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“Grossly Unqualified” Intern Generates 80% Of Work With ChatGPT, Lands Two Fortune 500 Gigs
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“Grossly Unqualified” Intern Generates 80% Of Work With ChatGPT, Lands Two Fortune 500 Gigs

“Not My Intellect”: Guilt-Ridden Intern Used ChatGPT To Nail Two Fortune 500 InternshipsViral Intern Lands Job At Fortune 500 Company After Generating 80% Of Work With ChatGPT“Unqualified” Intern Lands Job At Fortune 500 Company Despite Heavily Relying On ChatGPTIntern At Fortune 500 Company Used ChatGPT To Generate 80% Of Their Work Before Being HiredIntern Confesses To Using ChatGPT For Most Of Their Work, Sparks Debate About AI In Tech Jobs“None Of This Was My Work”: Intern Admits To Using ChatGPT To Nail Two Fortune 500 GigsAI Sparks Job Displacement Concerns After Intern Admits To Generating 80% Of Work With ChatGPT“None Of This Was My Work”: Intern Reveals How AI Helped Them Ace Two Prestigious Internships
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An anonymous person went viral after sharing their experience of completing two internships at Fortune 500 companies on Reddit. The person admitted they heavily relied on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to generate 80% of their work. The post raised concerns about the future of computer science jobs.

“I’ve had two internships under my belt. At 2 Fortune 500 companies,” a Redditor began in a lengthy post shared on October 6 in the “csMajors” community. 

Highlights
  • An intern used ChatGPT for 80% of his work in Fortune 500 internships.
  • The use of ChatGPT raises concerns about the future of computer science jobs.
  • The intern felt unqualified despite his success, crediting AI assistance.
  • AI is seen as a potential threat to traditional computer science degrees.
  • The job market could shift due to AI, making some tech roles obsolete.

Fortune 500 companies are the 500 largest corporations in the USA as ranked by total revenue, published annually by Fortune magazine.

Examples of Fortune 500 companies include Walmart, Amazon, Apple, ExxonMobil, and Berkshire Hathaway.

In the post, the Redditor revealed that they had attended a state school with a subpar computer science program and felt lucky to have landed two jobs for which they said they were “grossly unqualified,” thanks to strong connections and interviewing skills. 

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An anonymous person shared their experience of completing two internships at Fortune 500 companies on Reddit

Image credits: Tima Miroshnichenko

Despite their efforts to teach themselves certain abilities, they recognized a lack of aptitude and passion for computer science.

“I tried my hardest to self-study to prepare for these internships, to overcome my lack of preparation from school or personal time, but simply was not very competent,” the original poster (OP) added. “I’m not the smartest guy out there.”

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Although feeling incompetent, the OP revealed that they had succeeded in their internships and impressed employers

They credited much of their success to using ChatGPT for 80% of their coding, acknowledging that while they had communicated effectively and understood coding practices, the ideas and solutions were not their own.

“I would often hammer at ChatGPT to rewrite the code until it reached my intended behavior,” the Redditor explained. 

They continued: “I know enough, to know what’s bad code, good coding practices, and I’m an excellent communicator so was able to impress in 1on1s, team meetings, and company-wide presentations. 

“However, none of the ideas were original or generated by my own intellect.”

The OP went on to express concern about their success, noting that their team members came from “excellent schools” such as Purdue University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan.

The person admitted they heavily relied on artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, to generate 80% of their work

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Image credits: Andriy Burkov

They also shared their fear that the rise of AI might signal a troubling future for the job market, as they stated: “I do not need a college degree at all to succeed at a computing job. 

“In fact, since this is the first generation of AI, in a few years I highly doubt that we will need a human to succeed at 95% of coding jobs. 

“Save for creating the AI itself, which will require immense intellect and actual computer science skills which I do not have. Am I delusional?”

The OP issued an update to their initial post, revealing that their “suspicions and fears” had been “confirmed.”

Image credits: luis gomes

The Redditor concluded: “I know the doomerism is [cliché] but if you are young just starting college and wanting to do [computer science], I would be highly cautious and wary because even as someone who did everything right. 

“This degree isn’t what it used to be at all, and neither is the field. The degree has certainly not caught up to the field, for many decades. 

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“AI will be a revolution unlike the world has ever seen before.”

Andriy Burkov, an expert in AI, subsequently took to his LinkedIn page on October 7 to share the perturbing Reddit post.

As a result, a slew of people were left divided, as a LinkedIn user commented: “This is the fundamental disconnect when going from being a student to industry. 

“You aren’t rewarded in industry for your intellect, you are rewarded for your ability to drive results.”

The viral Reddit post raised concerns about the future of computer science jobs

Image credits: Christina Morillo

A person wrote: “I am doubtful organizations will bother to check where these codes come from as long as they work, produce the right outputs, and secure the best outcomes. 

