Or Golan's Blog

Being a PhD Student in the age of AI, part 1

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I have a love-hate relationship with AI. Mainly, after several years in industry, I relished returning to academia and being able to focus and learn things deeply. I feel that this ability erodes as I use and become dependent on AI. The starkest example here is in coding; I used to love to code, and would actively do coding exercises and learn new languages as a hobby (shoutout to https://exercism.org/). I barely have the patience to code anymore, as I know that practically any LLM will do a good enough job, and much faster, than I would. This led me into two directions. First, I wanted to read and learn what others are feeling and what else might change as LLMs improve. Second, I started thinking about satisfaction in the age of AI.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi, I’m Or Golan.

I did my master’s in physics at Tel Aviv University, under Prof. Eran Sela, where I studied topological phases of matter. During my studies I also worked as a data scientist at SimilarWeb. After graduating I spent nine months at a startup, Manto, which did not survive, then returned to SimilarWeb full time until I joined Qedma in November 2020, where I worked as a quantum scientist on problems in quantum computing.

Publications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000