Students say rise of AI impacting their choice of academic major

While they may have been introduced to it as a way to cut corners on English homework, students are now increasingly saying AI has advanced into a multi-purpose tool they can’t ignore as they prepare to enter the workforce.

As of March last year, Goldman Sachs found an estimated two-thirds of US occupations are already being affected by AI, and as many as 300 million around the world could become automated in some way by the newest wave of artificial intelligence.

“Although the impact of AI on the labor market is likely to be significant, most jobs and industries are only partially exposed to automation and are thus more likely to be complemented rather than substituted by AI,” the authors wrote. 

That will affect hiring, as AI is predicted to contribute more than $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030. A wide-ranging poll of 2,000 executives, conducted by Swiss staffing firm Adecco Group in collaboration with research firm Oxford Economics, showed that 41% of them expect to employ fewer people because of the technology, with 66% of executives buying external AI-skilled talent.

As students here in Silicon Valley watch technology rapidly advance with their own eyes, they say it’s important not to ignore these shifts. 

This week, the Los Gatan reached out to Los Gatos High School students and graduates who shared their thoughts on AI—and what they think it could mean for their careers.

Gavin Seiler, a junior, is leaning towards studying finance with some sort of tech underpinning. Having recently started a podcast, The AI Ripple Effect, he has done his fair share of research on the topic.

‘At Berkeley, there is a lot of hype around AI and its potential in CompSci and research’

—Gavin Tamasi, Los Gatos High School graduate

“What I’ve learned is that, for the most part, teachers and students are pretty enthusiastic about AI, but they don’t know how to use it effectively,” he said. “So, I think now it really boils down to how we can democratize AI in high school by just putting a little bit more effort into the education around it.”

Seiler says developing AI literacy is pivotal. He believes students should become comfortable with AI, as corporations are starting to base hiring decisions on it. He noted AI application knowledge may soon trump coding skills.

“Although it’s important to be a specialist in something in the age of AI—which is the next 10 to 15 years—it’s probably better to be a generalist,” he said. “So, if you can have some sort of understanding of broad domains, you’ll be able to figure out how you can tailor AI to be used in those domains.”

Seiler added that in order to understand the technical aspects of artificial intelligence, having a good grasp of calculus and linear algebra was key. But despite reading about recent developments around things like algorithmic trading, Seiler isn’t sure how AI will impact his own career.

“I think it can have positive and negative effects,” he said. “But it’s important for me to just know as much as I can about it.”

Colleges are mirroring this mindset, as recent Los Gatos High School graduate Gavin Tamasi’s experience shows. He’s been studying physics and astrophysics.

“At Berkeley, there is a lot of hype around AI and its potential in CompSci and research,” he said.

The Class of 2028 student says AI hasn’t had much of an effect on his current studies, but he expects it will impact his field—by strengthening research with machine learning models. He believes it could ultimately even replace professors.

“I am most concerned with the threat of AI on jobs and art,” he said. “Though I believe that human art, in any form, will always be represented and that it cannot be completely replaced by AI. People will always be interested in human art.”

Los Gatos High School junior Estelle Paduano, who is planning to go into design, has similar thoughts. 

“AI did not directly influence me to choose design, but it did make me wary of pursuing a career in visual arts,” she wrote. “I suppose (AI) could eventually be used to replace people in the design field, but this has not impacted my decision.”

While she is concerned about AI art replacing human creativity, she says she thinks there are plenty of sectors that will face major changes at its hands. 

“I am not worried that I will personally be impacted more than the rest of the world,” she said. “I think society, as a whole, will continue to gradually adapt to new AI tools, just as they have in the past few years.”

While on a recent job shadow at Adobe, the subject definitely came up, she said, adding it taught her how industries are seeking ways to profit off the profound societal shift.

“Adobe is in a very unique position because they are getting into the AI business and incorporating AI into the products that they sell,” she said.

But Paduano doesn’t think AI will completely override human production.

“I think there will be a gradual increase in the use of AI tools to aid human productivity,” she said. 

According to Benjamin Chen, a Los Gatos High School graduate majoring in Applied Math at UC Berkeley, concern is emerging in fields like computer science.

‘We’re basically using neural networks to teach a robot dog to walk’

—Anthony Furman, UCSC student

“AI made me a little apprehensive to pursue computer science, especially when it solved hard programming challenges relatively easily,” he wrote. “Though I still have a desire to do CS, I loosened my interests to include more logical fields like math and physics.”

Chen believes that AI will reduce the amount of entry level software developers at a time where there are more than ever. 

Los Gatos High School graduate Anthony Furman, who now studies at UCSC, agrees.

“In terms of AI automation, it seems likely that a lot of basic CS jobs can get replaced,” he said.

The robotics major and computer science minor, explained he focuses on working within the AI field, specifically with machine learning.

While he created some models in high school, working with neural networks and image classifications, he’s gotten a lot more exposure to AI tools at college.  

“We’re basically using neural networks to teach a robot dog to walk on any terrain using onboard depth sensors,” he said. “I find that really interesting and I’d say it makes my outlook good because I get to work on cool AI projects, possibly in industry or at least in research.”

He’s also become an AI club leader.

“We basically teach people the basics of AI and neural networks even if you know nothing about AI,” he said. “I enjoy talking to people about how it really works.”

Furman is especially excited about things like reinforcement learning (RL) and the things that AI can teach us.

“For example, there’s a new parallelized supercomputing software made by NVIDIA that I’m using that has been crazy for robotics,” he said. “Additionally, if they think of a new algorithm to make RL that little bit more efficient…that could be huge.”

But he doesn’t exactly think sentient robots are right around the corner.

Neither does Chen.

“I think that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is very far off, because generative AI in its current form doesn’t think; it just rigidly extracts from its data,” he said. “In the same way that chess bots got better because we let it organically develop its intuition—and let go of hard and fast principles—true intelligence will have to naturally develop in order to produce its own intuition.”