Father of Lobster Claude Gets Banned, Officials Say: System Misjudged

AI anxiety and a “quit CS” trend

A wave of posts and comment threads in China’s tech forums has turned into a surprising social meme: "劝退计算机" — urging students away from computer science. The trigger is clear. It has been reported that Anthropic, the US AI firm behind the Claude model, published a March 5 report estimating that Claude can cover roughly 75% of routine programmers' daily tasks. Is compute education suddenly obsolete? Forum reactions suggest many graduates and junior engineers are worried, even as demand for AI talent shifts rapidly.

What practitioners on the ground are saying

ifeng (凤凰网) compiled interviews from nine industry discussion groups, and the picture is mixed. Some algorithm engineers at autonomous-driving firms say hiring now favors large-model and Agent expertise, with top talent commanding rising pay; ordinary CS grads or traditional algorithm engineers without model-training experience may struggle. Back-end and research staff argue companies still prefer hires with a computing background because that training improves AI literacy and problem decomposition. Front-end engineers in smaller cities report fewer roles and lower pay, while engineers at multinational firms reportedly use Claude, Copilot and other AI tools extensively to speed development and even automate parts of the workflow.

Skills, seniority and geopolitics matter

Several interviewees told ifeng that the new economy rewards different strengths: prompt design, product thinking, security, compliance and systems-level judgment. Senior engineers with architectural experience may gain an edge because AI accelerates execution but cannot replace engineering intuition. Geopolitics is also relevant. Export controls on high-end chips and tighter model- and data‑sharing rules have reportedly nudged Chinese companies toward homegrown models and reshaped which technical roles are strategic. The result: faster transformation, but uneven employment outcomes across regions and job tiers.

Reality check for students and employers

China is still churning out computing graduates — reportedly more than 600,000 in 2025 — and computing remains one of the country’s hottest majors. Blindly following the panic is unwise. Multiple interviewees argued that a computing education builds systems thinking and logical rigor that remains useful across industries, whether in product design, AI oversight, or entrepreneurship. The takeaway: the jobs will change, not vanish. The smarter question is which skills to pair with a CS foundation, and how institutions and employers will adapt to an AI‑augmented labor market.