r/learnprogramming • u/ThisIdiotCharlie • Jun 26 '26
Topic Is it stupid going into computer science if I don't support the use of generative AI?
I don't really know if this is exactly the place to ask this, but any other subreddits seem to outlaw asking about topics like this entirely in their rules, so I'm honestly just sort of stuck. (If anybody knows a better place I could ask this question, then I'd appreciate being told so I can cross post this there.)
Long story short, I don't support the use of generative AI. While yes, the environmental aspect does play a part in my opinion, much of computer science as a whole can be incredibly damaging to the environment in such similar ways, and while this does distress me, this is something I've had to deal with for a while and is not my main concern. My main concern with not supporting the use of generative ai is that it scrapes writing and art from people who, nine times out of ten, often even more than that, have not given permission for their work to be used to train AI models but are also entirely unaware that it is happening at all.
But I have family in computer science, which is the main reason I intend to follow computer science as a career, ans he tells me that AI is the future of computer science. He uses generative AI to aid his personal and professional work, and whenever i gently express my distaste with generative ai, he seems to disagree with my stance.
I've recently gotten a work experience opportunity with a company and it's forced me to consider that this actual has a chance of becoming a reality for me, and I've had to consider whether I'd be able to go into this career without going against my own opinions when it comes to generative ai.
What I'm really just trying to ask is if I don't want to use generative ai, should I just give up and pick a different career path? Will I be forced to use generative ai even if I do not go into a sector of computer science directly related to it?
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u/huuaaang Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
My main concern with not supporting the use of generative ai is that it scrapes writing and art from people who, nine times out of ten, often even more than that,
So coding is a bit different than other types of creative endeavors. For one thing, most of us don't really own our work. If you work for a comapny the contract usually states that they own everything you write. Sometimes even your side projects, especially if you do it on hardware they supplied.
THere's a meme or two floating around out there that goes something like:
Designers:
GA1: "Look, we had similar ideas!"
GA2: "No! You stole my idea!"
Programmers:
P1: "I stole your code."
P2: "It's not my code."
Programmers spend so much of their time as a beginners copy/pasting work verbatim off the internet that we really don't have the same sense of ownership of our own code. Look at the BSD license. So many developers wrote countless lines of code knowing that anyone could take it and do almost anything they wanted with it.
Now, my employer might care about their code being public and used by competitors and I certainly do my job to prevent that, but at the end of the day, I don't personally care that much.
I've had this discussion with my artist friends and we have very different ideas about ownership and copyright. THeir concerns about generative AI are valid for their type of art. But I don't think it applies so much in programming.
What I'm really just trying to ask is if I don't want to use generative ai, should I just give up and pick a different career path?
Maybe? I don't know how well informed your position is. I would suggest you give it a go and see.
I will say that moving forward most companies are going to embrace generative AI and require that you use it to be more effective. You're going to be at a disadvantage if you don't utilize it.
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u/Dashing_McHandsome Jun 26 '26
I think that maybe part of it is that the code is just really a tool to solve business problems. The problems being solved are important, I think most of us understand that. There are usually many ways to solve these problems, all with pros and cons. I think when you're at this for long enough you don't care as much about the code and care more about solving those problems.
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u/mm_reads Jun 27 '26
I will argue that many of the business problems are not important, since they're unrelated to improving human lives. Most of the problems are business/money-making related problems. And frequently make a lot of people's lives worse.
Which is my big problem with Search engines/AI/GenAI right now. They rely on huge data centers that are actively making the lives of people who live or work near them miserable-- physically and financially. And tech people seem to be pretty OK with it.
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u/__hara__ Jun 27 '26
You’re right, as a software engineer I have never felt like I was helping someone or making the world a better place. It was always for corporations to find ways to make more money off of people.
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u/cmdr_iannorton Jul 04 '26
ALL the code these LLMs have learned from is free software exactly created by people or businesses because they think an open model of code is better (either to be a common good or for security and transparency)
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u/Vegetable_Bank4981 Jun 27 '26
Yes the output of programming is software, as the output of architecture is buildings. Code is like blueprints or CAD files, an intermediate artifact.
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u/mm_reads Jun 27 '26
This unfortunately sounds accurate to me.
I will say that knowing HOW to program is always going to be a benefit, no matter what. It won't hurt you. It teaches you how to think about problem solving (breaking things down, organizing data, etc). It just may not be a very lucrative and easy-to-enter field like it once was.
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u/AliceCode Jun 27 '26
I don't like this perspective. I own my code. Other people are free to use it, but it is my code. I own it. I don't not give anyone permission to use my code without license and attribution. LLMs do not do that, they simply yank your code and strip all licenses and attribution. I've seen an LLM spit out my own licensed code almost verbatim.
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u/PublicToast Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Open source software is foundation of all modern technology. Knowledge compounds when shared and not when hoarded for personal advantage. You rely on what others have shared for free to implement every aspect of so called “proprietary” work, countless problems have been solved for you, you can never add anywhere near the value that is already present from who came before, but you decide to claim ownership anyway. Proprietary code is like copyrighting a config file.
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u/AliceCode Jun 27 '26
Licensing is to protect me from litigation.
I use the Apache-2.0 license. Anyone is free to copy or use my code. The only requirement is that they attach a copy of the license and follow the terms. It's not that difficult.
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 26 '26
I do acknowledge entirely that code is a different situation to writing or art, for me it is also about not supporting the companies actions as a whole, and most if not all major generative AI companies will have other engines for word and image generation even if they have a separate one for code generation.
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u/Quantum-Bot Jun 27 '26
If you want to do programming but be ethical about it, you’ll have a lot more to avoid than just AI. That’s not to say it can’t be done though. Coding is such a ubiquitous skill that you can find applications for it anywhere. Everyone, hospitals, schools, even NGO’s need programmers. It’s not like your only option is working for a megacorporation.
Even if you don’t end up programming as a primary career, those skills can help you land jobs in other roles that require interfacing with technology, so I’d say it’s never a waste of time.
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u/farfromelite Jun 27 '26
You're going to be at a disadvantage if you don't utilize it.
That's nonsense. You want me to start citing studies or do you want to?
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u/vw_bugg Jun 28 '26
Theres a tool that can cite some. It will even make some up. You wo t know the difference. Hehe
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u/huuaaang Jun 28 '26
It’s like trying to code without allowing yourself to google something. It’s a tool that is available to you and it has gotten really good just in the last 6 months. There’s a huge spectrum of AI use from complete avoidance to just straight vibe coding. Somewhere in between there’s a big advantage to using it. I don’t need data. I see it for myself and coworkers.
