‘Not everybody needs to go beyond the basics of computing, just as not everybody needs to write poetry’

What should schools/colleges teach students about computing to prepare them for the future?

I think it’s reasonable for every high school student to have a course, probably in the senior year, in which they learn to program in a conventional programming language.  

At college-level, mathematics in computer science has become considerably more important than it was, mostly because of some of the very subtle mathematics that underlie machine learning. How we teach programming is going to change.

My theory is that students must learn some reasonable programming language initially. They should be told they can’t use an LLM to do their work. They are going to have to learn vibe coding. That’s going to be absolutely necessary to get a job as a beginning programmer. 

Has technology advanced the way you anticipated it would?

I’m not very good at prognosticating. It’s just the nature of the field. Until something is there, nobody imagines it coming. I have no idea what the next great thing is going to be.

What are your views on the concerns around over-use or misuse of ChatGPT leading to cognitive degradation

It’s too early to say. The analogy I like to use is that of the hand-held calculator. Around 1990, it became unnecessary to know how to add numbers. We still teach kids how to add numbers. I think we should continue that. If you don’t know at least some examples of sums of one-digit numbers, you don’t really understand what addition is, and therefore you can’t use the calculator.  

Your views on inclusivity in technology

There are lots of claims that people doing research are not making it inclusive. I think that’s a social issue. It’s not a technological issue. But people get upset and say we should not use these technologies. Technology should do the best it can. We shouldn’t discard it just because there are aspects of technology that work better for one person than another. You work around it.

Going forward, is it important for every child to have a fundamental understanding of computer science and technology?

Technology, they say, is what was invented after you were born. For every child, it’s going to be a while before they even see anything as technology.  

Five hundred years ago, probably very few people were literate and the ability to write was a special skill. We take it now for granted. Almost everybody learns to read and write, and you don’t think of it as a special skill. On the other hand, not everybody needs to write poetry.  

So, I think everybody should learn computer science in the same sense that they should learn to read and write. But not everybody needs to go beyond the basics of what computers are and how to program them, just as not everybody needs to be able to write poetry.