Colleges Want Students to Sign Up for Degree Programs in This Emerging Field: ‘We’re Basically the Test Subjects’

AI degrees are no longer confined to select universities. 

In 2021, only five colleges in the U.S. offered an undergraduate major focused on AI. Now the field is expanding so quickly that even the experts cataloging these programs are having trouble keeping pace, The New York Times reported earlier this week. Researchers at Northeastern University’s Center for Inclusive Computing estimate that students can already choose from at least 74 AI majors and 89 minors on U.S. campuses. 

The wave is still building. At least a dozen additional institutions, many of them far outside Silicon Valley’s orbit, are preparing to roll out their own AI majors this year. The Times noted that the rapid growth captures both the hype surrounding the technology and higher education’s ambition to prove it has a central role in an AI-driven future. 

The goal is to help colleges and students stay relevant as AI changes the global job market. The new degrees, however, look very different from campus to campus. Some go deep into how AI actually works, while others focus on using AI tools in practice. No one knows how graduates with these degrees will fare as employers adjust their hiring needs. 

Uzezi Olorunmola is counting on AI skills being in demand. He is pursuing his doctorate in AI from the University of North Dakota. 

“Some call it a bubble. Maybe it is,” Olorunmola told the Times. “But I think it’s pretty much here to stay, and the earlier you not only get with the program but also know how to use AI or use AI applications, I think it’s better. We’re basically the test subjects.”

AI curriculum requirements

Colleges are rushing so quickly into AI that they are starting to challenge the old idea that universities move slowly. At the same time, this rush has raised a new worry: Are schools prioritizing buzz over real depth?

“We have to be careful: Is it glitz or is it substance?” Andrew Armacost, president of the University of North Dakota, told the Times. At his school, eight students enrolled in a new AI Ph.D. program this past year.

The reality often depends heavily on the campus. At many institutions, the AI curriculum closely mirrors that of computer science, with only a few extra classes setting the new degrees apart, the Times reports. 

Some universities are creating AI programs heavily focused on theory, aiming to graduate students who can design and refine the systems behind AI. One example is Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, which became the first U.S. college to launch a dedicated AI major in 2018. Today, students in that program can choose from 33 approved courses for the major. 

Meanwhile, North Dakota State University said in a statement to the State Board of Higher Education this year that interest in a dedicated AI major is “strong and growing,” while options in the region remain scarce, per the Times. The university projected that an undergraduate AI program could enroll about 60 students within five years.