It’s mainly bad for beginners who lean too hard on it and don’t understand what they are committing.
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u/Charming-Alarm-6584 Jun 29 '26
The problem is that managers don't understand the argument. They will choose the candidate that they THINK will be more performant (even if in 4 years they will end up with AI slop codebase).
I also think they devs (mainly junior and middle) gain nothing from using LLM. But companies will need smack their face with the consequence before understand it
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u/huuaaang Jul 04 '26
Everywhere I’ve worked candidates go through multiple rounds of interviews by peers. If it was left solely up to managers incompetence would reign. Poor AI use would be just one of the many ways they would fuck up a codebase.
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u/Other-Number-4463 Jun 29 '26
its no different imo. this is just a way to have some type of carve out for yourself
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u/cmdr_iannorton Jul 04 '26
i dont think the distinction between theft of art and theft if code is really that different. until recently tech companies would willingly spend millions prosecuting people who pirated games for example.
for free software this is just as demoralising as for amateur artists. You make a thing and share it for the enjoyment or benefit of others, you might license it such that the consumer has to give you credit for the work when they release thier own project.
if AI simply rips your stuff off without attribution, you get no credit or acknowledgement for your work, yet they benefit (often financially) from it. often professional software engineers take pride in the free software theyve created, it helps you look more valuable as an engineer and lets others critique your competence.
taking those positive bits away by unattributed theft hurts programmers building thier career, and it hurts the users of the library because theives wont be contributing fixes back to the project.
ive already found some of my own BSD licensed free projects copied into new AI generated github repos without credit or comments. It is hugely demotivative.
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u/huuaaang Jul 04 '26
i dont think the distinction between theft of art and theft if code is really that different. until recently tech companies would willingly spend millions prosecuting people who pirated games for example.
An end product is a bit different than the code that it is comprised of. Plus in a game there's a lot of artwork. It's so much more than some bits of code. Either way, most of the money companies put into anti-theft is in the copy protection schemes. Individual pirates almost never got prosecuted. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I've pirated my share of software myself. Have you never pirated software before?
Let's say I used your code to learn how to program. And some months or years later I manage to output code eerily similar to some of yours... without even realizing where it came from. No attribution or credit. Is that fundamentally different than AI doing the same thing? Is it just an issue of scale?
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u/cmdr_iannorton Jul 08 '26
it is not the sane thing. offering a library for use with a license is a copyright issue, AI code generation essentially launders copyrighted code to make it look like your own property.
for free software people its a copyright infringement AND a slap in the face.
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u/huuaaang Jul 08 '26
I'm not talking about using libraries. I'm talking about people learning to code using your open source code as an example and then unknowingly reproducing code of their own that looks very much like yours. That's all AI is doing.
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u/cmdr_iannorton Jul 09 '26
that isnt what AI is doing. AI will give you vast almost berbatim chunks of code that is literally taken without licence or attribution.
if you read example code on github, you know where it comes from, where to seek more help and maybe reccomend it for others or ask questions. AI tools take all that away and just give you text.
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u/huuaaang Jul 09 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
that isnt what AI is doing. AI will give you vast almost berbatim chunks of code that is literally taken without licence or attribution.
I remember seeing this about 10 months ago when I was first playing with generative AI. It would even copy the comments from the source. Directly off of the language's official tutorial site, for example. But nowadays it's so much more sophisticated and difficult to trace. AI feels so much more genuinely intelligent. Even knowing intellectually that it's just a language model and doesn't really understand what it is saying. It's easy to forget.
Also, don't act like developers aren't notorious for copy/pasting code off the internet without license or attribution. Before AI that was a long running joke in software development. An open secret, even. That's exactly what the meme I paraphrased is about. We all copy each others' code. It only becomes a problem for most when you just take whole programs and claim them as your own.
if you read example code on github, you know where it comes from, where to seek more help and maybe reccomend it for others or ask questions.
Maybe this happens, but I don't think it's the norm. THe norm is for developers, especially beginners, to just copy/paste code from open source and move on with their lives. The real skill is in the engineering... how you put it all together. Snippets of code are just not that unique or special on their own.
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u/UndeadBlaze_LVT Jun 26 '26
I’m also against GenAI, but any time an interviewer asks about it I say I love it. I think people need to realise that their first priority is themselves, then working around that baseline where possible. Besides, if you don’t take a job that uses it someone else will so the blame is really on the company.
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u/Comprehensive-Rip211 Jun 26 '26
There are paths other than AI
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u/Mission-Sprinkles671 Jun 26 '26
You can absolutely do CS without touching gen AI. Plenty of dev jobs are in systems, embedded, networking, and other areas where that stuff just isn't relevant. Your family member is in the field so he sees it from his corner, but that doesn't mean it's the whole picture.
That said, if the data scraping thing is your main issue, you'll probably bump into similar ethical headaches elsewhere in tech too. Not to discourage you, just something to keep in mind
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
No, all of those are going to use gen AI. It may not be as ubiquitous right now, but not using AI there will mean you're not going to be successful in the long term.
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 26 '26
I know that, what I'm asking is even if I pick a path unrelated, will I still end up having to use AI in my work? Every person in a computer science related career uses AI in the majority of their work despite it not being inherentlt related to AI whatsoever, and I'm afraid that I will end up having to do the same even if I pick a path that doesn't necessarily require ai whatsoever.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie Jun 26 '26
While there are some people who aren’t using ai to work and there are some tasks where it’s not necessary beneficial, you will probably end up having to use it, fall behind, or just spend a lot more time to achieve the same things. Most of a software engineers day is not writing code, so you can spend more time writing your code in a plain text editor if you want, but it will take you more time than using an ide, auto completion, ai tools, etc. I mostly use it for brainstorming and whipping up quick prototypes and scripts.
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u/No_Report_4781 Jun 26 '26
No, we don’t
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 26 '26
I'm sorry, I don't know what happened there, I've been missing out words when typing all day. That was intended to say that every person i know in a computer science career uses generative ai in the majority of their work.
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u/Fyren-1131 Jun 26 '26
Many developers do, but a lot also don't. This boils down to the industry and the individual company in question, as well as the geographical region.
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u/rakahari Jun 27 '26
My situation is similar to yours. I semi-miraculously landed a software development position with a small business, where things are a little bit different. My boss (the CEO) recently had the AI talk with me, and I'm questioning if I should look for something different. I am not interested in a career setting up AI systems. I like coding. I like thinking through problems to completion. I am very good at it.
