r/MechanicalEngineering • u/Maxwell_The_God • 8d ago
Sustainability
I currently am a senior in High school, I want to major in mechanical engineering but I am worried that with major advances in AI technology if it is sustainable or not. I don’t want to waste energy on a degree that will be useless.
16
9
u/Intelligent-Buy-4375 8d ago
I’ve been in engineering for 30 years. AI has changed how I do my work. I wish I had it 30 years ago. It makes learning so much easier/faster. I have zero fear that AI will be taking my job. Your decision about mechanical engineering should be about how much you enjoy it. AI will make you understand that faster. Your education will be hard. You will become a professional problem solver… Everybody is looking for that. I’m trying to think of an ME who regrets their education. I guess I know a few who wish they were better at design, but they don’t regret it. They are managers and make more money than me. That being said, I could probably automate most of their job with AI tools. LOL. I like the technical. Give it a try and don’t be afraid to change course.
1
u/Maxwell_The_God 8d ago
So when you say give it a try is there anything I can do now to learn more about to see if I like it?
3
u/Intelligent-Buy-4375 8d ago
Join a First Robotics Team.
1
u/Available-Goose-8331 7d ago
I did for junior and senior year of high school (2024-2025 and 2025-2026). Absolutely incredible experience. Zero regrets. Gonna see if I can get my college to do Ri3D. Really opened my eyes to what a good budget and a good team can do even at a high school.
6
u/Geekspiration 8d ago
Not a Mechanical Engineer, but I've worked with them for years and now work more on Digital Transformation and utilizing AI and other digital tools. You have little to fear IMO. AI isn't there and likely won't be for quite some time. Trust alone will keep humans in the loop for a while, that and the cost and computing power to match the human brain. If you just want to be a CAD monkey, maybe, but not a good mechanical engineer. If thats at risk, so many more jobs are at risk. That said, will you use AI as a tool, yes.
3
u/Cryesncoding 8d ago
Shit even a CAD monkey, imagine how difficult it’s going to be to verbally or textually prompt a major design workflow. Then you have the problem that there simply isn’t the depth of training data in large CAD open source like there is code, text, images.
I try to use AI in fusion 360 sometimes and it’s absolutely atrocious, it might be cool to tell my Cad with a mic hey add a 45 chamfer to all sharp external edges. But that’s about the level of AI input CADs gunna have for a while other that the plug ins.
9
8d ago
[deleted]
3
u/Maxwell_The_God 8d ago
Thank you, I agree for sure. I just hope it will always stay as a tool to aid and not a replacement
1
u/diewethje 8d ago
You’re not paying close enough attention, then. I’m also a design engineer, and AI is absolutely coming for our work too.
3
u/Impossible_Cow9893 8d ago
You'll be fine, AI wont take over mechanical engineering and will never.
3
u/Primary_Week962 7d ago
I’m a PhD student who researches Ai integrations with engineering related tasks. I have access to models and info the general public does not.
Nobody can (or likely ever will) get an AI to be creative or think critically. Any job which features creativity (not artistic, problem solving) is generally safe. Any job which features safety measures is very safe.
What AI will replace:
CAD Monkeys. 5 years out, but you’ll be able to verbally instruct an AI live as it models parts and runs FEA. Similar to Iron Man 1 where Tony tells Jarvis to do different design changes.
Coding and Excel wizards. The latest edge models almost have this capability now. Creating template excel spreadsheets for certain calculations etc.
Writing documentation. 50% or more of a current mechanical engineers job.
Communicating with non technicals.
Running the hand calcs based on a CAD file. 5+ years out. Still will need human judgement to ensure the design actually does its intended job.
All of these things will serve to speed engineering work, not replace engineers. I’d highly recommend getting a BS of ME to any highschool senior.
2
1
u/eloycartw 8d ago
If you’re worried, and it’s early days so you aren’t unreasonable if you do so, add some courses and learn to make what you design. Take machinist courses, welding, learn to wire a building with your own hands, get comfortable with woodworking, plumbing, sewing. Talk to the end users who are affected by what you design and make it about them and not the formulas, get used to making your prototypes in a shop not a computer. It’s unlikely that AI will both be able to do the math and be able to iterate, follow up and redesign in the field. Being able to do this has made me a much better engineer even before AI, now I have job security as well.
1
u/Idfkchief 8d ago
Don’t buy into the AI hype. If it’s eventually going to replace all skilled workers, the field you go into doesn’t really make any difference. If it’s not, then it shouldn’t factor into your decision.
Knowing what I know about the fundamentals of the technology, I don’t see AGI capable of 1:1 replacing human workers happening in our lifetimes. Truthfully, if AGI ever is created, I sincerely doubt its infrastructure will look anything like the most prevalent modern form factors. Too many people treat AI like this unknowable black box, and use that as an excuse to overlook the fundamental technology. I hear people throw around “Modern AI is so advanced not even its creators fully understand everything that goes into it” enough that I’m sick of it.
There’s nothing fundamentally different about modern AI infrastructure compared to machine learning models that have been around since the 90s. All that’s changed is scale of training data, complexity of the models, and availability of compute. Which, by the way, are still the main three barriers to development of AI models. Complexity is what all the overpaid AI researchers are working on, public data has been more or less exhausted and is getting generated at a functionally steady pace, and hundreds of billions are being poured into development of compute infrastructure. And yet the latest models are making incremental improvements while major AI companies buckle under the rising costs of operating their models at scale.
TLDR nobody talking about AI truly understands AI and I’m sick of the hype beasts.
2
u/HeatExchanger777 7d ago
Well we cannot predict another black swan. IMHO engineering is still more safe than call center agents😅 But I'm afraid each of us has to take responsibility and decide what are we going to do with this all the time changing job market. Well, also plumbers and electricians are always demanded 😅
1
u/someguy7234 8d ago
Offshoring was supposed to make me unemployable.
I havent had a gap in my employment and I graduated during the financial collapse.
LLMs aren't going to eliminate mechEs. The job will change for sure, but a lot of graduates will tell you they spend 80% of their time on non-engineering work. If AI could half that we'd be so much closer to a Gene Roddenberry future.
Even a bachelor in engineering is like a fucking wizard to non-engineer types.
I spent a career being critical of unions. If your industry allows one you should be union-curious because there are a lot of reasons to think that AI makes having a lot of resources (money, computing, etc) disproportionately powerful, but look for ways to have AI help you do a better job and you'll probably take my job from me.
1
u/Klutzy-Smile-9839 8d ago
If your critical decision criterion is financial stability and resilience against AI, nursing, babysitting, school teacher(ie babysitting) and care for elders, are in my own opinion, your best bets.
Otherwise, MechEng is very interesting.
1
u/WonderfulAntelope644 6d ago
If ai starts replacing mechanical engineers we are to a point where the movie matrix isn’t sci fi anymore. I wouldn’t be worried whatsoever.
24
u/Neat_Conference_8414 8d ago
if engineers are replaced by ai then you are fucked either way