Source: The New York Times
The expansion from five AI majors in 2021 to 74 today—with another dozen in development—reflects institutional validation of AI as a permanent discipline rather than a passing technical fad. Universities are competing for enrollment and faculty credibility in this domain. The speed of curricular change matters because academic programs typically face multi-year approval cycles, suggesting either stripped-down workflows or genuine institutional urgency to capture talent and funding before peer institutions do. The open question is whether these programs produce practitioners who advance the field meaningfully, or primarily serve as credential mills that absorb student tuition while employers still hire from CS departments and tech bootcamps.