Artificial Intelligence and the Human Experience: How Do We Keep Up?

In his NYT Opinion piece, “In the Age of A.I., Major in Being Human,” David Brooks dives into the ways in which the Age of A.I. could impact the rising generation of professionals. With several suggestions for college-ready young adults, coming of age in the A.I. era, Brooks reminds us that - scary and possible as it may seem - A.I. likely cannot actually fully replace humans. He says:

And that’s my hope for the age of A.I. — that it forces us to more clearly distinguish the knowledge that is useful information from the humanistic knowledge that leaves people wiser and transformed.

It’s important to remember that history has gone through many periods of technological advancement: times wherein the working public feared that machines and technology were going to take their jobs.  What has happened during such periods - every single time - has served to validate that technological advancements may result in workplace automation.  But, invariably, new jobs that require life experience, critical thinking, creativity, imagination, emotion, and perspective not only remain, but are also created anew. 

With that, we could not agree more with David Brooks when he says “In the Age of A.I., Major in Being Human.” As incredible and intelligent as technology can be, it will never replace the human experience. There is value in that.