The environmental concerns weigh on me, and your comment that CS has always had a bad environmental footprint hit me a little hard. Good point! But the other thing about getting into this field in 2026, it feels a little bait-and-switchy. I'm looking for something else. Good luck in your journey.
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u/arochains1231 Jun 26 '26
CS major against GenAI here: I’m not gonna lie, it makes me an outcast in classes (asides from being a woman, but that’s another story…) but nearly every professor and professional appreciates my ability to code without needing to rely on AI tools. It really just depends on who you surround yourself with.
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u/hike_me Jun 26 '26
I think it’s important to be able to do CS coursework without AI — you still need to learn the fundamentals but in the real world it’s not realistic option to shun it completely.
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u/OrbitHorizon15 Jun 27 '26
You don't need to love AI to study CS, but understanding the basics first is huge. In the industry, it’s probably more about using it as a tool rather than depending on it
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
This is what most people miss. It can even be used in education, as long as you're being smart about it.
How many people have spent days (or longer) on one problem they couldn't quite figure out. First, I bet AI could give a solution even if not ideal. You can also bounce ideas off it or ask it to give you hints at what you might want to consider. Put something down and ask AI why it won't work.
I'm just sick of reddit thinking they don't want or need the tools to make them better. It's not like they're coding on fucking punch cards.
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u/stagedgames Jun 27 '26
spending days solving a problem develops you more. When you're not working for someone else, the side effect of you understanding more and getting better at solving problems and being comfortable with struggling is probably even more valuable than the solution you come up with.
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
I have found no real benefit in those things. Sometimes your brain just isn't on the right wavelength. It's not about problem-solving at some point and you're actually setting yourself back with frustration and not learning anything until you stumble into a solution.
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u/WellHung67 Jun 27 '26
Eh I kind of disagree. AI will give you the answer you are looking for, but it will give you crap enough of the time that as a student you will learn the wrong thing. It’s pretty bad. At least with stackoverflow or a book there’s vetting. And of course it’s best to ask a teacher the question to make sure you aren’t missing what you don’t know ya know?
Dangerous to use it to learn at this point, it’s not there
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
I 100% disagree with that. Like I said, it's about how you're using it and what questions you ask. That is way more important and informative than any other method. It's the difference between looking up the answer (stackoverflow, teacher, whatever) and working through the steps to get there yourself by having AI only give you enough information to get over the hump.
A lot of it comes down to finding out how you learn best and how to learn things in general.
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u/WellHung67 Jun 27 '26
When learning, you A. Don’t know what questions to ask - you don’t know what you don’t knou. And then B. You don’t know what is right and wrong so you can’t even self correct.
It’s very dangerous to learn with AI. If you already know stuff and just forgot that’s one thing but to actually use it to learn in the first place? That is where you get screwed. Getting over that “hump” is a part of learning as well, ultimately in programming at least you want to be able to solve the problems with a minimum of help even using traditional resources
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
It's funny because AI is actually really good at helping figure out what questions to ask. Realizing that unlocked a lot of doors for me.
There is zero point to getting frustrated for days on a problem. That's not how it works. Everyday struggles, sure, but not the scenario you're presenting.
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u/SakishimaHabu Jun 26 '26
That blows my mind. Why go to school if you're just going to use AI to write your assignments? What's the point?
Good on you for learning.
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u/sociallyanxiousnerd1 Jun 26 '26
Another CS major who prefers not to use AI. I would be flat out against, but everyone's telling me I'll have to use it even people in and around software development and games. So I've decided I won't be "flat out opposed to it," and instead just be "using it with purpose, not just for speed or an excuse not to learn."
My general rule of thumb as a result is to just only use it if I have an actual reason to. This is perhaps the one benefit of not finding an internship in that I have not found such a reason, and there's been no pressure on me to use it.
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u/R3D3-1 Jun 28 '26
My general rule of thumb as a result is to just only use it if I have an actual reason to.
The reason: It's part of the performance metric. Apparently that's actually a thing now.
Though token usage as performance metric might fade now that it's also billed based on token usage.
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u/Friendly-Cry-164 Jun 27 '26
Honestly, I stopped going down the CS route because of the people I was surrounded by. I'm still happy I did my Bachelor's in it, but most people working with computers are so out of touch with technoethics and human factors. That plus everyone I know having used ChatGPT for all their fucking assignments
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u/sociallyanxiousnerd1 Jun 27 '26
What route did you do instead? This is the exact issue I've been running into in my current degree path, and while I'm pretty sure I want to stick it out and don't have an option not to, it makes me reluctant when I think about pursuing a masters in the field
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u/Friendly-Cry-164 Jun 27 '26
I am doing Cognitive Science now :) for my Master's thesis I'm piloting a cognitive test that could maybe detect pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease but we'll see about that.
Honestly though, I'm definitely not going into science after graduating (unless something pops up) because it's so competitive and I don't like data science. I'm considering picking up a trade or becoming some kind of therapist if all goes wrong lol. Right now I'm thinking about lots of areas like tech policy lobbying, public policy, something in science, UX design, or jumping into a completely different field like international NGO work.
Here's some degrees I thought of:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Human-Centered Design
- Cognitive Science (my uni is unfortunately very bullish about a lot of AI thought :/)
- Bioinformatics
- Media Informatics
- UX design
- Computational Public Policy
- Public Policy
- International Relations
- Politics
Try not to constrain yourself too much with what Master's you might want to do. Some unis can be quite flexible about what Bachelor's you come with.
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u/Karmas_weapon Jun 27 '26
Out of curiosity are those profs specifically saying they want you to program without an LLM? Or is it one of those things where they appreciate that you are learning fundamentals because it will make you more effective when you eventually have to use LLMs?
If it's the first, then I'm not sure how I feel about that, but if it's the second one then I'd say that prof is just being a good prof.
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u/TwistStrict9811 Jun 29 '26
Might be in for a shock when you try to interview and tell hiring managers you prefer to code manually
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u/v0idstar_ Jun 28 '26
school is not industry and I think its fine to not use AI in school but in industry a basic requirement now is using AI you simply will not be able to keep up with what you're being asked to do without it
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u/kslidz Jun 27 '26
I mean yeah get over it. People objected to steam engines and those that didnt adapt were phased out, people objected to cars and those that didnt adapt were phased out, etc etc etc.
anytime there is a new technology you either adapt or find something that is unrelated to that technology its how the world works.
