Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle
“Between 1929 and 2013, educational institutions’ share of gross domestic product quintupled, not because parents and taxpayers wanted students to ‘learn to think’ or become better citizens, but because college graduates earn a hefty wage premium. AI chatbots threaten that premium in two ways. First, it is radically devaluing many of the skills that colleges taught, such as (the journalist pauses in alarm) the ability to research a topic and turn those facts into competent prose. Schools are starting to talk about how to teach kids new skills that are becoming valuable, such as writing useful prompts for the chatbot, but it’s not clear that they’re best positioned for that task. If you were starting from scratch to make the population AI-literate, you would probably not choose an institution with its roots in the medieval era, nor one staffed by tenure-track professors, who have a median age of 49.” (09/30/24)