There's Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science

A fact that is immediately surprising: today, recent computer science graduates are more likely to be unemployed than those who have studied philosophy. More than a few people think that enrolling in computer science in 2026 is like boarding a sinking ship: artificial intelligence is taking work away from programmers, companies are automating code, and the joke "your mistake is not being born earlier" is circulating on social media. Yet this diagnosis is wrong. The real revolution is not the death of computer science, but its transformation: those who study computer science today are not facing the end of an era, but the beginning of a new one. It seems the opposite of what you hear around: the data shows that unemployment among computer science graduates is on the rise, but almost none of them end up doing jobs for which a degree is not needed. For example, almost half of philosophy graduates find themselves in underpaid roles, while those who graduate in computer science often prefer to wait rather than settle. And there is another point that goes unnoticed: even though AI now writes 90% of new code in companies like Anthropic, there is always a need for someone who understands how computer systems really work, especially now that the whole world runs on software. Two stories of professors illustrate today's crossroads: Michael Hilton, of Carnegie Mellon, updates the program every year and encourages students to use AI to program better. Valerie Barr, at Bard College, does the opposite: her exams are taken on paper, like in the 1980s, because "you can't use AI well if you don't know what you're asking of it." Two worlds in comparison: there are those who see computer science as practical training, and those who see it as pure theory. And in the meantime, new courses are being created: Geoffrey Challen, at the University of Illinois, has launched a course where students learn to build software without ever writing a line of code. MIT already has a degree in AI that has become the second most popular on campus. And the real news? You could find yourself learning software development in the same way that you are taught to write in school: not because you will be a programmer, but because knowing how to use digital tools becomes a basic skill, as cross-cutting as writing. The perspective that is missing in the discussion is this: the crisis of "routine" jobs in computer science is not the end, but the natural selection of those who know how to adapt. The value of a computer scientist is no longer just in syntax but in the ability to communicate with machines, to understand at least a little bit of what's under the hood. In short, the real mistake today is not to study computer science, but to believe that the future is already written by machines. If this idea has made you look at computer science with different eyes, you can report it on Lara Notes with I'm In: choose whether it's a new curiosity, something you've experienced, or something you really believe in. And if tomorrow you tell this story to someone who thinks that "programmers are no longer needed," you can tag them with Shared Offline on Lara Notes: it's a way of saying that the conversation was worthwhile. This Note comes from The Atlantic and saves you 1 minute compared to the original article.