[arjunrko]

Short answer: no, stick with the CS degree. A downturn or an LLM headline doesn’t erase the long‑run return on mastering how information actually moves through silicon. The coursework forces you to think in abstractions that outlive any single tool - memory models, distributed consensus, algorithmic trade‑offs. Those are the levers you’ll pull whether you are debugging a flaky startup backend or bolting an AI copilot onto a Fortune 500 workflow.

What changes is how you package that foundation. Sprinkle in some applied AI electives, tinker with open‑source models, learn to measure and mitigate their failure modes. Pair that with product sense from the incubator project, and you are not the engineer AI is replacing—you are the engineer shipping AI safely and profitably. That combination buys you optionality, which is the real stability you want for a future family.