Forget the STEM safety net. Peter Thiel warns AI is a bigger threat to technical roles than to creative thinkers

3 weeks ago 3

During the 2010s, coding took the spotlight as one of the most desired skills in the job market. The coding craze spread quickly, with parents badgering their kids to drop the English major and opt for a STEM degree. Even former President Barack Obama urged people to learn to code; Obama also became the first president to write a line of code as part of the “Hour of Code”—an online event to promote Computer Science Education Week.

On the flip side of this phenomenon, English and liberal arts majors became subjects of scrutiny, some dubbing them “barista” degrees in the belief that pursuing those majors would inevitably confine one to a job at a coffee shop, assuming such degrees have limited career prospects.

But the insurgence of AI is actually upending those assumptions. That’s at least what Palantir cofounder and billionaire Peter Thiel thinks. In a resurfaced clip from a 2024 interview with economist Tyler Cowen, Thiel said the odds are falling out of favor for STEM folks.

“It seems much worse for the math people than the word people,” he said.