was like, I need a job. I was so determined.”
How long it took me to land a job
“I started applying for jobs immediately. I was traveling to work at the group home every day, but I wanted to work from home and be on my laptop. There’s all these remote jobs in Canada or the U.S. that get, like, hundreds of applicants. I didn’t get any of those; I didn’t even interview at all in the first few months because I never got to that stage.
Then I joined a whole bunch of groups just like Facebook and the Codecademy group on Discord. I really enjoyed the Discord group, because the projects and stuff that people suggested were very specific.”
How I got in the door
“I reached out to local businesses, because I live in a really small town. I was done with HTML and CSS, and I was building through the Front-End Engineer path, and I was learning JavaScript. I emailed so many people in my city, but only one business got back to me and agreed to have a call.
On the call, they said, ‘You’ve never worked with WordPress — that’s what we use every day.’ This was on a Monday. They were starting to finish the phone call, saying, ‘I don’t know. Get back to us when you learn WordPress.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I will have something for you by Friday. I will send you a link.’
That week, I jumped into WordPress. I was on all the tutorials, I bought a domain and did the hosting thing — and I had never done that before. I learned WordPress, made this little one-page website, and sent it to them. I went in on Friday to meet them and they were like, ‘You did this in 4 days?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve never used WordPress before. Is it okay?’ And they’re like, ‘Yes, it’s great.’”
How I nailed the interview
“I did another interview the following week, but it was more of a personality kind of thing. They asked me, ‘You really made that website in 4 days?’ I was like, ‘Yes, I did.’”
How I evaluated the offer
“It was hard leaving my job at the group home, because I got to teach my art to clients there — obviously it wasn’t the type of art that I was doing in college, but it was at least related. And it was especially hard because I got to work with one client for so long and get to know them. But with coding, I was like, This is what I really want to do for years, not just right now. So it was worth it.”
How day one and beyond went
“The first couple of days were fun. They gave me a lot of little tiny jobs, like, Can you change this button to be a different length? Then I would go back to my desk to figure it out on my own, because I get nervous when people are looking over my shoulder. I’d go back with the finished product, like, ‘Did I do this right?’ And they’d say, ‘Yes, you did perfectly.’
People offered to sit down and show me things, but I was like, ‘I learned this like it was a couple of weeks ago. Give me a chance to just screw it up.’”
What I wish I knew before I started learning
“Everyone always says they wish they had started earlier. But you never do, because it’s so daunting. There’s just so much cool stuff like that to learn, like, What’s a domain? How does the internet even work?
Honestly, I tell everyone about the first Codecademy little lesson you do where it’s like, What is the internet?* In the lesson, they talk about how there are pipes underground, and that sharks are an actual problem with the internet lines. I tell everyone about this, and I’ve sent it to so many family members, like, ‘This one tells you the internet lines under the ocean!’ It’s just a fun thing to know.
If you’re learning to code to get a job, start reaching out to people — because people love to talk about their journeys. Even in my small town, there’s so many groups that get together to have coding nights. Coding is such an individual thing, because you’re on your laptop alone. But it can also bring people together.”
* All of our web development paths start with a broad overview of the internet’s infrastructure and how it works. Kailie is right: You don’t have to be an engineer to benefit from understanding how the internet works!
Not sure where to start? Check out our personality quiz! We’ll help you find the best programming language to learn based on your strengths and interests.
Want to share your Codecademy learner story? Drop us a line here. And don’t forget to join the discussions in our community.
What Are Your Thoughts About a Year of War in Ukraine?
It has been one year since Russia invaded Ukraine. How, if at all, has this crisis hit home for you?
