Teaching Novice Computing and Programming in the Agentic AI Era
Kathi Fisler, Shriram Krishnamurthi, Michael Littman
Communications of the ACM, 2026
(Viewpoint.)
Abstract
AI programming agents have profoundly disrupted computing education. Rather than treating this as a threat, we argue that it is an opportunity to refocus early curricula. We introduce the ‘‘flaky compiler’’ metaphor to frame what AI programming enables and what it demands of its users. We argue that introductory computing courses can and must become early software-engineering courses, with the objective of teaching students to take responsibility for the work they produce with AI. This induces the need for---indeed, demands---research into how to rethink teaching program specification.
Comment
Accepted for publication. Will likely appear in November 2026.
Paper
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