Prof Martin Hayes from UL@Work says ‘T-shaped graduates’ with interdisciplinary tech and soft skills will have the edge when it comes to AI.
A few months ago, we wrote about some of the ethical dilemmas and questions workers have around using AI for their jobs. Seth Elliott, COO of strategy execution platform Quantive, explained that he believes the tech is “augmenting” rather than replacing human intelligence – and as it is still evolving, we need to make sure the workforce of the future has the skills needed to utilise it.
For more on the skills perspective, we asked Prof Martin Hayes of University of Limerick’s (UL) Department of Digital Technologies for his point of view. “The reality is that this is not a well-defined discipline and technology at the moment. We’re still in a massive state of flux.”
Hayes is an academic that is also very involved in tech skills education as he leads the UL@Work programme, a series of online courses co-designed by industry that promote upskilling and learning. He is on the ground, so to speak, when it comes to AI’s impact on education.
No crystal ball predictions
He is reluctant to make any crystal ball predictions, but he says that there will be new roles associated with the tech that is being developed. Jobs like “efficient engineering, efficient inputs efficient prompt engineering… they are going to be the new roles that didn’t exist five years ago.”
“We’re going to need experts in these emerging areas, and we’re going to need people to upskill in these emerging areas because I have conversations with companies day in and day out,” says Hayes, adding that “They want people who are comfortable with the technology; they want people who are able to develop their expertise quickly and become experts in new things quickly.”
‘More than ever, we are going to need people who know about what’s going on in the engine rather than just driving the car. And those people who know how the engine works and how the system works are going to be more valuable than ever before’
It’s not just within the narrow realms of scaling AI start-ups that need skills. Hayes says that lots of companies are even encouraging existing employees on their teams to upskill. UL@Work caters to these employers and workers alike. The courses are available to people in full-time employment.
On the day we speak, Hayes starts off by mentioning the open letter signed by tech names like Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak of Apple and Turing prize winner Yoshua Bengio calling on a six-month pause in AI development models like ChatGPT.
He doesn’t say whether he agrees or disagrees with their position, but he does say that we need more learning and more experts as there aren’t enough currently. Rather than take a negative view, he prefers to focus on the opportunities that might be available to people in this so-called brave new world.
Positive perspective
“More than ever, we are going to need people who know about what’s going on in the engine rather than just driving the car. And those people who know how the engine works and how the system works are going to be more valuable than ever before.”
Rather than just being passive users of technology, understanding tech and how it works will become more important, Hayes reckons. “Understanding the nuts and bolts” of the digital economy and society, as he phrases it.
He describes himself half-jokingly as a “relentless optimist” – he thinks that if people make an effort to get to grips with tech in whatever way they can, their jobs won’t be threatened by AI as some of its detractors say.
‘There are going to be new areas in natural language processing, machine learning, data engineering, data visualisation and being able to make decisions in a reliable fashion…’
“I think if you have that expertise you will always be in demand. That’s my view.” The good news for the traditionalists is that their skills won’t go “out of style”, Hayes says. Skills like maths, statistics, data literacy and the ability to construct an argument – “for when ChatGPT gives you a rubbish answer” – are all necessary.
Interdisciplinary skills
“There are going to be new areas in natural language processing, machine learning, data engineering, data visualisation and being able to make decisions in a reliable fashion based upon the large datasets that you have curated and labelled accordingly,” Hayes says of the emerging skillsets that we are going to need.
He says “T-shaped communication graduates” with interdisciplinary knowledge are going to be key when it comes to helping society adapt to new developments. It won’t be enough to know maths, stats and tech, graduates will have to be able to explain the things they know to a wide variety of people. They will have to be able to tell the story of tech, manage projects and work with people from different backgrounds with different skills and abilities.
“I don’t know of any discipline in science and engineering at the moment that doesn’t need more experts,” says Hayes. “So, I think if people want to be assured of their relevance, and their importance within the system, what they need to do is just develop their skills and their skills base and have more skills in their toolbox.”
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