As a person who only had a PPL and is SLF it would seem that when the pitot tubes of the AirFrance plane blocked the computer would have crashed the plane by itself. It instead disconnected and gave the chance for an experienced pilot to recover the situation it could not handle. Sadly it seems there was not an experienced pilot at the controls.
On youtube there is a movie about round the world in 66 hrs. A kind of promo for Lufthansa.
There are at least two incidents where human intervention became needed to prevent possible serious consequences due to the computers being able to control the situation. One was slow rate of ascent (Overweight?) at a fairly crucial waypoint and the other was a disconnect because of a serious overspeed condition.
I for one would like someone up front, preferably one with real experience but at a pinch I may have to accept someone with lots and lots of simulated training and not just in pushing buttons.