Computer science has now become an industry from a future career with a surprising amount of turbulence.
“For people like your son, it's a great career that was promised four years ago and studied computer science. It's a proof of the future. This changed four years later,” Professor Honey Farid, UC Berkeley, said in an episode of Nova's “Particles of Thinking.” “That's amazing.”
However, Farid said it's too easy to blame AI.
“There's something going on in the industry,” he said. “I think that's the confluence of a lot of things. I think AI is part of that. I think it can be a thinning rank that's going on. It's part of that, but something is brewed.”
Farid and host astrophysicist Hakim Orsei discussed his senior son, studying computer science, struggles to find a job. Farid says he's seen the same unfold in Berkeley, home to one of the top CS programs.
“Our students usually received five internship offers during their first four years of university,” Farid said. “They graduated with very high salaries, multiple offers. They had the run of that place. That's not happening today. They're happy to get one job.”
Discussions about the future of CS are unfolding around Silicon Valley. The rise of Bibecord and the ability of AI to create software only exacerbated these concerns. Openai President Bret Taylor says that students will learn concepts of computer science that go beyond mere coding language.
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Farid, one of the world of Deepfake video, said he is often asked for advice. He said he said the students had changed.
“What I was telling people is that you want a wide range of education,” Farid said. “We should know about physics, language, history, philosophy, but deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, one thing is really, really good.
Like many people in the AI space, Farid said people using groundbreaking technology last longer than people who don't.
“I don't think AI is going to go out of business, but I think lawyers who use AI will put people who don't go out of business,” he said. “And I think you can say that about all the professions.”
