As artificial intelligence and associated technologies extend their influence in our society, the role of higher education must change. We can no longer prepare learners for static careers in unchanging fields. We are all familiar with the robotic revolution of prior decades in which assembly-line work positions were lost to robotic assembly lines. That shakeout took a toll on a skilled but less educated population. Human skills were no longer needed because “intelligent” robots could do the job faster, more consistently and at a lower cost to the business. Now, Brookings warns us that the most vulnerable jobs of the future are in better paid and better educated fields: “Our analysis shows that workers with graduate or professional degrees will be almost four times as exposed to AI as workers with just a high school degree. Holders of bachelor’s degrees will be the most exposed by education level, more than five times as exposed to AI than workers with just a high school degree.”
