An anonymous person went viral after sharing their experience of completing two internships at Fortune 500 companies on Reddit. The person admitted they heavily relied on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to generate 80% of their work. The post raised concerns about the future of computer science jobs.
“I’ve had two internships under my belt. At 2 Fortune 500 companies,” a Redditor began in a lengthy post shared on October 6 in the “csMajors” community.
Highlights
- An intern used ChatGPT for 80% of his work in Fortune 500 internships.
- The use of ChatGPT raises concerns about the future of computer science jobs.
- The intern felt unqualified despite his success, crediting AI assistance.
- AI is seen as a potential threat to traditional computer science degrees.
- The job market could shift due to AI, making some tech roles obsolete.
Fortune 500 companies are the 500 largest corporations in the USA as ranked by total revenue, published annually by Fortune magazine.
Examples of Fortune 500 companies include Walmart, Amazon, Apple, ExxonMobil, and Berkshire Hathaway.
In the post, the Redditor revealed that they had attended a state school with a subpar computer science program and felt lucky to have landed two jobs for which they said they were “grossly unqualified,” thanks to strong connections and interviewing skills.
An anonymous person shared their experience of completing two internships at Fortune 500 companies on Reddit
Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko
Despite their efforts to teach themselves certain abilities, they recognized a lack of aptitude and passion for computer science.
“I tried my hardest to self-study to prepare for these internships, to overcome my lack of preparation from school or personal time, but simply was not very competent,” the original poster (OP) added. “I’m not the smartest guy out there.”
Although feeling incompetent, the OP revealed that they had succeeded in their internships and impressed employers.
They credited much of their success to using ChatGPT for 80% of their coding, acknowledging that while they had communicated effectively and understood coding practices, the ideas and solutions were not their own.
“I would often hammer at ChatGPT to rewrite the code until it reached my intended behavior,” the Redditor explained.
They continued: “I know enough, to know what’s bad code, good coding practices, and I’m an excellent communicator so was able to impress in 1on1s, team meetings, and company-wide presentations.
“However, none of the ideas were original or generated by my own intellect.”
The OP went on to express concern about their success, noting that their team members came from “excellent schools” such as Purdue University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.
The person admitted they heavily relied on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to generate 80% of their work
Image credits: Andriy Burkov
They also shared their fear that the rise of AI might signal a troubling future for the job market, as they stated: “I do not need a college degree at all to succeed at a computing job.
“In fact, since this is the first generation of AI, in a few years I highly doubt that we will need a human to succeed at 95% of coding jobs.
“Save for creating the AI itself, which will require immense intellect and actual computer science skills which I do not have. Am I delusional?”
The OP issued an update to their initial post, revealing that their “suspicions and fears” had been “confirmed.”
Image credits: luis gomes
The Redditor concluded: “I know the doomerism is [cliché] but if you are young just starting college and wanting to do [computer science], I would be highly cautious and wary because even as someone who did everything right.
“This degree isn’t what it used to be at all, and neither is the field. The degree has certainly not caught up to the field, for many decades.
“AI will be a revolution unlike the world has ever seen before.”
Andriy Burkov, an expert in AI, subsequently took to his LinkedIn page on October 7 to share the perturbing Reddit post.
As a result, a slew of people were left divided, as a LinkedIn user commented: “This is the fundamental disconnect when going from being a student to industry.
“You aren't rewarded in industry for your intellect, you are rewarded for your ability to drive results.”
The viral Reddit post raised concerns about the future of computer science jobs
Image credits: Christina Morillo
A person wrote: “I am doubtful organizations will bother to check where these codes come from as long as they work, produce the right outputs, and secure the best outcomes.
“Also, these organizations are not obliged to show these codes to outsiders.
“So, short of ethics, this practice will continue and become very entrenched as more [know] how to query the [Large language models].
“So, instead of trying to sanction this, maybe just recognize this as a skill and remunerate accordingly in the salaries.”
Someone else penned: “99% of what you do, or what great idea you have, has already been had by someone else, someone smarter than you (in that moment), a long time ago.
“All GPT has done, is provide a far more convenient interface for identifying those solutions,” a netizen shared. “Getting a code answer from ChatGippity is the same as searching for a few hours (or minutes) on stackoverflow, or referring to a book.
“Its knowledge [is distilled] into an interface that is easy to search.”
Image credits: Tim Gouw
A separate individual chimed in: “Let’s not demonize technology, let’s embrace it for how it helps the average person become a bit more exceptional.”
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue, Tech Target explains.
The language model can respond to questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code, and emails.
While AI can provide valuable support, concerns have emerged about ChatGPT and similar technologies causing job displacement, particularly in fields like coding, content creation, and customer service.
According to Business Insider, the work positions most at risk of being replaced by AI include the following: tech jobs (coders, computer programmers, software engineers, and data analysts); media jobs (advertising, content creation, technical writing, and journalism); legal industry jobs (paralegals and legal assistants); market research analysts; teachers; finance jobs (financial analysts and personal financial advisors); traders; graphic designers; accountants; and customer service agents.
The Reddit post continued to ignite differing responses
