Infinite AI Interns: How Young Professionals Can Win in an AI-Powered World

**Nathan Labenz** (0:00)
Hello, and welcome to The Cognitive Revolution, where we interview visionary researchers, entrepreneurs, and builders working on the frontier of artificial intelligence.
Each week, we'll explore their revolutionary ideas, and together, we'll build a picture of how AI technology will transform work, life, and society in the coming years. I'm Nathan Labenz, joined by my co-host, Erik Torenberg. Hello, and welcome back to The Cognitive Revolution. Today, I'm excited to share a presentation that I recently gave to the Texas State University Computer Science Club, in which I offered my thoughts on how current college students can best position themselves for success in a world of infinite AI interns.
As I've lived and breathed applied AI for the last couple of years, it's become clear to me that most institutions are really struggling to make sense of what's happening with AI, let alone keeping up with all of the latest developments. Many colleges in particular are really at risk of failing their students by continuing to focus too heavily on skills that, while in some sense, yes, are still important fundamentals, are increasingly best provided by AI systems.
This concern, to be very clear, is not theoretical. I am hearing more and more software companies saying AI tools make them less inclined to hire junior software developers, simply because they believe that AI tools create more leverage for their senior team members and generally promise better ROI.
My goal with this lecture was to help bridge that gap, helping students start to grapple with and get ahead of the AI megatrend that will shape their entire careers.
From mastering co-pilot mode, to learning how to effectively delegate repetitive tasks to AI, to using AI for quality control, a paradigm that I discussed in the context of AI task automation, which actually fits perfectly well into all sorts of business processes, including human-powered ones.
This is my attempt to outline the key skills that early career knowledge workers should be developing now.
Before we begin, a couple quick caveats. First, this is all of course just my personal outlook based on my experience, and as with any advice, it should never be applied uncritically or as a one-size-fits-all solution.
Second, things are changing so fast in AI that I fully expect my recommendations to change before long as well. In just a couple weeks since I gave this talk, we've seen notable advances in areas like transformer working memory, which hint at near-term changes to the table of the cognitive tape that I present here.
I also want to note that while there is a ton of AI snake oil being sold online these days, I do think well-made and continually updated tutorial libraries can provide a lot of value, if only as a sort of shopping guide to the rapidly expanding world of AI tools.
For what it's worth, I personally subscribe to the one that NLW is building, BSuper.AI. Overall, my expectation is that AI is going to radically reshape the world of work and that to compete effectively, early career professionals in particular need to adapt and adopt as fast as possible.
So, while I would not go as far as to recommend that anyone drop out of their college program or ignore their classes, I absolutely do encourage students to dedicate real time and energy to educating themselves and starting to incorporate AI into their work now.
I hope this presentation provides a solid practical starting point for that journey. If you find it valuable, I would really ask that you take a moment to share it with a student or an early career professional in your life.
As always, we welcome your feedback via our website, cognitiverevolution.ai, or by DMing me on the social media network of your choice. If you are a student, particularly in computer science or another information technology, who is looking to get into AI and could use a little guidance, definitely feel free to message me. I can suggest you resources and projects, and when you're ready, I can help you connect with hiring companies, including some previous guests on The Cognitive Revolution.
For now, I hope you enjoy my take on how today's college students can best position themselves for professional success in the AI era. This is How to Stand Out in a World of Infinite AI Interns. What we would do today is go through a list of things that you guys should be thinking about as the workforce is in for some significant change, and it is probably going to impact you the most. So I wanted to explain why that's the case, and then also explain what I think you guys should do about it to give yourselves a competitive advantage early in your career, which also happens to be early in the AI era. This is what I thought would be the most useful for students today. So I've titled this 10 Super Practical AI Tips for Current College Students or How to Stand Out in a World of Infinite AI Interns.