Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing our world, and the sole reason for education is to prepare children for future life, living in our society. We cannot with certainty predict economic or political stability in the world, a world into which our children are growing.  Therefore, are we equipping our children with the right survival skills, and are you/they making the best career choices? 

Where Is The AI Race Speeding to?

AI is changing our world; the race is on. The world’s nations are racing for AI supremacy, be it national security, health, commerce and or management of human capital. 

Modern Diplomacy report (April 2018) “the U.S. is falling short to China in the quantity of studies produced regarding AI, deep-learning, and big data. For example, the number of AI-related papers submitted to the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in 2017 indicated China totalled a majority 37 percent, whereas the U.S. took third position at only 18 percent. While quantity is not everything (U.S. researchers were awarded the most awards at IJCAI 2017, for example), China’s industry innovations were formally marked as “astonishing.” For these reasons, there are various strategic challenges the U.S. must seek to overcome to maintain its lead in the AI race.”

But, hand on heart, where are these nations, and our globally connected world racing to? What type of world are we creating for ourselves, and our children?

Global Careers Opportunities - Fear or Euphoria?

Should we be scared or excited about the development and integration of AI into our lives? Looking at the development of Social Credit scoring, taking management of human capital to the next stage. How long will it take for people to realise, such systems can easily create 21st-century virtual prisons. That is, rather than confining prisoners behind physical bars, Social Credit scoring, can punish and imprison people in their communities; not being able to buy certain things, or go certain places. It would be like being a free child in a toy shop, but not being allowed to play with anything. All it would take would be to change the algorithms rather than building expensive (overcrowded) prisons. 

Conversely, employing AI to replace repetitive work, freeing up humans to enable us to be more compassionate and creative, would be liberating and joyous. But what will it be?

Will AI Regulate or Liberate Humanity?

We cannot appreciate the light, without experiencing dark. We cannot appreciate sweet, without first experiencing bitter. We cannot appreciate good, without first appreciating it’s opposite. Therefore, while the rise of AI is challenging and making us question our humanity, AI is helping us understand the importance of our humanity - brought by integrating AI into our lives. We are living in amazing times – contrasting evolving worlds of science and/or humanity.

So, what is the:

  • Best Careers Advice?
  • Best School Curriculum?

Careers Advice and School Curriculum for an AI World

Pichai Sundararajan the chief executive officer (CEO) of Google Inc. (2017) -  (4.28-minute video) 

“I would like to see people value creativity, value experience of doing things, taking risks. It is important to be well rounded. I would encourage people to try different things, take some risks, follow their passions . . . follow your heart and do what you like.” 

Kai-Fu Lee, a Taiwanese venture capitalist, technology executive, writer, and AI computer scientist (2018) - (2.4 minutes)

“I think we're here to create and to love, so I would advise that young people think about how can I be a part of creating and that is not just scientific creating, but it's scientific and medical and literary journalism. Those are all things that AI cannot do, and then in terms of compassion and love, I think a lot of jobs that we have will need to be greatly expanded and changed into more compassionate and empathetic . . . young people should think about creativity; they should think about compassion as the two important magnets that will create lasting non-replaceable jobs” 

Do these careers advice correlate with your school curriculum and careers advice?