Programs Need help deciding what to major in.... Want a career in AI

[Tri]

I wanted to study physics when I was younger... took physics in high school and didn't enjoy it at all... kinematics is boring. And now when I look at physics subjects it's not as interesting as it used to be... like optics and waves(yawn) only thing that truly interested is astrophysics which everyone is interested in.

I've wanted to study AI my whole life though but there's no clear path to studying it. I've also recently found a new love for maths. Other fields I like are economics... entrepreneurial things since I've started a couple businesses at a young age and also like stocks and trading. I was planning on majoring in compsci but now I have all these things I want to study I'm not sure what to do... I also like philosophy/cogsci

I'm either going to double major cs/math or cs/econ... What do you guys think? Mainly want to get into AI

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

If you want to get into AI then you wouldn't want to spend your time in Econ classes right? :)

 

[micromass]

You shouldn't only think about what you love studying, but also at what kind of job you want to do later on. For example, studying philosophy will make it very hard on you to find a good job. Studying computer science will make it easy to find a job, but maybe those are not the type of jobs you want. So you'll need to elaborate on this.

 

[Hercuflea]

I think there is a clear path...a CS major with a minor in statistics would be an excellent preparation for a career in AI.

 

[StatGuy2000]

To the OP:

If your primary interest is ultimately in pursuing research or a career in AI, then the clearest path would be to pursue either a CS major, or a double major in CS and math, with further graduate studies in CS. In either case, it is also highly advisable to take probability and statistics courses (as both play key roles in various areas within machine learning and AI).

As to taking courses in philosophy or cognitive science -- a number of CS majors that I personally know of took courses in these areas as electives, so perhaps pursuing a minor in these areas may not necessarily be a bad idea. My suggestion would be to take a few select courses and see where to go from there.

 

[Delong]

maybe computer engineering that sounds pretty related I think.

 

[chiro]

Hey Tri.

A CS/Math combination sounds like a good combination - particularly if you make the mathematics part statistics (as opposed to pure or applied mathematics).

Most of what AI really is about is applied statistics and you will need to balance that with the actual computer science and programming side of things.

I'd recommend looking at how strong the statistics and computer science courses are and seeing if they are strong enough to prepare you for later work.