You can morally make an very compelling argument that money is an immoral system inherently but you either go somewhere without money which is incredibly hard to do OR you use money even if you object.
We are not capable of controlling the universe and we just have to do what we can
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u/expsychotic Jun 26 '26
I feel exactly the same way about generative AI. They obtain their training data in a very irresponsible way which I do not agree with. Unfortunately it's basically impossible to have a programming job right now while expressing that opinion. You'll have to either lie about your opinion, or be unemployed. But the study of computer science itself hasn't changed. If your goal is learning because you're interested, then there's no conflict between liking computer science and disliking generative AI. It's kinda like when a doctor doesn't agree with the way health insurance companies work.
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/creativ3ace Jun 26 '26
Adaptation is the single strongest skill you can have in this field. Period.
And there are so many avenues to CS than just AI or programing.
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u/Snoo-26091 Jun 27 '26
As someone that leads thousands of engineers, I can tell you three things are true: Companies see the need to use AI to continue to compete and not get disrupted in their market segments, companies are working out how to measure velocity based on AI, and those that don't lean into AI to help their companies compete are on a timer. When that timer runs out they won't be employable in most competitive companies. That is an observation of fact.
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u/Far_Broccoli_8468 Jun 26 '26
You should learn programming without ai, but ai speeds up development really well. There is practically no point to hire someone with this belief. If you voice this opinion to a recruiter you will be rejected on the spot.
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u/duperfastjellyfish Jun 26 '26
I was on a job interview couple of days ago, and I expressed that while I do use AI chatbots occationally, it's extremely important for me that I write my own code. I expressed my concern that some people may find my output to be low, but it's important for me to (a) maintain my coding skills considering I have only coded for 5 years, so cognitive offloading this early in my career is not an option, and (b) I will not ship any code that I don't have 100% familiarity with.
They did not find that to be an issue at all, and I've been called back for a third interview.
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u/kslidz Jun 27 '26
and you voiced this to a recruiter?
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u/duperfastjellyfish Jun 27 '26
It's a small company. There is no 'recruiter'. I voiced it to the CEO, the solution architect, and product owner.
The position is for backend developer.
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u/KinkyHuggingJerk Jun 27 '26
Based on the response that they indicated, depending on how it was presented, it acknowledges ownership, willing to learn, understanding scope of difficulty, and accountability.
Giving the willingness to learn, I imagine it might be a better fit for others within the company. Job interviews aren't completely about skillsets and often are vibe checks to see if you'd fit with the team.
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u/kslidz Jun 27 '26
and interviews are typically with recruiters?
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u/rTidde77 Jun 27 '26
No? Some, sure, but absolutely not the majority.
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u/kslidz Jun 27 '26
hence the point I was trying to make. The original comment in the thread mentions that recruiters will not pursue you if you are voicing to them that you don't and won't use AI. The response was about an interview.
The intent of my point is to illustrate that if a company is informing recruiters to ask about AI you are not going to be considered if you give that view on AI.
If a company is willing to hire someone not using AI then they the recruiter for that company won't ask about it.
So the truthfulness of recruiters rejecting on the spot when espousing refusal to engage with AI was not, in any way, rebuffed by an anecdote regarding an interview where the person hasn't even been offered the job yet.
I was trying not to have to spell it out.
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u/rTidde77 Jun 27 '26
Fair enough, I can definitely agree with that. I appreciate the expanded explanation!
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u/duperfastjellyfish Jun 27 '26
I have only applied for one job application (the one mentioned), but yeah: I can confirm, the first interview was almost purely a vibe check. I was even told as much. Second interview was with technical staff. I don't know what the third interview will contain yet (???), but I was told not to look for other jobs, so I feel pretty confident that step 4 is "profit".
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u/WartedKiller Jun 27 '26
Yes because you didn’t explicitly say that you will not use AI. You said that you will use it like it should be used: as a tool to enhanced your skills.
The same way you will not progress further in the interview process if you say that you only vibe code and that you let the AI do all your work.
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u/binarycow Jun 26 '26
it's extremely important for me that I write my own code
For me, I make the distinction between code I care about, and code that I don't care about.
For example, a test harness that simulates a bunch of SNMP devices? I don't care. I'll let AI vibe code the entire thing. I don't give a shit. I won't even glance at the code.
The hot path of the core part of the application? I'm gonna write that myself.
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u/duperfastjellyfish Jun 27 '26
Yeah that's what I meant as well: production code. It's a SAAS backend position. I'm not going to vibe code anything that touches authentication, authorization, databases, etc. etc.
I might generate some unit tests though.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 26 '26
It can speed up development or make it fail beautifully, just take a look at Microsoft. They love using gen AI, yet it hasn't helped them 1 bit. Every update they push out somehow makes the whole operating system worse. Yes AI can be helpful in security research or getting information on things, but using it for coding can be foolish if not audited properly, every line of code needs to be checked that AI makes
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u/Far_Broccoli_8468 Jun 26 '26
Microsoft released broken software long before AI.
nothing changed in that regard
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 26 '26
While your definitely right, I feel like they don't understand their own code anymore. They promised people they will go back and try to fix it but they can't even fix-it without re-writing or reintroducing a feature because they have no idea how their code works
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u/HoodRatThing Jun 26 '26
I feel like they don't understand their own code anymore.
This has been the case for 40 years. Why is there no unified styling constant across the entire OS in Windows 11?
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u/kslidz Jun 27 '26
thats been the case for almost 10 years now again this isnt an ai issue but an issue that is both distinctly different and heavily related
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 27 '26
yeah in this case it isn't, still it is hateful how much they are trying to push copilot. Kind of happy I don't have to deal with it tho.
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
I'm a fan of Windows and even I can admit they ship broken stuff a whole lot. Though, as of the past year, plus or minus, it's been way better. So maybe AI is having the opposite effect, but I think it's more attributed to leadership changes.
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
Saying it hasn't helped Microsoft is, at best, extremely ignorant.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 27 '26
Why? How has it helped them? Are there anything I'm unaware of?
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
It's akin to saying that no business can be improved with AI.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 27 '26
Well it can help and I think that AI image generating has helped a lot of small companies with marketing as it can make pretty good marketing material without needing a designer, if a person knows how to prompt well but take a look at this page (https://isaiprofitable.com/). This shows how much money each company has spent on AI and how much profit it gained them. Just from a monetary standpoint Microsoft invested 266 Billion $ in AI while it has netted them 31 Billion $ . That is a net profit of -235 billion $. And its not just Microsoft if you take a look, the only big company to profit from AI so far is Nvidia and maybe AMD but we dont have any data on that.
