The AI Paradox: How We’re Preparing for Jobs That Don’t Exist
Before flying back from India to London where I spoke at Talk Journalism, I had the opportunity to sit down to a podcast interview with one of Talk Journalism’s founders.
Aqueel Khan is the very definition of an entrepreneur with a selfless heart. He’s one of the founders too of WeCanSchool.
When I first met him in 2015, he had one school. Today he has eight that develop and guide youngsters to university places and careers. I gatecrashed a physics class to speak to students about Newton’s laws.
Afterwards, we sat down to talk careers and I shared with him my thoughts on education and journalism. In both I’ve lengthy periods of engagement and disruption.
What does AI mean for universities? It’s terrifying! Universities work on the presumption of being present supply chains. That is funnels for graduates to drop into industries by hitting the floor running.
The problem is the work industry is going to radically change in the next five years. Titles that don’t exist. Jobs we’ve never heard of will be invented. So what do unis do?
Furthermore how do they manage the chasm between not permitting students to use AI in, say essay writing, when some prominent journalism outlets let GenAI summarise scripts.
There is the parent of all paradoxes lurking and it’s a balancing act between trust between the desires of students and institutions and student needs and industry.
It isn’t new. More than 20 years ago I started teaching students coding to build websites. What do they need that skill for, someone asked, acknowledging its importance though not seeing it.
Some students did enter the digital online market to code, but others found the whole different workflows behind web building had its own currency.
A decade ago I headed up a digital storytelling lab that put innovation and AI at its centre and have developed courses and spoken extensively about AI as a practitioner.
The New ABCs of Journalism: AI, Authenticity, and Careers
So here’s what I believe, through trend extrapolation and experience, is likely to happen.
1. If you’re learning to become say a journalist, the core foundational skills will be needed more than ever with deeper essences into storytelling including interviewing and understanding narrative psychologies.
2. The days of recycling news from a desktop are numbered. AI assistants will do this. So original storytelling will become a premium.
3. Paradoxically this core skill will be a boon to get the most out of Gen AI trained on terms and labels. And you’ll def need to wrap you head around some tech fundamentals.
4. Thinking more like Gen AI and agents is about to become a much needed skill. Design, systems thinking and computational thinking are keys to that approach will deepen your understanding of problem solving.
5. Creating the future, before it’s arrived will rely on trusting those who can demonstrate having traversed previous cross roads.
6. Inspiration is the hidden card to play here and creativity.
7. If you’re an influencer, AI-assisted influencers are about to rock up. AI’s larger impact is on those with lesser to no skills, so it lowers the bar to a new type of solo entrepreneur.
8. Think collaboration as much with humans but multiple agents.
If you’re running a creative or storytelling event and you’d like me to explain more about the process used to create promos I’ve made aired on CNN International, World Press Photography, and Obama 100 Days at the Southbank Centre, you can find more insights here www.daviddunkleygyimah.com and www.viewmagazine.tv or message me here :) 🙏🏿
