Six Opportunities for Scientists and Engineers to Learn Programming Using AI Tools Such as ChatGPT

This article demonstrates how scientists and engineers can use modern artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot to learn computer programming skills that are relevant to their jobs. It begins by summarizing common ways that AI tools can already help people learn programming in general and then presents six new opportunities catered to the needs of scientists and engineers: 1) create customized programming tutorials for one’s own domain of work, 2) learn complex data visualization libraries, 3) learn to refactor exploratory code into more maintainable software, 4) learn about inherited legacy code, 5) learn new programming languages on demand within the context of one’s workflow, and 6) question the assumptions that one’s scientific code is making. Taken together, these opportunities point toward a future where AI can help scientists and engineers learn programming on demand within the context of their existing real-world workflows.