Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Joseph E. Aoun. He holds a masters in Oriental Languages and Literature at the Université Saint-Joseph and a PhD in Linguistics at MIT. He joined the University of Southern California in 1982 as a Linguistics Professor. Currently he is serving as the 7th president of Northeastern University.
The automation of jobs was certainly a threat to low-skilled workers in the 1980s. Today the advancement of Artificial Intelligence is certainly empowering systems and robots to confront knowledge workers in traditionally highly-skilled jobs with the same threat. In fact, this includes jobs that focused on high tech skills including interpreting medical images, legal research, and analyzing data.
So, how can higher education prepare students for a career as Artificial Intelligence is surging across markets? Dr. Aoun is advancing the idea that a way to educate current college students is to invent, create, and discover needs across society that Artificial Intelligence cannot currently address.
Therefore, he is introducing a position to create a mindset that he called humanics. This framework builds upon education models that prepare students to enter a workforce with robots and smart machines working alongside them. This includes computer literacy
Accordingly, he points to the development of IBM Watson in cancer research. This provided oncologists with faster diagnosis and efficient treatment plans. Then Watson moved from hospitals to the New York City Public School system. Watson has been advising teachers on effective teaching practices based upon Artificial Intelligence.