
Ask HN: AI more of Math or CS? - mnafees
Hello, I am a University of Waterloo undergrad doing his second term and I am enrolled in the Honours Mathematics programme. After my first year (this term), I have to either choose a Major or I can transfer to CS. AI really interests me and someone told me that you either use AI or create AI. I want to help create AI and I am utterly confused if AI is more of Math or CS. During several employer information sessions, some employers say that stay in Math while some say that one should switch to CS. I recently read [1] and I am even more confused now. What are your opinions on this?<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;12&#x2F;01&#x2F;facebooks-advice-to-students-interested-in-artificial-intelligence&#x2F;
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mindcrime
Double major?

Seriously though, there are definitely elements of both involved in AI, but I
don't know that there's much going on in AI that involves math beyond what
you'd get in a typical C.S. curriculum anyway. And if you're worried about
that, you could always go with a "major in C.S. and take as many maths
electives as possible" strategy.

As noted in the linked FB thing, the key things you want are: "Calc I, Calc
II, Calc III, Linear Algebra, (and) Probability and Statistics".

There's nothing to stop you from getting all of those while majoring in C.S.
And here's the thing - the "other" stuff you get in C.S. will empower you in
terms of programming and - for now - programming is how you do "experiments"
in AI/ML.

As for majoring in Mathematics... I don't think it can ever _hurt_ to have too
much math, and I wish I'd taken more maths classes in my own past. But I
haven't seen much evidence to suggest that you'll use a lot of, say, complex
analysis, or measure theory, or group theory in studying AI/ML. Note that
that's not to say that I'm 100% (or even 2%) confident that you'd _never_ need
those things. Given that measure theory is strongly related to probability,
for example, it wouldn't shock me if some knowledge in that area did indeed
prove useful somehow. But by and large, it seems to be the case that the core
math needed really is Calculus, Linear Algebra and Probability/Statistics.

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mnafees
Thanks for such an elaborate explanation. And yes, we do take Calculus, Linear
Algebra and Stats as part of the CS curriculum.

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james_niro
Can you do a dual degree or one minor another one major?

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mnafees
Yes, there's an option to do a CS Minor here. But the thing is that I am more
of a coding kind of person and I don't really like Math that much.

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BillBohan
A math major is for people who just love math. I think you would be happier as
a CS major. You should take as much math as you reasonably can because much of
it will help in CS.

