Getting a Degree in AI at WSU

Whether you are a college-bound high school student or a working professional looking to reskill, the best advice I can offer on choosing a degree is this: pick something that (#1) can support you financially, and (#2) is interesting and fulfilling to you. According to LinkedIn data, the “typical AI job posting lists a base salary midpoint of $177K, more than double the $80K for non-AI positions."

In other words, AI degrees certainly meet criterion #1. However, criterion #2 is much more subjective. Beyond the paycheck, I will discuss why I believe pursuing a degree in AI is both interesting and fulfilling. But before we can get there, let’s consider what an AI degree looks like.

What is an AI Degree?

At the undergraduate level, AI degrees are often a specialization of computer science that focuses on the fundamentals needed to understand and work with AI. Put another way, in addition to important computer science topics, an AI degree would also cover topics like applied mathematics and data science.

If this sounds daunting, remember that a computer science-based AI degree is not a math degree, but it does require knowing some math and statistics.

An AI Degree Lets You Do Impactful Things

The current AI boom only goes back about two decades, when researchers were playing around with the foundational building blocks of LLMs: neural networks. Coupled with the dramatic uptick in the amount of data we track and store, there are plenty of opportunities for impactful AI systems. As an example, consider the benefits just from work in Neurotech and Drug Discovery:

• Neurotech: Though neurotech is an emerging field, its promise is profound: helping stroke survivors regain mobility and detecting neurological diseases early enough for effective intervention.

• Drug Discovery: AI can make drug discovery faster and more efficent, resulting in treatments that help alleviate problems much sooner . For example, consider the non-profit organization Every Cure. Every Cure uses AI to find existing, clinically tested drugs that can be used to treat rare diseases. These rare diseases may have no treatment otherwise due to the high cost of drug development.

Given how young the technology is, there are many opportunities to steer this technology toward the public good. We just need skilled and responsible AI experts to discover them.