MSU Denver computer science students weigh in on AI and ‘volatile’ job market

DENVER — Last August, at first of the college 12 months, Denver7 interviewed computer science students at Metropolitan State University of Denver about being in the center of a significant shift due to synthetic intelligence.

They mentioned how AI was altering their courses, the job hunt and the business as a complete.

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This week, Denver7 adopted up with two of these students, each seniors now able to graduate.

They stated they’re seeing AI extra typically in faculty and are getting extra used to working with it.

“I still think it’s a tool, and I still think that there’s a lot of hype around it,” senior computer science main Monica Ball stated. “I believe that it may be helpful, however we must be considerate in our utility of it.”

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MSU Denver computer science students weigh in on AI and ‘risky’ job market

“I think when it comes to generating code with large language models… You’re losing some of the critical thinking and you’re not spotting bugs before they come up,” she added.

“Finding a balance, especially as a student, has been difficult,” senior fellow Angela Fleenor stated. “Because I want to, like, exercise my brain on the base materials and really figure out the concepts and, like, have a solid foundation. At the same time, I know if I use AI, I can do an assignment faster. And with time pressure, what it is sometimes, that’s the path I choose. And so I think I’ve been really intentional about thinking through, ‘What do I really need to learn?'”

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The students stated this 12 months, they’ve seen instructors change how they’re evaluating their courses, focusing extra on the method to get a solution quite than simply the reply alone.

“I’ve noticed some teachers give paper handouts now,” Ball stated. “They’re trying to make it harder for students to be able to just copy-paste something into an LLM [large language model]which is interesting. I’ve also noticed that some professors are being more thoughtful in their approach to layering a problem, to kind of force a student to think through it, instead of just skipping to the end.”

“The skills we need aren’t to write a line of code,” Fleenor added. “The skills we need are to see what the AI ​​gives us and evaluate the veracity and the quality of the information.”

Both Ball and Fleenor are evaluating their post-graduation plans, saying the job market is “crazy” and “volatile,” with plenty of hiring, firing and competitors for a restricted quantity of entry-level developer roles. But they stated they’re nonetheless optimistic concerning the future.

“I think our school, Metro, is doing a good job at adjusting to AI’s presence,” Fleenor stated. “I think the teachers are very responsive to what they’re seeing… One of our strengths is flexibility.”

“I am happy that I studied computer science, because it’s really fun and I really like it,” Ball stated. “And I think that the industry is so disrupted right now… [But] “I think it’s exciting to be on the cutting edge, and there will be new stuff to do, and I’m excited to do that.”