> I do not believe that suggesting using low-cost open-weights models would be a fair alternative. (...) We now mention the expectation to use a commercial subscription in our syllabus.
I think structuring a course to be taken using a frontier model subscription is outrageous. If you refine the assignments each semester to be only solvable by a frontier model, your students will always be exposed to the actual pricing of said models. It may be 20 USD/month for now (which is already too much to ask in a syllabus in my opinion), but what if prices increase; where do you draw the line?
What's next -- make the students pay for cloud credits in DevOps courses?
I agree with the need to increase the weight of oral examinations / interviews with TAs though.
I think structuring a course to be taken using a frontier model subscription is outrageous. If you refine the assignments each semester to be only solvable by a frontier model, your students will always be exposed to the actual pricing of said models. It may be 20 USD/month for now (which is already too much to ask in a syllabus in my opinion), but what if prices increase; where do you draw the line? What's next -- make the students pay for cloud credits in DevOps courses?
I agree with the need to increase the weight of oral examinations / interviews with TAs though.