Yann LeCun, former Meta AI chief and Godfather of AI teaches computer science at New York University (NYU). During a recent podcast appearance, LeCun joked that he is a computer science professor who argues against studying computer science. Explaining what he meant, he later told Business Insider (BI) that he was not asking students to avoid a computer science major. Instead, he said that students should focus more on core subjects such as maths, physics, and electrical engineering, rather than spending too much time on taking courses based on short-term technology trends. In an email, LeCun told the publication that if computer science students don’t spend their time wisely, they ‘may find out their degree doesn’t add up’.
What Yann LeCun said on the podcast
During his appearance on “The Information Bottleneck” podcast, LeCun said “What we should do is learn kind of basic things in mathematics, in modeling, mathematics that can be connected with reality”. “You tend to learn this kind of stuff in engineering in some schools that’s linked with computer science, but sort of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, et cetera”, he added.Interestingly, LeCun revealed during the conversation that he himself was not a CS engineer. Instead, he studied electrical engineering at ESIEE in Paris before earning a Ph.D. CS from Sorbonne Université in 1987. “Engineering disciplines, you know, in the US, you learn Calculus 1, 2, 3 that gives you a good basis, right?” he said. “In computer science, you can get away with just Calculus 1. That’s not enough, right?”
Adding further, LeCun said “Obviously, you need to learn enough computer science to kind of program and use computers”. “And even though AI is going to help you be more efficient at programming, you still need to know how to do this,” he said.
Yann LeCun’s advice to young students
Yann LeCun’s advice to young students: “learn things with a long shelf life”.“My recommendation was not to avoid CS as a major but to take the maximum number of courses on foundations (e.g. math, physics, or EE courses) rather than take courses on the trendy technology du jour,” LeCun said. “If you are a CS major and take the minimum required math courses for a typical CS curriculum, you might find yourself unable to adapt to major technological shifts,” the former Meta AI scientist told BI.Yann LeCun’s advice echoes with other tech leaders like OpenAI‘s Bret Taylor and Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton who have stressed that young engineers must learn critical skills beyond coding.
