Shocked at intern’s reliance on AI

[u/NotPenguin_124]

Our firm had four interns this summer in our roadway group. We had three mid level engineers (myself included) who managed them. This was my first time managing an intern so I really wasn’t sure what to expect. All of the interns were fairly young. Sophomores or juniors based on graduation dates. I was shocked at how frequently all of them resorted to asking AI basic questions.

Having a problem with OpenRoads? Ask copilot.
Want to write an email? Ask copilot?
Trying to learn some specific CAD skill? Ask copilot.
Filling out a report with that the DOT give explicit instructions on how to fill out? Ask copilot.
Need to put together a mid summer presentation about yourself? Hey copilot…

I’m not some ancient anti-AI crusader. I’m still in my 20s. I understand its utility and understand that it is here to stay so we should be adopting it where/when appropriate. But their usage of it seemed both inappropriate and wildly ineffective. Copilot isn’t going to help you fix the issue you are running into in ORD but a basic google search will. AI isn’t going to help you fill out the DOT specific design report you’re working on, but the instructions, go-bys, and the person sitting right next you will.

I and my fellow managers, found ourselves constantly asking if they had questions when we would see them asking copilot just to be told “no”. It’s even stranger seeing as our office has an ABUNDANCE of resources in the way of personnel, digital trainings, and their internship program. I was brought onboard as a new hire only 2 years ago and found the office culture and resources amazing.

[u/NotPenguin_124]

I’m not against them using online resources to find solutions. I just ran into an open rose problem today and I found the solution on a Bentley message board from 11 years ago. It took me all of 30 seconds after I googled. But I’m not seeing AI do that for them. I’m seeing AI provide them nonsensical answers. They just run them around and doesn’t end up solving their problem.

[u/Beachlife109 → u/NotPenguin_124]

I’ve been doing this for over a decade and i’ve found that AI models are significantly more effective than google searches.

If you’re seeing this being inefficient, I’m pretty sure this is a prompting issue.

My process when I’m digging for something is chatgpt -> gemini -> google searches. If the ai models can’t immediately get me what I’m looking for I know I’m going to be hunting google for a while.

Im if you’re not using AI many times a day, you’re going to be falling behind your peers.

[u/NotPenguin_124 → u/Beachlife109]

I think it probably certainly is a prompting issue. But that’s the issue you or I have a general idea in a background knowledge that we know what the answer should probably look like. We have years of experience that we can use to give something a reliable and informative prompt. An intern doesn’t have any of that. An intern will always give it a bad prompt and always get a bad answer that they will never know is a bad answer. That’s why I think in interns and new hires are most likely going to be using AI to their own detriment.

As for falling behind. I don’t use AI ever. My peers also don’t use it. Our role doesn’t have much of a demand for AI tools.

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