Cursor has been out for some months now, and it has been an adored code editor by many, thanks to its powerful autocomplete, a result of its collaboration with Supermaven. From its inception, it has been a paid code editor, with an option of a two-week free trial. But some days ago, it had a game-changing update. Cursor now has a student plan, offering one free year of pro subscription. But will it be the doom of this generation’s developers?
What is Cursor?
You guys should be familiar with VS Code or Jetbrain’s code editor. But there’s a code editor named Cursor with a very powerful autocomplete and it’s various catalog of LLM models. It’s built on top of VS Code, so it feels familiar, but it’s packed with AI features that make you wonder if you’re still actually coding or if you’ve somehow stepped into the matrix. It offers 3 tiers of subscription.
- Free plan (2 weeks free trial of Pro plan, 2000 completion, 50 slow premium requests)
- Pro plan ($20/month, unlimited completion, 500 fast premium requests/month)
- Business plan ($40/user/month)
The 2 weeks free trial has hooked a lot of developers to migrate to AI code editor, not just to Cursor but also to other AI code editors like Windsurf and Trae to name a few. The rise of Github Copilot started the movement about a year ago, but now the migration is more massive than ever. A few days ago, Cursor just dropped an update that made a student plan possible, offering 1 free year of pro subscription, which raised a problem.
AI Usage Among Students (and the Problems)
The rise of AI Code Editor and AI in general has attracted a very large audience of high school and college students. It can be very powerful, not just for learning but also a way to skip learning for some students, even to cheat. This problem made some universities already implemented AI detection software in their Learning Management Software (i.e. Turnitin). This has helped to reduce the usage of AI in academic work, but it’s not a perfect solution.
The same problem has arisen among Informatics students and Cursor student plan has arguably made it even worse. A growing number of students are using AI code editor for their learning process and the problem is much deeper than just skipping learning. It also encourages students who are still learning or just started learning how to code that it’s not necessary to understand how a block of code works. Because the essence of coding is understanding the core concept of algorithm, how a code works in the background or at least the step by step of it.
AI code generator is good if you understand the code they generate. Using an AI code generator will prevent you from making simple mistakes. But those simple mistake is how you learn as a developer, it’s a matter of finding your own “A-ha” moment, laughing at your silly mistakes that make it burned in your brain for years to come. As a beginner, you need to write as much code as you can, not just accepting AI suggestion. The more you rely on AI, the more you will lose your core ability to write code.
This problem made me question the future of developers post-AI era. Will AI create a better programmer? I doubt so. AI can be a helpful tool, but it’s not a replacement for a programmer. It can even halt the progress of an upcoming programmer, especially high school and college students.
Conclusion
The rise of AI Code Editors can be the start of a doomed new era for upcoming programmers if used irresponsibly. It’s important to understand the core concept of algorithm, not just using AI code generator for everything, especially something you’re still learning.