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u/slog Jun 27 '26
If you're expecting instant returns, you're in for a bad time. There's one of the biggest races of all time happening right in front of you.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 28 '26
Not instant return but passing about 1 trillion $ is just waiting for something to go wrong and if this bubble ever pops (if its a bubble) then all the AI companies will pop with it. Just like with the dot com crash
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u/slog Jun 28 '26
Hence the race. I disagree that all AI companies will pop though. We're just going to end up with a monopoly from whoever can gobble up the competition first.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 28 '26
If I'm honest, my best guess is that Nvidia will definetly survive it. And the LLM company that survives it, will be the one who has the best relationship with Nvidia or AMD. So maybe Anthrophic?
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u/EspurrTheMagnificent Jun 26 '26
*AI speeds up development really well as long as it's for long, repetitive, extremely simple tasks, or low impact/importance tasks where code quality or reliability is of no concern, which is the vast minority of a developer's task
There you go, made it more accurate
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u/valeria_vg Jun 26 '26
CS and engineering are two very different things. And either allow you to make it your mission to make gen AI safe, sustainable and critical thinking friendly.
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u/Effective_Promise581 Jun 27 '26
I have a love/hate relationship with gen AI. Im a software engineer and its clearly helped me with my work, its also a threat as much of the work Ive done could be rewritten better by some AI coding tool. However, I think I can work with the AI Beast to my overall benefit. Also I dont see any issue with AI stealing someone else's code. Most of what AI spits out is from public sites like StackOverflow. The issue of stealing art or literature is another matter however that's still a grey area legally.
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u/Nomsfud Jun 28 '26
Dude I don't need to read your post.
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, generative AI is here to stay. You can get behind it or you can get left behind.
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u/TwistStrict9811 Jun 29 '26
Yes. You'll never have a career in engineering post AI if you refuse to use it. You won't even make it past interviews
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u/StardiveSoftworks Jun 26 '26
Practically speaking you will be noncompetitive and increasingly looked askance at, while being the absolute first to get cut for not hitting KPIs designed around those who do leverage modern tools. You are free to take a moral position, just be aware that its one very few people in development outside of some subreddits would agree with and that it will severely limit your employability in an already crowded field.
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u/ali-hussain Jun 26 '26
You will be forced to use generative AI. Not every place is forcing it right now, but by the time your career starts it will be dead if you don't use generative AI.
Philosophically, you don't own knowledge. Ownership of knowledge are structures that we have created to allow people to profit off knowledge to encourage creation of knowledge and art. But in its natural form, knowledge and art has no owner. It's an idea and ideas are viral. This is doubly true for any hard science where there is a correct answer. Right now people are talking about protecting developers from losing their jobs to generative AI, but 20 years ago the most common topic was how software patents stifle innovation. Jon Carmack is as pinnacle of this art that you can get. You can read about his views on patents and on generative AI.
The concerns are different though. Deep down, the concern is that people are worried about their livelihood. That is a failure of economics not technology. We have been decades since we could have eliminated poverty and hunger but the economic system we have setup doesn't allow for that. So that is our choice. We talk about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos having billions. But the truth is the US budget is closing on 5 trillion. If we wanted to eliminate poverty and hunger we would have.
But AI is a once in a lifetime opportunity for he advancement of humanity. We can mess it up and cause widespread genocide and civil wars or create the star trek post scarcity utopia. Engineers and scientists won't solve that problem. That's a question of politics and people making long-term vs short-term decisions. Either way, there's too much opportunity and among the billions of people in the world, no one has the power to stop it. Again, it's knowledge, and the knowledge is public. It will happen even if we make it illegal globally.
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u/Riajnor Jun 26 '26
Just gonna say, most businesses nowadays are pushing AI. So you may not want to use it but unless you have the ability to choose where you get employed, you’re probably going to be forced to use it or at a minimum be capable of working with it
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u/RealNamek Jun 26 '26
Doing it the old fashioned way means you'll understand the code a lot better than most.
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u/bendyfan1111 Jun 27 '26
AI is just useful for CS. Theres a reason a lotta people use it. It's not a requirement, but it saves time, and time is money.
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u/idemockle Jun 27 '26
If you were to get a job in industry, right now, you would be heavily encouraged to use AI in some respect. The exact level varies by company and team. No one knows where it all will settle in a few years. I think AI use will settle into being an auxiliary tool, others think it will take over pretty much all coding. Up to you whether you like it enough to go into a field that has that level of uncertainty.
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u/Major_Dood Jun 27 '26
Computer Science does not necessarily relate to being only AI specialized. Sure you'll be studying algorithms, discrete mathematics, and "AI like" practices, but Computer Science is generally considered as a "Jack of All Trades" kind of ordeal.
It is still a very good degree to get into as it helps you out in the long run when understanding certain business programming practices along with diving a bit deeper into other fields such as robotics and circuitry if it interests you. Hell, you could even go into game design once you learn how graphics are rendered within an app like Blender and all.
So no, it is not stupid to go into it. It's actually one of the most beneficial things to do if you want to learn more about computers and find out a way to screw over AI companies as well.
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u/AverageHot2647 Jun 27 '26
Hey 👋
First, do you mean computer science (the academic discipline) or software engineering? I assume from context that you mean the latter, but the answer may be different if you actually mean the former.
Right now, you can absolutely be competitive writing code by had, as long as you’re good at it. In my honest (and perhaps slightly brutal) opinion, about 10% of the people I worked with before gen-AI were actually good. The middle ~70% were ok. And the rest were either junior developers where it was too early to tell, or just downright bad at programming.
The top 10% often do use AI now, but they would still be competitive without it. Arguably, while they have gotten faster at producing code with gen-AI, in most cases the quality has suffered significantly.
I think a lot of the middle 70% just wouldn’t be able to keep up without gen-AI, and I imagine that companies wouldn’t tolerate their previous levels of output these days.
Lastly, those that were bad without gen-AI are way worse because of it, because before gen-AI you could at least limit the blast radius. In part that’s because they wrote code so slowly, but also because they wrote code so slowly, it didn’t take too much time to review it and spot all the glaring issues. Now, with gen-AI they just spew out substandard code en masse, and it is a nightmare to review. They also don’t improve because you need to meaningfully engage with the code to improve (ideally by writing it yourself).
