This is an important question! I think you’re right to imagine that traditional career paths are likely to shift a lot.
In terms of skills which are likely to remain useful for a good while, I want to highlight four areas:
First, general analytical skills and the ability to recognise important (vs unimportant or flawed) arguments. Even if we have assistance from language models, there will be important challenges in knowing which pieces of things to pay attention to.
Second, skills around in-person human interactions. These will be slow to be replaced by AI and they are crucial in several domains.
Third, and relatedly (since in-person interactions are an important component of how people understand and relate to things), developing social or political influence, broadly understood. Having a position to help others focus on what’s important and make connections to try to ensure good outcomes could matter in lots of futures. Of course, this one comes with significant caveats: even well-intentioned influence may cause harm as well as help things; and jostling for influence can easily be negative sum. Approach with care!
Fourth, knowing how to get good use out of language models themselves. There is likely to be a period where centaurs (human-AI teams) outperform either pure AI or pure human teams. Having experience with the latest models and knowing how to get the best out of them will be helpful for staying at the forefront of the relevant labour force.
I think it should be possible to practice and develop these four classes of skill in many different local career paths, so I wouldn’t want to make strong statements about what you should or shouldn’t be pursuing in the short term.
This is an important question! I think you’re right to imagine that traditional career paths are likely to shift a lot.
In terms of skills which are likely to remain useful for a good while, I want to highlight four areas:
First, general analytical skills and the ability to recognise important (vs unimportant or flawed) arguments. Even if we have assistance from language models, there will be important challenges in knowing which pieces of things to pay attention to.
Second, skills around in-person human interactions. These will be slow to be replaced by AI and they are crucial in several domains.
Third, and relatedly (since in-person interactions are an important component of how people understand and relate to things), developing social or political influence, broadly understood. Having a position to help others focus on what’s important and make connections to try to ensure good outcomes could matter in lots of futures. Of course, this one comes with significant caveats: even well-intentioned influence may cause harm as well as help things; and jostling for influence can easily be negative sum. Approach with care!
Fourth, knowing how to get good use out of language models themselves. There is likely to be a period where centaurs (human-AI teams) outperform either pure AI or pure human teams. Having experience with the latest models and knowing how to get the best out of them will be helpful for staying at the forefront of the relevant labour force.
I think it should be possible to practice and develop these four classes of skill in many different local career paths, so I wouldn’t want to make strong statements about what you should or shouldn’t be pursuing in the short term.