Computer science enrollment fell for the first time in 20 years after ChatGPT's rise, a Stanford economist says (www.businessinsider.com)

For the first time in nearly two decades, computer science enrollment in U.S. colleges has declined, coinciding with the rise of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, according to a study by Stanford economist Jacob Light. The National Student Clearinghouse reported an 8.1% drop in undergraduate enrollment in Computer and Information Sciences for the 2025-26 academic year, which raises questions about how the rapid advancements in AI are influencing student interest in this field. Light emphasized that while the timing may suggest a correlation, the data does not definitively link AI's emergence to the decline. The decline comes after a substantial increase in computer science graduates over the past decade, with degrees awarded more than doubling from around 56,000 in 2014 to approximately 122,000 in 2024. Light posits that the decrease could stem from multiple factors, including changing expectations about the value of computer science skills due to AI's capabilities in automating tasks traditionally performed by human engineers. This situation highlights a potential shift in students' perceptions of their career prospects in tech, necessitating further observation to determine if this trend is a short-term anomaly or indicative of a broader reevaluation of computer science as a field of study.