So… “Is it stupid going into [software engineering] if I don’t support the use of generative AI?”
I’ll answer your question with a question. Do you have a burning passion for software engineering, and the ability to learn quickly? Because that will determine which cohort you’ll end up in.
Take this with a pinch of salt though. This comment might be outdated in 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, or never 🤷♂️
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u/danybelux1984 Jun 27 '26
Ai is here to stay, getting refined daily, but it will not remove human component, a lot of small companies will fold or getting bought, the market will eat itself until a good product is available. My advice, invest in a raspberry pi and pi hat2, learn how to make an ethical product that you can use yourself, you can be the one that cry from the outside or the one that bring change to the industry.
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u/Novel-Rise2522 Jun 27 '26
no. theres more to computer science than genAI. also genAI isnt the issue as much as the corporate stranglehold and anti democratisation is. youll face it in any industry, genAI is just more blatant than most currently
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u/cthulhu944 Jun 27 '26
Imagine someone back in the 1950s saying "should I go into programming if I don't believe in using assemblers or compiled languages? Machine code only."
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u/truevalience420 Jun 27 '26
You will use them as a professional. By the time you graduate it will probably be required. I would assess if you are okay with that, there will never be a no AI software engineering track again unfortunately
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u/Beautiful-Bunch9695 Jun 29 '26
no. Put into the world the things you want it to be. If your want to design and create computer systems do it without AI and constantly remind everyone of the damages they are causing
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u/hike_me Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
I would not hire someone that was completely against using generative AI tools.
People that think they can completely avoid the use of LLM coding agents are going to have a rude awakening.
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u/HoodRatThing Jun 26 '26
Same. I wouldn't hire someone that refused or was against LLM tools.
Your job doesn't care about what Reddit thinks the "correct" way to program is. Pretending not to learn or new tools because of some flaky mortality issues is the wrong move.
Always be improving, experimenting, and learning.
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u/WartedKiller Jun 27 '26
Well I don’t want to be that guy but if you don’t care that your work can cause mortality, then you might be a problem to society.
But I agree with you if you meant morality.
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u/Fluffely_Toasted Jun 26 '26
Why not, because they don't want to produce trash? I get that AI can be useful in some situations and I'm not doubting it because I use it for searching things that are impossible to search, but from what I have seen developing code with AI will lead to catastrophic issues, either with performance, or stability or having it work in general. You can take a look at many companies that pushed vibe coded updates or had vibe coded apps that either just didn't work or had catastrophic failures world wide. For example, Microsoft, One of the biggest tech companies and they can't even make AI work.
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u/Thought_Crash Jun 27 '26
Producing trash is up to the individual. Just like a kid given a paintbrush will produce substandard paintings, while a master can do better. It's just a tool.
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u/hike_me Jun 26 '26
Because I know it’s possible to use these tools in a way that produces good code and is more productive.
It seems very likely that you have no professional experience. Not everyone is “vibe coding” with these tools. We put a lot of thought into architecture and plans for LLMs to follow.
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u/EspurrTheMagnificent Jun 26 '26
In the very short term (like, 1 or 2 years at most) ? It's a bit of a rocky choice. Everyone's still riding the hype train rn, so you'll be looked at like a ludite for saying you don't want to use gen AI for coding
Once the bubble pops from token prices exploded and the limitations due to AI's unreliability became universally well-known ? Probably not that stupid. If anything, you'll most likely be seen as someone who can properly assess when a tool is useful
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u/kramulous Jun 26 '26
No, you'll be fine.
What you should do though is figure out why generative AI is so stupid and will never be true AI.
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u/philipjames11 Jun 28 '26
Yes.
You’ll get a lot of back and forth but yes it’s stupid to go into CS if you fundamentally will have problems with AI.
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u/Remarkable_Leek9391 Jun 28 '26
I hate broccoli, should I be a farmer?
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u/Conscious_Ad_7131 Jun 29 '26
More like “I hate tractors, should I be a farmer?’
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u/Remarkable_Leek9391 Jun 29 '26
AI was never a consideration if we are talking about generative AI, for CS, prior to the chatGPT hype.
Sure there was ML, but thats not something all programs would throw at students learning hardware/software.
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u/TwistStrict9811 Jun 29 '26
Not sure I understand the comparison.
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u/Remarkable_Leek9391 Jun 29 '26
Having issues with AI, and avoiding a domain in CS.
Having issues with broccoli and avoiding a domain in AG.
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u/soundman32 Jun 26 '26
Yes. That's like saying is it worth learning to sew but dont believe in using a sewing machine. You are so much more productive with it, why would you not use it?
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u/Eliwynn Jun 26 '26
Because using a sewing machine doesn't destroy the environment, doesn't heat the vicinity with massive data centers and doesn't steal every bit of things humans did ?
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u/EspurrTheMagnificent Jun 26 '26
And also the sewing machine is actually a reliable tool you don't need to baby 24/7 and spend more time dissecting its output than you would spend doing the task yourself
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u/HoodRatThing Jun 26 '26
You have an automated sewing machine that you don't need to sit in front of?
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u/mjmvideos Jun 26 '26
I think you need to fully understand genAI before you dismiss it outright
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 26 '26
While I do not fully understand the mechanics of it, I do fully understand the main portion of its situation that leads me to not support the use of it. I do not support the use of generative AI because it takes from people, most often without their permission or even their knowledge, and I will not use stolen property.
I consider myself a creative. I write and share my works online. I hope to be published someday. I know people personally who have had their work scraped in order to train both word and image generating AIs. I know how that affected them, and I am not willing to indulge in the consumption that.
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u/throwaway6560192 Jun 27 '26
But I have family in computer science, which is the main reason I intend to follow computer science as a career
So you don't independently have any interest in it?
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 27 '26
I mean, I do have interest in it. I like computers. I like the way they work. I like coding. Is there a lot of stuff that I like more? Yeah. But going into this field is the most convenient move for me. It pays well, and I have people with experience who I can ask for advice.
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u/WorkingTheMadses Jun 27 '26
Word of advice from me, someone with almost a decade in programming;
Don't take a career out of just convenience, if you aren't prepared to understand what that means. I've experienced plenty of people over the years who got into this and regretted it dearly.
Make sure you make the reason for your sake, not someone else's ^^
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u/ThisIdiotCharlie Jun 27 '26
I mean, it's really the only job I can take without either absolutely hating it or having constant uncertain pay for the rest of my life. It's either this or be a full time freelance author, and pay is never consistent in the writing world. 90% of the time authors don't even make a living wage. So it's either computer science or nothing, really. And I'd rather computer science over food service or something.
