[bonoboTP]

Yes. Many surgeons also want to get all the sweet prestige and feel like demigods among the mortals and don't all necessarily get an intrinsic excitement from sawing those bones.

It's fine to want money. Who are we to judge someone who sets the goal of getting a good job, looks into upcoming fields that pay well and then applies to a university to spend years studying it. It's perfectly fine and rational. In free tuition countries this may be someone from a lower economic class, crawling out of their situation.

It's legit and okay not to be a wunderkind from age 2 who built computers with his dad from the get go in order to be eligible to study CS or AI. Of course once they are in, they have to go along with the program.

But I get annoyed with this gatekeeping attitude that only us nerds are worthy to learn AI. If you are smarter and put more effort in, you don't have to become bitter, there is nothing to fear, you will be able to demonstrate your expertise and will still get good jobs, even if there is a bigger supply of the those who are only in it for the money.

[ForHackernews]

It's not a criticism, really (there's nothing wrong with wanting a job) but parent comment was asking why an academic field is being balkanized into a variety of specialized trade school topics, and that's why: to try and produce graduates who are immediately employable in the technology du jour.

[bonoboTP]

Yes, on the other hand it's often the case that those chasing the jobs in the hyped sector can get caught in phony parts. They can be easier to sway and ultimately be milked more, than those who are on a more stable footing. It seems often to be the case that such specialized new programs get a cohort of students with this attitude, whey want results and have a "teach me" mindset with poor average grades across the studentship. This in turn makes the uni reduce the difficulty and in depthness of the program compared to the traditional CS program of the same university.