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| Steve Jobs. CNBC |
"It's technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing."
—Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder
News about artificial intelligence (AI) and data centers is ever-present. Daily headlines and stories about OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), Nvidia, and others leave little time for the public and private sectors to understand what's really going on.
That may explain the one-year moratoriums on data center land sales and construction in the U.S. and other countries. A Gallup Poll found that more than seven in 10 voters, including large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans, said they wanted no such facility built near their homes.
Meanwhile, one observer said, "The American economy is hoping the boom doesn't go bust."
A cautionary transformation
In healthcare, artificial intelligence is revolutionizing diagnostic accuracy. It's fundamentally transforming software programming. The publishing industry is trying to balance creativity and ethical concerns. Amid a shrinking labor supply and growing AI-assisted cheating, companies are changing remote job interviews to ensure candidates are who they say they are.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Kellanova (formerly a part of the Kellogg Company) and Siemens spent four years using AI and digital twin technology (a live virtual copy of a real physical thing, place, or process) to make the perfect, uniform Pringles potato chip. This innovation comes as consumers eat fewer chips because of price increases and health concerns.
More than 40 million people globally use ChatGPT for health advice at least once every day, according to the chatbot's maker, OpenAI, mostly to check or explore symptoms. They also ask about everyday problem-solving and personal advice. Those chats aren't completely private, and deleting them doesn't always mean they're gone.
In August of this year, The Washington Post reported a dozen examples of chatbot conversations being swept into criminal and civil proceedings.
AI also has an expanding role in modern warfare.
What should be concerning about artificial intelligence?
In the immediate term, the literature points to a real-world loss of human accountability, transparency, and control over critical decisions.
"I don't worry about some dystopian future; I worry about the reality we have right now, and how we integrate the amazing possibilities of artificial intelligence into human-centered systems," says Dylan Losey, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech.
More than technology
What exactly is artificial intelligence?
Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, put it simply: AI is an attempt to imitate the brain. Note that he doesn't say the "mind," although that could be next.
How that imitation happens through large language models (LLMs) is another story, and others tell it better.
Our interest is in humanity and the potentially beneficial relationship between AI and the liberal arts. In an academic setting, Adam Grant of the University of Pennsylvania says students need an ethical education to understand integrity, a vital contribution the liberal arts can make to technology.
A great combination
In a 1996 interview with NPR's Terry Gross, Steve Jobs explained that combining technical and engineering skills with artistic disciplines (such as design, philosophy, and poetry) created products that made the "heart sing."
Those intersections also shed light on Tim Cook's executive leadership, which has been highly successful in carrying forward Steve Jobs' innovative ideas and helping Apple thrive. Cook retires this month after 15 years as CEO of the world's second-largest company with a market capitalization of nearly $5 trillion.
Jobs' belief was that computer science is a "Liberal Art," a tool that everyone understands and uses in their daily lives. He often said technology needs a human-centered perspective to be truly useful and appealing.
In an essay cautioning against the neglect of humanities, Greg Dickens writes in Medium, "But if you make time for the liberal arts, not only will you become a more interesting person, you can find that little something that will differentiate you from everyone else."
The Guardian newspaper once described Apple's distinction as "an obsessive, uncompromising focus on eliminating the non-essential when it comes to its products."
The role of soft skills
In 2017, Dr. David Deming, Dean of Harvard College, published a report highlighting the importance of soft skills alongside technology. Dr. Deming's thesis shows why it pays to be different in the workplace.
"With the help of AI, white-collar workers can generate far more memos or strategy options than in the past and churn out more productive prototypes or software features. But some executive still has to decide which option to greenlight," writes Norm Scheiber in The New York Times.
"As AI makes production of knowledge work more and more efficient, the job of presenting, debating, lobbying, arm-twisting, reassuring or just plain selling the work appears to be rising in importance," Scheiber adds.
Dr. Deming says that these skills were always important. "But as the information landscape becomes more saturated, the ability to tell a story out of it — to take a ton of text and turn it into something people want — is more valuable."
As automation heightens the importance of personal interaction, soft skills matter, but they're not enough. Dr. Deming concludes that the people who fared best tended to combine social skills with substantive knowledge.
Counsel from credible sources
In an article entitled "What AI Bosses Advise Their Kids About Jobs," Personal Journal writer Lauren Weber interviewed individuals heavily involved with artificial intelligence.*
Here's a summary of advice to their children (ranging in ages 4 to 26) about what to pay attention to as they consider the future of careers in an AI-driven world:
Critical thinking, an essential life skill; adaptability; ethics (human judgment); mathematics; ability to relate, empathize, and be around other humans; communication; and how kind you are.
A liberal arts education matters more than ever, these experts suggested.
The Journal just reported that Ernst & Young's U.S. Division is giving out $100 million in bonuses and rewards to recognize employees who show human skills like adaptability, innovation, and judgment, as well as experimentation with AI.
Strategist.com
© Bredholt & Co.