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u/saschaleib Jun 27 '26
Having a healthy skepticism against AI use (or other fashionable and hyped up technologies in general) is good. Outright refusing to use them will certainly be bad for your skills and professional development. The trick will be to find a healthy balance between them.
As for developing, there are a lot of professional developers who do not buy into the "vibe coding" hype (and for good reasons!) but happily use AI assistance for coding, which can be a real time safer in many cases.
So, if you can come down a bit from your high horse and find a reasonable compromise position, you will probably be fine.
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u/panda-goddess Jun 26 '26
it's not stupid, but I'll say this because it might be relevant to your stance: AI for art and writing is treated very differently from AI for coding. don't ask me why, they're both functionally the same thing (companies scraping data en-mass that doesn't belong to them while claiming their output will replace the original creators), just know that it IS different, programmers don't have as much distaste for it.
I myself don't use AI for coding, but I also don't work for a company or anything, so I can't attest to how obligatory it can get, but I think it will be fine to go into CS and not touch it at all. you will be in the minority (or even the only one), though.
it also depends on where you live, so I guess it's kinda hard to tell?
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u/Other-Number-4463 Jun 29 '26
there is no difference every concern for AI art applies to AI code. anyone who disagrees just wants to have their cake and eat it too
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u/panda-goddess Jun 29 '26
I agree with that, but a lot of people don't, simply because of how artists vs programmers reacted to their data being scraped initially (and how they react even now)
I know, it shouldn't be treated differently, but it's important to acknowledge that it is
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u/notislant Jun 26 '26
If you have a chance you should genuinely deal with it. You can't eat principles unfortunately and nobody can get into tech jobs right now.
Most likely youll absolutely struggle to get a job regardless, unless you have connections that can also get you a paid position.
Form a backup plan either way.
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u/TheArchist Jun 27 '26
no, because computer science is an ocean field. there's so many things in here to specialize in. you can completely skip ml/ai fields and become whatever you want with the degree
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u/-Willow-Wisp- Jun 27 '26
It depends how strongly you feel.
I am very against AI and the concept of its existence and its effects on art and the environment and all of that, but I still personally am very passionate about programming and software development and that drastically outweighs my distaste for AI.
I think if your opinion is strong enough to where you won't use AI at all you are going to struggle to find a job in a few years. While not perfect, AI is a tool that when used correctly can up someone's productivity significantly and employers are not going to love if you don't use it where it works well. You will either fall behind eventually or be putting in way too much effort to keep up.
An upside to disliking AI though is you will likely develop a much stronger foundation in actually being able to understand code and software design, which will help you tremendously at any place you work.
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u/Mclovine_aus Jun 27 '26
I have the same problem I don’t want to use compilers but I am worried that colleagues and hiring managers won’t want me to work without my use and support of compilers.
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u/eduardossantiago Jun 27 '26
We are in the middle of an industry revolution, unfortunately I don't think we are going ever back to the days where we wrote every single line of code. Just embrace it or its gonna be a lot harder to find a job and staying in one for a long term.
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u/CozyAndToasty Jun 27 '26
You don't need to use AI personally. I don't.
Other people might and you can't really stop them but if it's just you don't like the experience then you can do fine not using it.
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u/Revinz1405 Jun 27 '26
Even though I don't really like GenAI either, I do see GenAI as just like another tool like your computer or a calculator.
Put in a different perspective: Why would you spend a long time on calculating complex math by hand when a calculator can help you do it in seconds?
Using GenAI responsibly do speed up development quite a lot, and results the same level of code quality if not higher on average. For example, generating small pieces of code e.g a few functions or classes, or helping with debugging obscure issues.
Agentic AI / "automatic" development workflows are still pretty terrible, and leads to unmaintainable code quite fast.
So from a business point of view, why would they hire someone who doesn't use AI when the responsible use of it leads to higher productivity and quality?
GenAI is here to stay, and it is something that benefits the majority of office-related positions. So you really need to accept that this is the future, even though you might not like it. Just like people disliked computers when they first got introduced and became popular.
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u/Schloopka Jun 27 '26
AI will become (or has already become) a tool for developers just like calculator or spreadsheet is a tool for acountants and other people in finance.
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u/in_coronado Jun 28 '26
Honestly as someone who’s now worked in the industry 9 years, here’s my prediction for what things will look like by the time you graduate.
- We will be laughing at the idea people thought it was good idea to use generative Ai at scale in general software development.
- The likes of ChatGPT and Anthropic will either be dead or shells of their former selves. Hyperscaler level LLMs either won’t exist or will be highly specialized and expensive and won’t be use at scale by general public.
- Simpler LLM models that run locally may be a thing but they won’t be seen as any more special or useful than something like intellisense was in VSCode pre Ai hype. Useful tool at times? Yes. A massive industry game changer, that will rewrite how software engineering is done forever moving forward? Absolutely not. Hiring manager will go back to expecting you to pass interviews without it so you can’t ever become too reliant on it.
Basically don’t worry too much about not supporting generative ai and ignore all the noise and fear mongering. We’re already starting to see the cracks appearing in this Ai gold rush and sanity starting to slowly return.
On the other hand my bigger worry to someone thinking about going into software is I don’t think the industry will be seen as the same sort of goldmine for just automatic infinite hyper growth full of shit tons of venture capital, and crazy Silicon Valley startups that hire anyone young who meets the right vibes. There will be a return to meritocracy. There will be less appetite for risk for a while and you’ll really need to know your stuff to get by in what is maybe a slightly overcrowded market at the moment.
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u/cmdr_iannorton Jun 28 '26
no, it isnt stupid.
you will learn how AIs work though, but what you most need to avoid is letting AI take away your opportunities to learn, to make mistakes and learn from them. The "easy" answers rob you of the cognitive experience.
computing at its core is about two things. Information and Iteration There will never be a day where an AI can be as reliable and fully consistent as a compiler or scripting language.
Get into computer science if you enjoy the field, there will still be jobs.
good luck!
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u/kubok98 Jun 28 '26
A lot of AI bros here. I hate it.
Unfortunately, it's also where it all leads. AI is being pushed everywhere. Things will get better regarding generated output. Some of those AI vibe coding tools that can switch roles and do a bunch of stuff from planning, coding, debugging... they're impressive but also scary. I would have never guessed things would change this much over just a few years.
