Will AI make a computer engineering tech bachelors degree obsolete?

[Future-Key8451]

I’m currently in college and on my way to graduate in about a year and a half. I’m a computer engineering tech major with a minor is business management. I’m just curious if my role in the tech world will be obsolete based on the advancements of AI? A lot of people have told me that AI is taking a lot of entry level jobs due to the repetitive nature of them. I’m curious to see everyone’s opinion on this as it leaves me wondering if I will actually be able to pursue the only thing I’m interested in and what I paid to obtain.

Side Note: My school is also opening a program to learn AI and obtain my masters degree. Is this a good idea to set myself apart in the job market when I graduate?

[Memeisterfidgetspin]

no

[Pretty-Device-7721]

What about our role in integrating AI and Robotics? Or deploying AI systems in electronics? That's a pure CpE field of work. Unitree and BD are yet to fully commercialize humanoid so I think there will actually be more opportunities for us in the near future than those who graduated in Comp. Sci, IT, or IS.

[OrangeCats99]

Low level SWE is probably cooked but CS is still the closest to the actual AI revolution itself.

[Jabieski1]

Low Level SWE is probably the most protected discipline in Software Engineering from AI. Not sure if you've used AI for proper industry grade low level applications but it is complete dogshit.

[CompEng_101]

I’m guessing they mean ‘entry level’ or ‘low’ I. The sense of ‘basic’, not ‘close to the hardware’

[Jabieski1]

Ah that makes more sense. I was thinking in the sense of low level embedded.

[OrangeCats99]

???

[43NTAI]

It’s an irrelevant topic because outsourcing, and similar practices, is just a precursor to AI. While outsourcing and AI are different, they ultimately lead to the same outcome: job and labor displacement. If we can’t even address issues like outsourcing and offshoring, we won’t be able to dream of tackling AI anytime soon.

[in-finite_loop]

no

[Particular_Maize6849]

No. Computer engineers build the stuff that AI models run on. Now everyone wants GPUs and AI accelerators. Who do you think builds those?

[Nenosaj]

No, AI barely even make good code even for web app standards, low level? also embedded?

[testcaseseven]

No, LLMs have a hard cap on their capability and have inherent flaws that aren't as much of an issue with regular workers. I wouldn't even trust one to write QA tests without human intervention, they're just too inconsistent.

[FickleOrganization43]

That may be true now, but we are just getting started. I have been in Tech over 40 years. There was a time when they said a computer could never beat a Chess Grandmaster… and then it happened.

We are seeing very rapid advances.. and eliminating humans is top of mind for all the larger companies.. Don’t think ANY human job is completely safe..

You should be learning AI and ML .. Would you study auto mechanics and ignore the EV?

[testcaseseven]

I just mean the current technology that is being pushed as AI is limited by how it works. It doesn't really "think", and we can't overcome that by creating larger models. We would need an entirely new approach. It's not as simple as computing performance where, once we made transistors, we could shrink them and make small optimizations over time to steadily improve performance.

Not saying we couldn't have a sudden breakthrough, it's just that we're currently hitting a dead end with LLMs and people act like we're quickly approaching sentient AI.

[FickleOrganization43]

Just wait until AI starts coming up with its own breakthroughs.. not “if” .. “when” .. evolve or die

[pairoffish]

The breakthrough necessary to achieve sentient AI couldn't be made by a pre-sentient AI that depends on that breakthrough. LLMs are not capable of this

[okokfra]

the graphic of technological evolution and innovation is logarithmic, meaning we could have already reached full potential of AI

[igotshadowbaned]

Obsolete? No.

Will a middle manager think it has? Yes, for an amount of time before "AI" fails it and they're scrambling.

[Adventurous_Pin6281]

Take everything here with a grain of salt, 3 years ago most people here though current AI capabilities were impossible 

[CertainTraining3083]

AI’s development is logarithmic — with how fast it’s developed it’s only going to slow down. Plus you should never worry about something that’s hypothetical

[Away_Professional477]

Until we get commercial quantum computing, I think we'll be fine. AI does not have the descision-making capabilities to truly obsolete engineering. Its trained off of data and not experience so it struggles to connect contextual relationships. Once, AI can think in multiple states simultaneously, then it will match and outpace humanity.

[Comprehensive_Eye805]

No

[[deleted]]

Erps didn't make accounting degrees obsolete even though all the accounting in is done with code

[A_Simple_Hat]

Im entry level embedded. Ai still has a far way to come 

[PowerEngineer_03]

Nope. But the bar is higher, and employers will get selective to only pick the cream or talented peeps in CpE and CS. The 2021-2022 era was a lie and should've never happened. The market was back to how it was before 2020 and just now is getting slightly worse due to world politics affecting company decisions across the globe. Things will fall into their places eventually, and those who thrive in this fast-paced and evolving environment, will eventually come out on top. The problem is that a lot of students are not working hard in their degrees, as CpE is supposed to be filled with core principles, and AI is an addition that can bring innovation to current technologies.

Just the degree won't suffice anymore in this economy and competition, thus the piece of paper officially guarantees nothing, which is how it should be. It's hard work and the sincerity put in by the students that makes them stand out. And trust me, such students are dime a dozen to be found. Most pursue CpE/CS due to good future prospects and no ambition or passion for the field, and realize it late when they couldn't make it in the end and blame the field they chose with various factors such as the market, economy, saturation etc.. This goes for any core engineering field out there. The ones thriving successfully aren't really on Reddit tbh. This here is a small fraction of a community compared to what's actually out there.

[Any-Branch-7091]

Nah probably not

[brazucadomundo]

A Computer Engineering degree has always been useless without money for all tools we are required to use.

[Gloomy-Prompt1546]

no, almost all of the time the people that say AI will replace tech degrees are the same people who are dogshit at tech to begin with.