“Also, these organizations are not obliged to show these codes to outsiders. 

“So, short of ethics, this practice will continue and become very entrenched as more [know] how to query the [Large language models]. 

“So, instead of trying to sanction this, maybe just recognize this as a skill and remunerate accordingly in the salaries.”

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Someone else penned: “99% of what you do, or what great idea you have, has already been had by someone else, someone smarter than you (in that moment), a long time ago.

“All GPT has done, is provide a far more convenient interface for identifying those solutions,” a netizen shared. “Getting a code answer from ChatGippity is the same as searching for a few hours (or minutes) on stackoverflow, or referring to a book. 

“Its knowledge [is distilled] into an interface that is easy to search.”

Image credits: Tim Gouw

A separate individual chimed in: “Let’s not demonize technology, let’s embrace it for how it helps the average person become a bit more exceptional.”

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that uses natural language processing to create humanlike conversational dialogue, Tech Target explains.

The language model can respond to questions and compose various written content, including articles, social media posts, essays, code, and emails.

While AI can provide valuable support, concerns have emerged about ChatGPT and similar technologies causing job displacement, particularly in fields like coding, content creation, and customer service.

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According to Business Insider, the work positions most at risk of being replaced by AI include the following: tech jobs (coders, computer programmers, software engineers, and data analysts); media jobs (advertising, content creation, technical writing, and journalism); legal industry jobs (paralegals and legal assistants); market research analysts; teachers; finance jobs (financial analysts and personal financial advisors); traders; graphic designers; accountants; and customer service agents.

The Reddit post continued to ignite differing responses

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Andréa Oldereide

Andréa Oldereide

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Andréa Oldereide

Andréa Oldereide

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I’m a journalist who works as Bored Panda’s News Team's Senior Writer. The news team produces stories focused on pop culture. Whenever I get the opportunity and the time, I investigate and produce my own exclusive stories, where I get to explore a wider range of topics. Some examples include: “Doberman Tobias the viral medical service dog” and “The lawyer who brought rare uterine cancer that affects 9/11 victims to light”. You've got a tip? email me: andrea.o@boredpanda.com

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Ugnė Lazauskaitė

Ugnė Lazauskaitė

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I am employed as a Visual Editor in the news team. I make sure you have the best pictures near the most interesting text. In general all day I am looking at all you favourite celebrities facies and I am geting payed for it!

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ABC no seven FCK CENSORING
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"The intern felt unqualified despite his success" - yeah, d'uh!? If I hire a brick layer to build some walls I'm supposed to do, I'm pretty certain I won't feel any more qualified at bricklaying afterwards. This "article" is utterly useless.

Bernd Herbert
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree with the comment saying the person used a tool. Would you complain that anyone who uses Excel didn't calculate numbers themselves?

BeesEelsAndPups
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it depends on what you want to get out of your internship. I've been a software engineer for more than 25 years. In the last 5 years I have seen a lot of Junior engineers get their first job, then it is quickly discovered that actually they don't know anything. They are eventually laid off after many chances, and find that they need to go back to school to learn a completely different trade. It is true that ChatGPT and its ilk can solve about 60% of engineering problems, and we as engineers use these tools today to make our jobs faster, so that we can spend our brain power resolving the other 40%. Generally, we give interns very simple problems to solve (the kind that can be solved by ChatGPT). This is because the point of the internship is to learn how to work through simple problems, so that you can be trusted to resolve harder problems. If you as an intern rely on AI to solve your problems, you are learning nothing. You will find that the job doesn't get easier going on.

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ABC no seven FCK CENSORING
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"The intern felt unqualified despite his success" - yeah, d'uh!? If I hire a brick layer to build some walls I'm supposed to do, I'm pretty certain I won't feel any more qualified at bricklaying afterwards. This "article" is utterly useless.

Bernd Herbert
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I agree with the comment saying the person used a tool. Would you complain that anyone who uses Excel didn't calculate numbers themselves?

BeesEelsAndPups
Community Member
2 weeks ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it depends on what you want to get out of your internship. I've been a software engineer for more than 25 years. In the last 5 years I have seen a lot of Junior engineers get their first job, then it is quickly discovered that actually they don't know anything. They are eventually laid off after many chances, and find that they need to go back to school to learn a completely different trade. It is true that ChatGPT and its ilk can solve about 60% of engineering problems, and we as engineers use these tools today to make our jobs faster, so that we can spend our brain power resolving the other 40%. Generally, we give interns very simple problems to solve (the kind that can be solved by ChatGPT). This is because the point of the internship is to learn how to work through simple problems, so that you can be trusted to resolve harder problems. If you as an intern rely on AI to solve your problems, you are learning nothing. You will find that the job doesn't get easier going on.

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