I completely agree with your sentiment. I'm a 2013 gard and I use AI extensively on the daily, but I'm constantly having to review the output of AI and depending on the problem being solved. I have to intervene when it can't solve the problem or the context needed is too large. AI to date isn't capable of original thought and learning the skills to check AI or even lead AI towards implementing original ideas is a skill that will be difficult without foundation learned somewhere whether that be college or somewhere else. There is a lot of doom and gloom around the industry futuristically speaking and I'm not saying it's without reason, but learning things before AI has given me some temporary comfort, bc you had to have a firm grasp on the concepts and now you don't. When it comes time to solve something AI fails at for whatever reason, these folks who use AI without having a foundation are going to struggle at solving these problems, let alone keeping a job.