AI’s squeeze on entry-level jobs is forcing a rethink of our education system
BY MOST accounts, it’s an employer’s market out there. Big Tech is cutting jobs, while mid-sized and smaller companies are cautious, given the uncertain economic climate. Even if they hire, many do so selectively – with a strong preference for specialised skills or experience.
Which puts fresh graduates in a bit of a bind, since the majority of them most likely lack both. But that is only the beginning of their troubles, as they face formidable challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI).
These challenges are multi-faceted. As cost-conscious companies turn to AI – as part of their quest to digitalise and improve productivity – they are more likely to use AI for tasks that used to be handled by junior staff. Think simple coding and market research.
At the same time, the rapid pace of technological progress is also likely to render their skills – that they’ve just picked up in university – obsolete more quickly. Last month, a senior career coach at tech education firm General Assembly told me the company has seen a growing number of fresh graduates attending its bootcamps.
Imagine coming fresh out of university and being told immediately that your skills are already obsolete.
All this just adds a touch of tragic irony to their fervour for using AI to do their homework – since the very proliferation of AI tools is also what’s hastening their own irrelevance. But this isn’t something they can reverse anyway, even if they stopped relying on AI.
Rather, the point here is that the impact of AI is arguably more profound in the education sector than any other industry, since this is about nurturing the future of the young.
The question is how can education keep pace with AI, and more importantly, how do we remain “smarter” than AI while improving the lot of the next generation? These questions are somewhat reminiscent of what we faced about 15 to 20 years ago, as the use of Google proliferated, and people were worried the increasing reliance on the search engine would have adverse cognitive consequences.
In 2011, US researchers coined the term “Google effect” – later also called digital amnesia – when they found that we are more likely to forget things that we believe can be found online.
If the idea that human memory has adapted to new technologies is unnerving, then perhaps it’s time to press the panic button for AI – while we still can. We don’t yet know the long-term effects of AI on learning, but recent research has shown that AI use can lead to a homogenisation of ideas, when people rely on AI-generated suggestions without question. In other words, AI tools may ultimately hinder creativity and independent thinking.
Most educators are aware their students use AI – it’s pretty rife these days – and this underscores the urgent need for a serious rethinking of our education system, if not a complete overhaul. The way students are tested has to change as well, not least because it is almost meaningless to assess them based on information regurgitated from a large language model.
In this post-truth society, learning to discern real from fake is more important than ever – especially as the rapid growth of AI would compound the dangers of AI hallucination.
And no matter how society progresses, critical thinking skills will remain timeless and are ultimately what will define our humanity.
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