AI may be restoring the importance of the liberal arts degree, at least according to the cofounder of one of the industry\u2019s biggest players.<\/p>\n
Jack Clark, a billionaire<\/a> cofounder of Anthropic and former journalist<\/a> who majored in English literature and creative writing, says his literary education is what helped him become an influential figure in the world of AI.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a literature graduate, and I don\u2019t think you\u2019d put that as a cofounder of a frontier AI company, but what turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future,\u201d he said<\/a> during a conference earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s turned out to be, like, extremely relevant for AI in a way that I think people wouldn\u2019t have predicted,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n For young people trying to figure out where they fit in an increasingly AI-fueled economy, their best bet may be learning to ask the right questions, he added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe really important thing is knowing the right questions to ask and having intuitions about what would be interesting if you collided different insights from many different disciplines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Clark claimed young people should avoid pursuing basic or \u201crote programming\u201d and added the degrees that are going to become even more relevant in the future are the ones that involve \u201csynthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cracks in STEM<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s insight comes as more young people are grappling with what an AI-dominated future looks like for them. For decades, enrollment in STEM education exploded\u2014partly owing to a spike in computer science interest that helped increase science and engineering graduate enrollment by more than one-third between 2000 and 2015, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics<\/a> (NCSES).<\/p>\n Between 2013 and 2023 STEM job growth also outpaced non-STEM job growth with a 26% increase<\/a>, compared with a 9% increase, respectively, according to the NCSES, which is part of the National Science Foundation.\u00a0<\/p>\n While STEM jobs are projected to grow<\/a>, some cracks have started to appear thanks to AI. A report by Anthropic researchers Maxim Massenkoff and Peter McCrory earlier this year found AI can theoretically take over 94% of computer and math tasks<\/a>. Computer programming jobs are among those that are most exposed to AI, the report found<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leaders at companies like Anthropic that are building the worker-replacing tech are increasingly sounding the alarm about job displacement. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei notably claimed AI would eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs<\/a>, before later softening his opinion. Meanwhile, the creator of Anthropic\u2019s Claude Code, Boris Cherny, said<\/a> this year \u201ccoding is practically solved\u201d and \u201cwe\u2019re going to start to see the title \u2018software engineer\u2019 go away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For young people, the influx of AI across industries poses a significant risk as they are still trying to establish themselves in the workforce. During the same interview, Clark admitted, \u201cI see potential weakness in early graduate employment in some industries,\u201d without specifying which industries. He hedged his comments by saying, \u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything beyond that,\u201d regarding AI-linked layoffs, although he emphasized AI will upend businesses and how business is conducted.\u00a0<\/p>\n The unemployment rate for recent college graduates stood at 5.7% as of June, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a>. That\u2019s up from a 3.6% unemployment rate for the same group prior to the pandemic in 2019. It\u2019s also higher than the unemployment rate of 4.1% for all workers as of June.<\/p>\n Frustrated by a laggard job market, some young people have started to consider entering the trades. Vocation-focused community college enrollment increased 16% last year<\/a>, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. Others have eschewed full-time positions in favor of multiple part-time jobs<\/a> that allow more freedom or have started their own ventures.<\/p>\n Liberal arts comeback<\/p>\n