In the age of AI, teaching networking principles remains more important than learning protocols

A few weeks ago I took part in the SIGCOMM 2026 Education Workshop, provocatively titled “Networking Education in the Age of AI”. Perhaps that title isn’t provocative to most educators today, but it is to me: I’ve repeatedly voiced my skepticism about AI in education (and other fields). I was also a student in another “age of AI” in the mid-1980s, which was followed by one of several “AI Winters,” but of course that couldn’t happen again, rig