The right way to prepare future workers for AI

Peter Thal Larsen (0:03)

Is artificial intelligence going to take my job? And if so, what can I do about it? These are probably the most widespread and pressing questions that many workers around the world are asking themselves today. The rapid advances in AI models also mean that the ground is constantly shifting. Tasks that only a few years ago seemed beyond the ability of AI tools to handle are now at risk of automation. What this shift means for current workers is a huge source of debate. But it's arguably even more pressing for children at school or for young people who are just about to enter the workforce. A recent decrease in employment among new graduates adds to the anxiety, even though it's too early to say for sure whether this is related to AI.

So this week on The Big View, we're going to talk about what can be done to prepare the next generation for a world of AI. It's what we do at Reuters Breakingviews. We tap top experts from around the world for fresh insights into the biggest stories in business, finance, and economics. I'm your host, Peter Thal Larsen.

Joining me to talk about this is someone who has been thinking and writing about the impact of AI on work and the economy for some time. He's Daniel Susskind. Daniel is a Professor of Business at Gresham College, a Digital Fellow at Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, a Senior Research Associate at Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI, and a Research Professor at King's College London. He's also written several books. His latest one is simply called What Should My Children Do? A Human's Guide to the Age of AI. He joins me here in the studio in London.

Daniel Susskind, welcome to The Big View.

Daniel Susskind (1:38)

Thank you so much for having me.

Peter Thal Larsen (1:40)

Very welcome. Let's start with the title of your book.

What Should My Children Do? Is there an honest answer other than I don't know?

Daniel Susskind (1:50)

Well, I think I don't know and implicit in that extraordinary uncertainty that we face is sort of the challenge that we face. I think until now in thinking about how we prepare the next generation for the world of work, what we've tried to do is think cleverly and deeply about the future and try and predict what industries are going to flourish, what jobs are going to matter, and so what skills are going to be in demand. And then say to young people, look, you need to learn these skills. And the argument of the book is that actually that's just too hard to do. We just can't do it. There's too much uncertainty. I mean, the story I tell is of what I call the folly of future-proofing and future-proof skills is something that happened in England, which was 2013, David Cameron, the then Prime Minister comes forward and says, look, we're going to teach all young people in primary and secondary school to learn how to code. Michael Gove, who then is the Education Secretary says, look, these are the skills that the next generation are going to need to flourish in the 21st century.

Fast forward a decade, what does it turn out that ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude Groc choose your system? What does it turn out they are not simply good at doing, but best at doing? Writing code. Here is a skill that 10 years ago felt like would futureproof the next generation for their entire careers, barely lasted until they'd finished school. In fairness to the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary, around the world, people thought this was a terrific idea. A few years later, it was pretty hard to find an advanced country that hadn't adopted some sort of teach young people's code and yet within a day. I say this isn't just a case of bad luck.

They got it wrong and the reason why they got it wrong was because they believed in this idea of futureproof skills and I just think there's too much uncertainty. That feels very constricting, very narrowing, very limiting. But actually, I think there's a tremendous amount we can do, even if you accept the future is extraordinarily uncertain.

Peter Thal Larsen (4:05)

Yeah, it reminds me a bit of people going and learning Japanese in the 1980s because the feeling was that that was going to be the language of the future and then a lot of people who spoke Japanese, but wasn't really much used to them.

Daniel Susskind (4:18)

So it doesn't have a good historical record. But I think at the moment, given what is happening in the technological world, what was already a shaky approach, I think, is a mistaken one.