Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 17:02     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Anonymous wrote:Oh good lord, stop over-hyping the capabilities of AI. Human minds created AI (there really isn’t anything approaching intelligence in there) and humans can tweak it to suit our needs.


Humans are going to tweak it to eliminate the need for English majors.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 17:01     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Anonymous wrote:An English degree is even more important in the AI age. What most do not realize is that the major is not only about writing, but learning how to interact with others in different settings, critical analysis, understanding and interpreting the big picture, etc.


Imagine thinking English is the only major or even the best major for learning those things.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 17:00     Subject: Re:Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Anonymous wrote:Most English majors go to law school, medical school, or other graduate school or they go on to teach in K-12, or general professional office jobs (e.g., HR, project management etc)--


AI is going to gut those professions as well.

What it will do to K-12, still remains to be seen, but when AI is good enough to teach home school (and that day will come), watch out.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 16:48     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Anonymous wrote:An English degree is even more important in the AI age. What most do not realize is that the major is not only about writing, but learning how to interact with others in different settings, critical analysis, understanding and interpreting the big picture, etc.


I agree. I teach high school English. ChatGPT isn’t a threat to me. It’s just another tool I’ll have to teach students how to use appropriately.

(It’s pretty easy to see when students are using it. I’m sure AI will get better as we continue to use it, but right now it’s really formulaic.)
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 16:42     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
An English degree is even more important in the AI age. What most do not realize is that the major is not only about writing, but learning how to interact with others in different settings, critical analysis, understanding and interpreting the big picture, etc.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 16:23     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
All the middle managers will be heavily impacted.

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-disappearing-white-collar-job-af0bd925
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 16:18     Subject: Re:Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Editing skills--the forte of English majors--are even more important with AI. Not just grammatical/stylistic, but communication/tone/accuracy.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 16:00     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
For the moment, technical writing still has value, as you are creating new material from scratch for newly developed software. Maybe at some point AI will be able to write instructive material on newly developed UI, but it’s not there yet.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:56     Subject: Re:Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Anonymous wrote:Most English majors go to law school, medical school, or other graduate school or they go on to teach in K-12, or general professional office jobs (e.g., HR, project management etc)-- depending on what internships they did, other specialized skills they picked up along the way. So it kind of depends which direction you take with it.

AI threatens most CS majors just as much as any others. I would focus on doing a major in whatever field you're interested in and you have the most aptitude for. Then accrue internships and specialized in-demand skills to suit the moment you graduate. After that initial hire, you become more about your work history than your major.


Excellent advice!
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:50     Subject: Re:Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Value of English major has been shitty even without AI.

Take a guess.

Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:18     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
AI is everywhere, not just in writing. Apparently, AI is picking stocks as well/better than brokers. People with little coding experience are writing programs that work.

The people who will be most successful in the future will be those who become good at leveraging whatever new technology is available. And probably those with more human skills (like emotional intelligence).
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:12     Subject: Re:Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Most English majors go to law school, medical school, or other graduate school or they go on to teach in K-12, or general professional office jobs (e.g., HR, project management etc)-- depending on what internships they did, other specialized skills they picked up along the way. So it kind of depends which direction you take with it.

AI threatens most CS majors just as much as any others. I would focus on doing a major in whatever field you're interested in and you have the most aptitude for. Then accrue internships and specialized in-demand skills to suit the moment you graduate. After that initial hire, you become more about your work history than your major.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:09     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
Oh good lord, stop over-hyping the capabilities of AI. Human minds created AI (there really isn’t anything approaching intelligence in there) and humans can tweak it to suit our needs.
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 15:06     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
What job prospects?
(I'm here all day, folks)
Anonymous
Post 05/16/2023 14:57     Subject: Value of an English degree in the age of AI?
I realize at this point it's difficult to tell which fields will be most impacted by AI, but it seems reasonable to assume that anything associated with writing will be a high contender, since that's where the most strides in AI have been made. How do you think this will affect the job prospects of English majors?