Hassabis says STEM makes you 10x better at AI

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says AI is changing tech careers, but not erasing the value of a STEM degree. Speaking at a London business conference in a video published on Wednesday, Hassabis argued that people with strong technical foundations will get far more out of AI tools than those without them, according to Business Insider.

“You absolutely needed to lean into STEM and computer science.”

Hassabis described AI as the next programming language, following machine code, C, and Python. In his view, the interface of the future may be plain English. But that shift does not remove the need for core software knowledge.

“You’re still going to need to know about architecting things and best software engineering practices.”

He went further, saying deep technical expertise creates a major advantage when using AI.

“Those people who understand the deep technical, they’ll be able to use these tools 10 times more effectively than people who don’t have that technical knowledge.”

Hassabis also argued for the continued importance of the humanities, naming fields such as philosophy and economics as especially relevant to the world AI is creating.

Recommended reading

Moonshot’s Kimi K3 sparks new China AI buzz

The comments add to a broader pushback against the idea that so-called vibe coding makes computer science degrees obsolete. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of AI,” told Business Insider in December that a mid-level programming job “is not going to be a career for much longer, because AI can do that.” Even so, he said a computer science degree remains valuable far beyond coding and should stay useful “for quite a long time.”

Affirm chief Max Levchin has made a similar argument, saying computer science fundamentals are what separate good code from “garbage.” Microsoft president Brad Smith and others have also offered similar reassurance to graduates worried about what AI means for their careers.