Amid mass layoff announcements, tech industry shows shifting employment

Last month, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced it would cut around 600 people from its artificial intelligence division. But the changes in the AI industry signal something larger than a worsening job market.

According to Axios, the layoffs affect Meta’s AI product, infrastructure and research team, yet its core innovation and development team, housing the recent elite recruits, will not be affected.

Marco Papa, senior lecturer in Computer Science at USC Viterbi, said the job cuts indicate that the industry is shifting focus from research to development. Furthermore, he added, to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies, higher education should equip computer science students with hands-on experience applying the latest tools, rather than focusing on academic research.

“Resistance is futile,” Papa quoted an iconic Star Trek phrase when commenting on the tech industry. “Watch what’s happening, maybe five years from now. If you resist it, you’ll be thrown out.”

This past summer, tech companies, including Meta, began a round of talent poaching. Mark Zuckerberg offered top researchers nine-figure compensation packages to join Meta’s AI labs. The recruitment supports the company’s development of “superintelligence,” aiming to create AI that surpasses the human brain.

But now, after igniting a talent war among industry leaders, Meta will cut around 600 jobs from its AI division.

Aryan Parab, a master’s student in computer science, said the lack of job security is concerning, so he is trying to familiarize himself with the cutting-edge skills that are in demand to enhance his competitiveness.

“I don’t think academically, what we are taught right now is what companies are looking for at this moment,” Parab said. “The industry is way ahead, and because of the new technology that came in the last two years, the curriculum can’t really catch up to that.”

After surging for many years, the nationwide demand for computer science degrees has declined each year since 2023, according to a MARKETview report.

“I think there are people who are now reevaluating their major,” Papa said. Faced with job-hunting challenges, he saw students considering a switch in career paths. To enhance his students’ skills, Papa encourages the use of AI to generate code in class, as it’s a current industry trend.

“Because if I don’t, I do a disservice to my students,” he said. “Which will lose what will be required by anybody who is actually involved in coding.”

Amid constant industry changes, some wish to expand their skill set into new areas. “The market is now super saturated with AI,” said Kidus Alemu, a master’s student learning AI and machine learning at Viterbi. “I want to try and get as much experience in hardware and all different types of domains, so I could be a lot more competitive.”

Nenad Medvidovic, chair of the Viterbi computer science department, wrote in a statement to Annenberg Media that the department constantly consults with the industrial advisory board to assess recent developments and update the curriculum, but making fundamental adjustments in response to rapid industrial changes is also challenging.

“On the one hand, we want to expose our students to the latest techniques and technologies; on the other hand, we must also teach them the fundamentals, which are still very important and relevant,” Medvidovic said.

Medvidovic also noted that the department will introduce a new course on Agentic AI, a system that can solve complex problems with minimal human input, for master’s students next fall.

By then, USC’s new undergraduate program in artificial intelligence will also have its first cohort.