Ai Is Making College Students Change Their Majors

As students return to America’s college campuses, the rise of artificial intelligence means no one has to pull an all-nighter to crank out five paragraphs on religious symbolism in The Brothers Karamazov. But apparently all that time college students are saving using AI is going to something else: existential angst over whether AI is rendering their major useless—and it’s changing what they choose to study.

• In a recent survey of US college students by Superhuman, 69% said they feared AI would make it harder to find a job and 22% said they’ve changed their major or concentration because of job market worries.
• Another survey published this year by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup found that 13% of bachelor’s degree students and 19% of associate degree students had changed their major or field of study because of AI. Plus, 47% of students surveyed said they had given at least “a fair amount” of consideration to changing their majors due to AI.

They’re not wrong: Researchers at the St. Louis Fed found that AI has created “an additional headwind” for recent grads trying to score jobs.

But the best course of study isn’t clear

One thing that everyone can agree on is that “learn to code” isn’t the job-securing advice it once was. After 15 years as the fastest-growing major, computer science degree enrollments dipped 8.1% last year, according to the Washington Post.

Some schools are letting students specialize in AI: Only four schools offered an AI major in 2020, while researchers at Northeastern University now say 79 schools offer the major—and 100 have a minor or concentration, the Boston Globe reports.

But OpenAI’s VP of education believes employers will be looking for transferable skills like critical thinking, leadership, and collaboration (as well as AI literacy), per Axios.

Other schools are getting creative: Rather than relying on good old reading, writing, and arithmetic, Arizona State University has turned to ring lights, with a major designed to help students become influencers. Critics say content creation isn’t worthy of academic attention, while others say it gives students a career option and transferable skills.—AR

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