Artificial Intelligence and Liberal Arts

I feel like AI has become a controversial topic. I don’t know what you all have been seeing about skills needed to be successful in today’s AI world. I am hearing a lot of discussion within the college counseling world about the importance of skills that are typically taught in liberal arts and humanities curricula. With AI being able to do so many things, employers are going to be looking for people with the ability to collaborate, think critically, and communicate effectively. This is certainly not to say that STEM skills aren’t valuable, but I anticipate a resurgence of the liberal arts and sciences.

The day after I wrote this post, Jeff Selingo posted something very similar. You can click on the comments to see his great charts and the rest of his post, but here is part of it: 

Among graduates from the most Al-exposed majors, the likelihood of initial employment fell by 5% after ChatGPT was introduced, while initial earnings fell by 13%. The effects were especially concentrated among computer science, information systems, and other majors closely tied to software development.

There's an important caveat: this is early evidence. The researchers don't yet know how long these effects will last or whether graduates will eventually catch up. But it does raise a bigger question for colleges and students: Are we preparing people for the jobs that exist today-or for a labor market that may look very different by the time they graduate?

That's why the value of college can't simply be about preparing students for a particular job. It has to help them build the ability to learn, adapt, communicate, solve problems, and keep acquiring new skills as the economy changes.

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