UC San Diego, Stanford lead California’s AI degree push

UC San Diego began offering undergraduate degrees in artificial intelligence this school year after Stanford launched the first AI bachelor’s degree in California in 2020. UC San Diego says its new AI major was shaped by demand for core “core technologies,” an

At UC San Diego, the idea of a degree in artificial intelligence is no longer a concept—it’s a schedule.

Christine Antonie. 18. a freshman at UC San Diego. is part of the first cohort of undergraduate students pursuing a degree in AI.. She had spent years deciding between familiar pathways and a field that kept appearing everywhere online. only to find that in California. bachelor’s options were still scarce.. For her. the major is also personal: her mother worked for years as a principal applications developer. and her father built a career as a data and technical architect—both careers rooted in technology.

When Antonie was in her junior year of high school, she joined an online program called Inspirit AI.. Over three months. students worked in groups of five across 10 sessions to build a video program that analyzes photos of automobile drivers.. The project scanned drivers’ faces to evaluate their eyelines and the direction they were facing. and the program would notify students if the driver was deemed distracted.

“We made an AI model that would determine if (automobile) drivers were distracted or focused,” Antonie said. “I feel like seeing how you could use this in the real world really made me interested in AI.”

Now she is enrolled in UC San Diego’s AI major, which began this school year. In California, only a few colleges offer bachelor’s degrees in AI. Stanford was the first to do so in 2020, and UC San Diego followed last fall. USC is expected to debut in the fall as well.

UC San Diego began building its AI major in 2024.. When the application process opened in August, candidates began pouring in, creating a cohort of about 125 students.. Steven Swanson. chair of UC San Diego’s Computer Science Department. said the curriculum was shaped in part by multiple U.S.. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, including one that found a 7.5% increase in AI-based systems and other computer science-related industries.. He said the effort was also designed in response to what he described as student interest in newer “core technologies.”

“The major’s goal is to educate the programmers and software engineers of tomorrow,” Swanson said. “Those who will build the next generation of AI systems and to improve the foundations of the AI systems currently in use.”

But the major’s arrival hasn’t landed quietly.

Inside UC San Diego’s computer science ecosystem. Leena Banga. a freshman studying AI at UC San Diego. described an unspoken tension between students majoring in computer science and those in AI as the field begins to flood into the department.. Banga said she has received comments from other students such as. “That’s not real. ” with criticism aimed at the validity of her major and the skills the program can provide.

“[Banga said] there is this stigma around computer science students versus AI students,” she said. “Their reasoning behind criticizing us is that we’re not going to have any experience with the coding part, but we literally have to take a lot of the same classes that [computer science majors] do.”

Banga pointed to university policy as the source of that friction. Under the current policy, only students admitted to UC San Diego as AI majors are eligible for the AI program. She said the policy itself—rather than the idea of AI—often fuels the criticism.

Swanson acknowledged that some current computer science students want to switch majors. but he said policy limits transfers into the AI major for now.. The university website says the policy is subject to change in the fall.. Swanson said that while the courses for AI majors are available for computer science students. AI majors have priority for registration.

He also argued that the major doesn’t sit outside computer science—it overlaps deeply.

“The core lower division and core upper division courses for the computer science major and the AI major overlap in significant and important ways,” Swanson said. “So the two majors share a lot of DNA.”

To help expand access beyond the students who enter already labeled as AI majors. Mia Minnes. vice chair of UC San Diego’s computer science department. said UC San Diego has been working with community colleges to develop lower-division AI courses and create smoother transfer pathways.. Minnes said this is ongoing work to ensure that community college courses can articulate to the corresponding classes for UC San Diego’s majors. so that transfer students have strong pathways.

The state’s plans go beyond UC San Diego.

In September. the California State University (CSU) system approved new AI degrees to be released in the upcoming years. with San Diego State launching a program in the fall.. And in a move that will bring the total number of options closer to what high school students like Antonie were hoping for. USC will begin offering AI degrees in the fall with a class of 30 students.

Erik Johnson. vice dean for academic programs at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering. said the major will start with small enrollments to test the program and address potential problems in the curriculum.. Johnson said USC has been planning for an AI major for three years. and he said faculty and researchers drew inspiration and expertise from other majors. including computer science. electrical and computer engineering. and industrial and systems engineering.

Johnson said he believes schools offering AI degrees will achieve successful outcomes with their students.

At UC San Diego, Antonie’s transition hasn’t been without uncertainty. She said she was disappointed by the lack of options in California when she chose AI, and she was unsure what to expect from the brand-new program and its professors.

“I couldn’t even ask people older than me to ask how it is, so I kind of had to assume and go with the flow,” Antonie said.

Part of the question for a new program is always what it will mean socially inside departments. Swanson said AI majors will need to build their reputation within other programs, and he hopes students across the department will take an AI class and realize how much they enjoy it.

The push for AI education is also shaping family conversations.

Antonie said she was unsure whether her parents would be hurt or upset that she had chosen a different path—an AI-fueled path. She said, instead, they were supportive.

“[My parents] were really happy. they obviously at first wanted me to be a computer science major because they were. ” Antonie said.. “But they realized how much AI is evolving and then really wanted me to be an AI major.. I think for the future we’ll be presented with a lot of opportunities since this is such a growing field.

“AI will definitely not be going away anytime soon because it’s so integrated into society.”

By this fall, more students will be asked to do what Antonie is doing now—step into a major that was not there before, and decide whether it feels like the right home for their future.

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