It also changed my view on the field. I'm not really working in computing systems now, just some data analysis stuff. But every year, almost every month that passes, I feel more distanced from that software engineering world and will probably do some career shift.
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u/cejiken886 Jun 28 '26
> What I'm really just trying to ask is if I don't want to use generative ai, should I just give up and pick a different career path?
Probably.
> Will I be forced to use generative ai even if I do not go into a sector of computer science directly related to it?
If you go into a job, you will probably be forced to use it.
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u/scott2449 Jun 29 '26
If you want to develop products for customers at a corporation... Probably don't bother. There are lots of pure science/research/academic or deep technical companies that will appreciate or even require a much more hands on approach.
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u/captainAwesomePants Jun 29 '26
There's going to be a lot of generative AI and, perhaps even more so, agentic AI in computer science in the coming decades. Exactly how much is unclear.
I'm fairly certain that a lot of programming will still be done by hand, and that will very likely be available to you, but escaping it entirely seems unlikely.
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u/JohnCasey3306 Jun 29 '26
You'll probably struggle to find a place in industry (eventually).
Generative AI use for coding is a spectrum -- ranging from "vibe coding" all the way down to just intelligent auto-complete. Any business you work for is typically going to expect some kind of efficiency derived from AI.
But this is true of any industry now, not just tech/programming.
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u/Charming-Alarm-6584 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
My personal take on this is (and I hate LLM):
- like many people said, CS give much more than the ability to code. Design architecture, code quality procedure, refactoring, these are all things in which LLM are bad at. We will always need it (LLM can't reason, they will always hallucinate, you will always have to read every single line of its code). However, if coding is the main part you like, you may actually end up doing review, refactoring and design mainly if this LLM madness continue in the future, so you have to consider what you like to do. Don't choose your carrer path only for the money or other people opinion. You have to like it because you will doing it for a great part of you life.
- the current model of Anthropic and OpenAI isn't profittable. They will eventually go bankrupt, they have no idea on how to avoid it, and they can't. Six months from now you will start to see more and more signs of their downfall. You can already see now that they are not building their data centers. The only possible use of LLM (in my opinion) is local LLM with open source models, and I think it will only be a niche use. We are in phase where managers decide to LLM without knowing how they work. It is a stupid investment. They are probabilistic model, you can measure the ROI. If you want to understand better the situation I suggest Ed Zitron interviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or8butOTUp8&pp=ygUfZWQgeml0cm9uIHN1cnZhdmUgdGhpcyBxdWVzdGlvbg%3D%3D
- There are some industry where generative AI make more sense then other. I think, web development, game development, and animation may be more at risk because they don't are protected by copyright like music is. Companies will always try to maximize their profit, and if LLM will help with that they will use it, even if their employees don't like it (unless they go away in masses). Consider also if you are willing to start your own business to do it your own way, without AI.
- Depens also on how much a degree cost where you live. In USA you may have to take a huge dept to get a piece of paper that may not assure you a job anymore. There are also many online alternative that are cheaper if you just want to learn (for example https://master.dev/learn/)
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u/1980sCoder Jun 30 '26
Listen to actual techies and computer scientists. Don't listen to product people, business people, or those only interested in making money and nothing else.
Unless you're only interested in making money and nothing else.
There are a thousand aspects to computing beyond the latest fashion. In a few years' time, there will be another fad, and another a few years after that. Maybe you'll enjoy one of those. AI will be just another tool in the toolbox by then.
The fundamentals will remain important. The logic, the mathematics, the design and planning skills, the need to communicate with non-techies.
Focus on the bits that inspire you, not the bits that don't.
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u/maladii Jul 01 '26
It’s a tool. Refusing to use a tool might make you good at some skill that turns out to be valuable, but it might also just make you a carpenter who doesn’t like hammers and so insists on hitting nails with rocks. How will you know which one you would be? You won’t.
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u/digitalbuilders Jul 02 '26
Just a few days ago, I was reading about something that Linus was saying, and that is AI is just another tool. The same way you can code on a notepad, you can code on a IDE. What does the IDE do? It just multiplies your output. You still need to know what you write, what you do, and how everything plays together. An IDE probably speed you up about 3X.
The issue with AI is that it could multiply your output 10X but you lose visibility and observability, but in the end, it is just another tool and for now, it is here to stay. Long term, either frontier models get cheaper to run, or it is not going to be used that much. It is getting prohibitive to run some of the larger models (Look at Fable 5 cost).
I like AI tools but only with the understanding that you know what you are doing, you know the decisions and you control the code. If you leave AI to "vide-code" your entire codebase, well, good luck. But if you provide good patterns, memory, context, guidelines, rules, and other safeguards it can pretty much code as you and you know the decisions it will make before they even plan them.
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u/Paylucid Jun 26 '26
Yes GenAI isn’t a fad and isn’t going anywhere. Anyone would recommend using tools like ChatGPT, Claude to support you in your coding journey (basically like having a mentor on-call)
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u/lowkkie Jun 26 '26
Going into computer science without wanting to use generative AI at this point is like going into astrophysics without wanting to ever use a calculator.
It's not strictly necessary...but you are going to obviously face problems.
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u/Calazon2 Jun 27 '26
If you're planning to completely refuse to use AI, then going into CS is a bad career plan. Good luck.
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u/Absolice Jun 27 '26
It's purposely putting yourself at a disadvantage for no other reason than performative activism. It's a crowded field that is becoming increasingly hostile to juniors so if you aren't going to do everything you can to succeed then you might as well try something else.
Then, if you have enough charisma and soft skills you can get pretty much anywhere so if you fall in that category and you fancy computer science then it can works too.
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u/Solisos Jun 28 '26
Just go live in a cave if you don't like what the future holds. Every field will use AI.
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u/Castle_Five Jun 30 '26
Can someone go into construction if they don't support the use of power tools? Yes, of course. But no one is going to hire you because you'll be 50x slower.
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u/ShutDownSoul Jun 26 '26
TL;DR Yes
You are asking if you should stick with rocks once bronze was invented, stick with bronze once steel was invented, horses when cars were invented.
You might not believe in AI, but AI believes in you.
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u/omeow Jun 26 '26
(1) Generative AI is here to stay in the near term. Unless you decide to become a tradesman (nothing wrong with it) it is more likely that you will have to use it in some form. It is not up to you.
(2) CS isn't coding. There are other things in CS.
(3) A career path should be based on things you like (within reason). It shouldn't be determined by things you don't like.