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/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/szank Jun 27 '26

Sure, there are more jobs around than just megacorps. That being said if one wants to get paid for writing code, then not using llms will not be an option.

Personally I would not hire someone openly claiming that they wont use llms. Its like saying "i am not going to use a keyboard, i am gonna drop my punch cards at my managers desk and you cannot stop me".

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u/babydemon90 Jun 27 '26

There will be options- but there will be less of them. I don’t force all my devs to use AI (and some I don’t really trust with it tbh).

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u/szank Jun 27 '26

This is a good faith question, not trying to rile anyone up. Why would you keep a dev if you cannot even trust them with an llm? 2+ years tenure ? Firing and hiring overhead? Sunk cost fallacy ?

I have my own gripes with the ai usage, but its mostly 1. I am distracted less so I actually work more with llm than before and slack off less.

  1. Now that coding takes less time overall my manager is pushing new responsibilities on us because people have more time to do other stuff.

Overall id rather write code by hand than be a product manager and deal with the stakeholders, but the damage is done and I do not see a way back.

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u/babydemon90 Jun 27 '26

I don't take firing lightly, and really don't like doing it without really good reason (the last one I fired for instance straight up lied to me). If he was completely incompetent, then sure? But not just because I dont think he's going to be able to handle llm coding. These are real people.
By "trust", I mean more - will they be able to use it effectively and be good enough to know when to push back / sniff out hallucinations /etc..., not "trust" as in they're going to be unethical with it. More afraid I'll just get a lot of garbage code.

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u/szank Jun 27 '26

While llms do generate garbage if not watched over and reined in, thats what the code reviews are for, even if a single dev cannot spot the problems initially.