By Daeshanae mitchell, JRN 111 student

Pose this question to ChatGPT: “Are English majors in vogue again?”

Here’s the answer you will get: “It’s not that English majors are ‘in vogue’ again in the traditional sense, but rather that the skills they develop have become highly valued in the modern, technology-driven job market. After a period of declining enrollment driven by career anxieties, there is a renewed appreciation for human-centric abilities, particularly in a world influenced by AI.”

How ironic.

At a time when artificial intelligence is taking over jobs, should you gamble on pursuing a computer science degree for a high-paying job that could disappear? Or should you fulfill your desire to teach English because of your deep empathy and love of language and connection? 

The growth of AI is affecting how college students choose lifelong careers. Up to 50 percent of jobs could be fully automated by 2045, according to Forbes. Are certain jobs at risk? Should students choose careers that robots can’t do?

“Students are going to have this tool at their disposal. I don’t think we should discourage them from using it because we’re going to need it in the workforce.”

John Sands, MV professor in charge of new AI grant

AI’s ability to produce at lightning speeds is affecting careers in graphic design, data entry, accounting and finance, preventing some students from going after what they may be truly passionate about. 

“I wanted to go into art but the more I heard about AI taking those jobs, I decided to lean more towards nursing,” said nursing major Emily Dalberti. “A computer can’t put in an IV.” 

Students like Dalberti feel a sense of security knowing that they chose a career path that will always be in demand —one that requires human interaction, critical thinking and trust.

Nursing major Michael Walsh says nursing will “ultimately not be affected to the point where it will be completely replaced; there’s not really much of a risk.” 

The U.S. Career Institute ranked the 65 jobs with the lowest risk of automation by AI and robots. The top of the list included nurse practitioners, choreographers, physician assistants, mental health counselors, coaches, athletic trainers and art and music therapists.

Source: The U.S. Career Institute

AI may be able to produce data, trends, research, and customer service, but it can’t produce empathy, ethics and critical thinking. Currently, it seems safer for students to start channeling their empathetic passions in other areas like nursing, education or other customer facing careers. 

While some are concerned about the loss of jobs, Arvid Krishna, the CEO of tech company IBM, told CNN he believes that AI is positively restructuring the workforce and will actually “open up more opportunities.” AI might program the computers by itself, so what companies are going to need instead is people who can communicate on a human level.

“We need a lot more people that actually interact with people, who build trust and then you get a lot more of those jobs,” Krishna said. “I expect that we are probably going to hire more people out of college in the next 12 months than we have in the past few years.”

With million-dollar grant, Moraine plans to teach AI

Moraine Valley is using a nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help its faculty become familiar with and teach AI. The college believes AI will have a lasting, positive impact on students’ future. 

“I think it’s probably going to be the greatest transformational change in education in my lifetime,” said John Sands, professor of local area networks, who is in charge of the grant. “It’s going to totally change how we’re going to have to teach and how students learn.”

Through the grant-funded program, faculty across disciplines will be taught how to include both the human-centric skills and capabilities of AI in the classroom. 

Some believe that AI will become our new norm and teaching students how to operate it will only serve to help them navigate the future. With a rapidly changing workforce, they say it’s important for students to have a baseline of AI knowledge and skills that will help them become competitive.

“Students are going to have this tool at their disposal. I don’t think we should discourage them from using it because we’re going to need it in the workforce,” Sands said. “We just have to teach students how to use it ethically.”

After teaching the faculty AI skills, the grant team will develop AI-powered educational resources for educators.

Not all higher education personnel share the same enthusiasm. While some professors may be eager to integrate AI in the classroom, others feel that it takes away from a student’s creativity and ability to think critically. 

“One of the things that we really try to do in my class is work on understanding our own voices and styles and develop that, but I don’t know that I feel like teaching students how to use AI is useful,” said Sheryl Bundy, communications professor.

A huge concern is whether AI is causing students to become lazy. Commonly, students are using it to do all of the work for them, instead of as a tool to aid them. This problem raises ethical questions about teaching students how to use AI when so many already abuse it.

AI and arrested academic development

Being behind academically is coming up more and more each year. Professors are noticing a big difference in student development.

“Right now, when I look at my students’ writing, they’re really struggling to put ideas together,” Bundy said. She wants to focus more on helping her students stick to an idea, develop it and get unstuck when the ideas aren’t flowing. “Those are big skills and I want to work on that more than anything else.”

New studies continue to come out showing how outsourcing our thinking to AI contributes to “brain rot,” eroding the very skills of creativity and critical thinking employers will be looking for in the future.

An experiment conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology compared the brain activity among three groups of students as they wrote SAT-style essays. One group used only their brains, another was able to use Google Search to look up information, and a third used ChatGPT.

As The New Yorker reports, “The results from the analysis showed a dramatic discrepancy: subjects who used ChatGPT demonstrated less brain activity than either of the other groups.” The use of AI also had a “homogenizing effect,” with those using it producing strikingly similar results lacking in originality or creativity.

We don’t know what the future holds for AI and its rapid innovation, so educating students more on AI may be vital for their future. However, human qualities may be just as important to consider when choosing a career.

Advice from two Moraine Valley nursing majors:

Delbarti encourages students to “weigh their options a little better” and says if you’re that student battling your career choice because you don’t know whether it will be around for much longer, figure out where your passions are and go from there. 

Understanding that AI will now always be a factor, Walsh encourages students to “put in 10 times the effort, be exceptional and good enough at whatever you’re passionate about so that you aren’t replaced or easily discarded.” 

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featured image graphic by EMILY STEPHENS