Winter is Coming

I fear we are heading to a computer science winter. Now why would I say that when CS enrollments are at record levels and AI is driving incredible excitement in the field? Back in 2016 I wrote

We won’t see a decline in demand for computer science students until we automate ourselves out of a job.

With advances in machine learning, especially generative AI, you can now use AI tools with little to no knowledge of computer science and mathematics. You can do quite a bit more with just a basic knowledge of Python programming and APIs. And tools like Github co-pilot make programming that much easier.

In 2005 during the last period computer science saw small enrollments, I suggested computing became a commodity and we lost the excitement in the field, leading to a decrease of interest and students. It didn't help that potential students had a (mostly mistaken) perception that all the computing jobs were being outsourced to India.

We may soon see a time when computing loses its excitement again if everyone can just interact in English (or any other language). Students might now have a perception that computing jobs will be outsourced to AI. The recent tech layoffs don't help. Even the ones interested in computing might focus more on the various low-cost certificate programs instead of a full CS degree.

What can we do? We need to reframe our degrees or create new ones to recognize the move to data-oriented computing. We need to embrace teaching responsible AI but without fighting the future. 

CS is in a great place right now but we have to continually adjust to ensure our future relevance or we may no longer have it.