Why you should become AI literate
If you have children or grandchildren under 18, you may wonder what their job prospects will be in an age of artificial intelligence. Will they be able to work with computers that perform tasks requiring human intelligence by recognizing patterns in vast amounts of data to generate reports, essays, poems, images and music?
In a recent talk at the American Museum of Science and Energy, Lynne Parker, director of the AI Tennessee Initiative based at University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she is the associate vice chancellor, said, "I think all of us need to have AI literacy – the skills required to effectively use AI technologies . It's not necessarily computer programming."
Parker, a Knoxville native who led the national AI efforts at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, "AI is pervasive and it's here to stay. It's disrupting the workplace, but it is also creating many more jobs than it destroys."
She quoted economist Richard Baldwin, who declared at the 2023 World Economic Forum, "AI won't take your job. It's somebody using AI that will take your job."
Her point is that people preparing to participate in the modern workplace, including children, must become AI literate. That doesn't mean you must first learn to code like computer programmers. It means you should learn how to use non-coding AI tools to help you do your job more productively and effectively.
This past fall UT started a new AI 101 course to teach AI literacy. Parker said plans are in the works for UT to partner with Arizona State University to make the course available online for interested people not enrolled in UT. This fall UT students will be able to major or minor in applied AI and to study for a degree in AI or data science.
At Oak Ridge High School, students are learning and using AI for some projects, according to Mark Buckner, lead instructor of the iSchool, where he oversees work by students running the Wildcat Manufacturing business. He and two students spoke at the AMSE event.
By the end of the decade, Parker said, more than 500,000 jobs in Tennessee are expected to be augmented or replaced by AI. Jobs in danger of being replaced, she added, are accounting clerks, administrative secretaries, customer service agents, data entry workers, budget and finance analysts, media and technical writers and coders.
Some jobs won't go away, but they will change because new qualifications are expected.
"A graphic designer must be familiar with AI and ChatGPT technology," she said. "A protein sciences researcher must have experience in AI-driven protein design. A content writer, editor or researcher must have proficiency in prompting and navigating AI tools such as Chat GPT."
Parker gave examples of how AI aids humans in improving productivity, speed and accuracy in performing tasks. Generative AI helps doctors diagnose diseases from medical images with a higher accuracy rate than many physicians can achieve manually.
In finance, AI algorithms predict market trends, manage investments and automate trading strategies with improved accuracy, speed and efficiency.
In customer service, which had been plagued by long wait times, virtual assistants powered by generative AI handle queries 24/7, improving response times and freeing up human resources for complex issues.
In education, adaptive learning platforms use generative AI to tailor educational content to individual student needs, so they better understand and become engaged with the subject.
In journalism, AI tools assist reporters in gathering available data and quickly generating sports and finance news articles or summaries.
In software development, coding and debugging are no longer manual. Now, generative AI assists by suggesting code snippets and writing whole blocks of code. Automated computing powered by AI can identify and suggest bug fixes more easily.
Parker said that a new AI job that pays as much as $400,000 a year is that of a prompt engineer. Such a person writes natural language instructions to make AI tools more accessible and user-friendly.
To get started becoming AI literate, no matter what your age, Parker recommends two websites. One for children and youth is called AI4K12: https://ai4k12.org/ . The other is "AI for Everyone": https://www.coursera.org/learn/ai-for-everyone .
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Why you should become AI literate
