Stephanie Hughes

You know, a lot of tech companies have said they'll need fewer workers in the future.

They'll just use artificial intelligence instead.

So are students kind of hearing that and responding accordingly?

I understand you've heard from colleges that say a decline in the number of international students coming to the U.S.

is a factor.

Tell me more about that.

While computer science majors are down, your survey found that computer engineering majors are up.

Tell me what the difference is between the two.

They want to actually, like, get in there and make things because the robots can't do that yet.

You're listening to Marketplace Tech.

I'm Stephanie Hughes.

We're back with Keri George, Senior Research Associate at the Nonprofit Computing Research Association.

I understand some colleges are starting to offer more specialized classes within the comp sci major that focus on AI.

Is this kind of a way of adapting to attract more students?

And we should say there are still over 600,000 undergrads studying computer and information science in the U.S.

This puts it in the top 10 majors in the country, like way above math and English and agriculture.

So how serious is this shift?

If we do have fewer people studying computer science, what could the implications be for the future?

What ramifications could that have for the larger economy?

Carrie George is with the Computing Research Association.