Pairing Artificial Intelligence With the Liberal Arts

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. 

Versatility counts

After warning that artificial intelligence would eliminate many white-collar and entry-level jobs, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized, saying, "I'm delighted to be wrong about that." 

It's too early to know for sure, but the threat is there. Current workforce reductions stem from financial and structural problems in businesses and nonprofits, while the blame is shifted to AI.

Whatever jobs AI takes, it will create new ones that didn't exist a few years ago. Breakthrough technology functions that way. Who benefits? MIT labor economist David Autor says it's college graduates under 30, often in urban settings. Those who can learn new things gain specialized knowledge and expertise, increasing their worth.

U.S. Labor Department studies show substantially fewer people entering the workforce between now and 2030, so those who want work will, for the most part, have it. However, those positions may not always be in a graduate's field of study.  

LinkedIn data shared exclusively with Forbes magazine shows that the key to young professionals successfully navigating today's uneven job market is whether their degree is adaptable enough to land a job in several different industries. 

The top five most versatile college majors, where 2022 to 2024 graduates landed jobs farther afield from their majors, are English, Visual and Performing Arts, Communication and Journalism, Business and Marketing, and Computer and Information Sciences. 

Walking in wisdom

At some point, college graduates and those in skilled trades learn that they too bear responsibility for making (and keeping) themselves desirable and employable. 

However, it's an invaluable gift when someone who has practiced takes a special interest in our lives. They support development by pointing toward self-awareness, strong moral character, and trust. Improve performance with timely advice. They are also good listeners. 

A universal truth: "When the student is ready to learn, the right teacher comes along."

Providing that kind of assistance to young adults, or anyone, is a personal endeavor, though it likely utilizes technology in some form.  

Which, in the spirit of Steve Jobs' original thought of combining technical skills with artistic disciplines, should make our hearts sing. 

*Caroline Hanke, global head of organizational growth and health at SAP; Ethan Mollick, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and co-author of Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI; Jaime Teevan, chief scientist and technical fellow, Microsoft, and trustee, Yale University; Daniela Amodei, President and co-founder of Anthropic.

Strategist.com

©  Bredholt & Co.

 

Help Wanted

“Let us realize that: the privilege to work is a gift, the power to work is a blessing, and the love of work is a success!”

--David O. McKay

With college commencements getting underway here’s some news for graduates (and parents) that they may or may not want to hear—it doesn’t much matter where you went to school.  What matters is how you go, so says Purdue University President Mitch Daniels.

The former Indiana governor and onetime director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Washington D.C., is basing this "how" idea on the results of a Gallup-Purdue Index, a national survey of 30,000 college graduates released for the first time in 2014. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, the survey is an attempt at quantifying not only what a graduate earns but also how well they are navigating adult life.

According to the study, only 39% of college graduates report feeling engaged with their work. In that group as many come from the top-100 schools as don’t. The three most important contributions that college makes to a sense of workplace achievement after graduation:

1.    Having one professor who made you excited about learning

2.    Feeling as though the teachers cared about you

3.    Working with a mentor

Graduates who marked those boxes on the survey were more than twice as likely to sense they are flourishing at work.

The Gallup-Purdue Index shows that only 14% of those surveyed said they had attained all three in college.

Other positive factors in the study from undergraduate life:

·       Working on a long-term project

·       Having an internship

·       Participating in extra-curricular activities

The point: Where graduates went to college barely registered as a predictor of job satisfaction according to the Index.

The benefits of college

While cost is a major consideration, and not everyone must go through a bachelor's degree program to succeed in life, the pay gap between college graduates and everyone else is near a record high. Among millennials, ages 25-32, earnings for college degree holders are $17,500 greater than those with high school diplomas only. This is according to the Pew Research Center.

In addition to total earnings over a lifetime, the short-term benefit of completing a college degree is employment. 

Unemployment rate by education level, adults ages 25 to 34:

No H.S. diploma 13.8
H.S. diploma, no college 8.4
In some colleges, no degree 7.2
Associate degree only 5.8 

Bachelor's only 2.0
Master's  2.2
Advance professional 4.4
Doctoral 1.1  

 

Source: U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2015

Universal qualities

A great deal of attention is paid to technology in a 21st-century economy, and rightfully so. Yet technology is a sword that cuts both ways--it's a net job creator while removing routine work.

Since 2008, 44% of U.S. firms have reduced their headcounts in part because of automation.   Nearly 50% of U.S. jobs are at high risk of becoming automated in the next 20 years according to Oxford University research published in TIME Magazine.

How does anyone prepare for such an unstable work environment?  Keep learning; remain flexible, and avoid routine work. As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, people now in their 50s have changed jobs 11.3 times on average over their working lives.  New jobs require new skills.

However, in marketing to prospective students and parents may be colleges and universities are overlooking universal qualities and skills that employers seek when hiring--some of which can be honed while in the hallowed halls of ivy.   Or in certain cases, online.

The time to start developing the more sought-after hiring skills is when traditional students are in their college years. This is a period that allows for trial and error more so than a first or second career job where grading is often on a much harsher scale.

The well-rounded person

What are the attractive skills a person should consider pursuing that are just as integral to the education, training, and experience for specific kinds of jobs? The National Association of Colleges and Employers asked employers responding to their Job Outlook (2013) what skills they prioritize when hiring. Here are the top 10: 

1.    Ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization

2.    Ability to work in a team structure

3.    Ability to make decisions and solve problems

4.    Ability to plan, organize, and prioritize work

5.    Ability to obtain and process information

6.    Ability to analyze quantitative data

7.    Technical knowledge related to the job

8.    Proficiency with computer software programs

9.    Ability to create and/or edit written reports

10. Ability to sell or influence others

Note that soft and hard skills are evenly divided on the list. 

Orientations more than commencements

Higher education might want to focus on four areas that could make a significant difference in the college experience: build awareness for universal qualities in freshman orientations; enlist faculty to make application within a chosen field of study; place the qualities inside all degree programs, especially science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); and link the qualities with internships. 

Steve Jobs, a college dropout, often described Apple as “the intersection of technology and liberal arts.” That business model, a philosophical legacy from Jobs himself, is currently sitting on $194 billion in cash and long-term investments. 

Once inside an organization—high tech, banking, nonprofit—all who want to be engaged and contribute have to eventually figure out how to work with others to accomplish common goals.  This is where cultural fit comes into play. 

To achieve a higher level of performance early in a career it would be better to know what the hiring skills are at the outset of college life than learn about them for the first time at commencement. Or, during a job interview.  

Final thoughts 

In looking to the future, and based on the research, how can colleges identify, hire and reward more professors who are capable of helping students “light the wick” of learning?   

According to the Gallup-Purdue Index, teachers with a gift to inspire contribute much to how we learn, to our character-building and workplace achievement. That has proven to be my experience, for which I am grateful.

Strategist.com

© Bredholt & Co.