- An economics professor has warned students not to rush into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields to get jobs related to artificial intelligence (AI).
- He stated that some employees working in IT jobs that advance artificial intelligence could be replaced by AI.
- Instead, he said that "soft" skills like empathy and communication will thrive in the future.
Students are eager to study STEM fields in colleges in hopes of obtaining lucrative and promising positions in the AI field, but the Nobel Prize-winning economist has warned against these inflated expectations.
Christopher Pissarides, an economist at the London School of Economics and a 2010 laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a recent interview with "Bloomberg" news agency that workers in IT jobs advancing AI face the risk of declining demand for their roles in the future.
Pissarides said that the demand for currently needed skills—namely collecting data, organizing it correctly, developing it, and using it to prepare the next phase of AI, or more importantly, making AI more applicable for jobs—will decrease because AI itself will already be doing these tasks.
In addition to his comments, he stated that this demand for new IT skills is planting the seeds of the students' own destruction.
According to data provided to the BBC by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), applications to study computer science at universities in the UK increased by approximately 10% in 2023 due to interest in AI. Compared to 2022, applications for software engineering increased by 16%, and applications for computer science increased by 11%.
However, Pissarides explained that there might not even be enough jobs in the AI field for all graduates.
“Despite the growth, the number of these jobs is not high enough to employ all STEM graduates, because that is what they want to do,” Pissarides stated.
Instead, Pissarides emphasized that "soft" skills (e.g., empathy, communication) in sectors such as hospitality and healthcare will thrive in the future, as the likelihood of these being taken over by AI is very low.
“When you say the majority of jobs will involve personal care, communication, good social relationships, people might say with regret, 'Is that what we should look forward to in the future?'” Pissarides said.
“We shouldn't look down on these jobs. They are better than the jobs used to be done by school leavers.”
The hype surrounding AI is driven by the high salaries companies are paying. According to previous reporting by "Business Insider," major tech firms like "Google," "Microsoft," "Meta," and "OpenAI" offer six-figure salaries for AI roles.
According to "Business Insider," even non-tech companies like "Disney," "JPMorgan," and "Accenture" offer competitive salaries to employees with AI skills and knowledge.
Based on data from the Pew Research Center, there has been an overall increase in the number of STEM graduates in the US since 2010, particularly as tech roles in the US are among some of the highest-paying positions.