The most important skill of the future is judgment.

Submitted by warkel t3_10rgb80 in Futurology

Imagine a future where students are expected to use a chatGPT-like AI to write their college essays. Would we expect the quality of their essays to be equal?

No.

Those with the best essays are those who are best able to use AI. These people treat the initial output of the AI as merely a draft. They judge and critique the draft. They go through revision after revision. They do not cease until the essay is to a standard that they deem fit.

In the end, the line between student or AI authorship is blurred. One can only be sure that it is a collaboration between the two.

Thus, the most important skill here is judgment. The ability to evaluate work critically, pinpoint shortcomings, and articulate improvements for an AI to execute.

The example I've given here is for essays. But it could be for interior design, video animation, financial projections, etc.

What do y'all think?

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Comments

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plknkl_ t1_j6vypjb wrote

True. Everyone forgets what is the real goal of any technology or human skill, and that's - solving problems.

Already today the real problem on the internet is the infinity of contradictory information, so the skill one should acquire is the ability to navigate this infinite ocean of information, and that requires precisely judgement.

I can already envision a type of student test where the teacher generates with AI two contradictory statements on an argument, and the student have to elaborate and explain what's wrong with one or another.

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warkel OP t1_j6w15pc wrote

Yeah. Especially given that AI at the moment is likely to generate false information when it lacks information. Also, there's no way to know that information it is trained on is fact.

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Surur t1_j6wfend wrote

When you say "the future" do you mean 2023-2026, because these AI tools will continue to improve, so we cant really say what the quality of an AI-produced piece of work will be in 5 years time.

You are assuming it will be lower than a human-produced work, but it could be the opposite.

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Crivos t1_j6wlnqh wrote

True, very possible that AI could write a masterpiece in the first draft if the technology is polished enough.

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warkel OP t1_j6wnwhv wrote

I'm talking like far in the future, where indeed every piece of work created by an AI could be a masterpiece. But there will always be degrees of difference between AI output generated by people who are skillful and those who are not.

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Crivos t1_j6wqq8w wrote

Though I think you are right I tend to believe the opposite. I believe human altered text will be noticeably inferior to AI text in a very near future.

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warkel OP t1_j6zxm6q wrote

I agree that the most basic AI output could eventually come to surpass even the best human output. After all, the AI can draw upon ALL human writing of all time.

But to say that human altered text would be inferior is to say that the work is so perfect that any alteration would be detractive. On this point, I'm not so sure. Especially since what is "best" is often subjective.

Human alteration could vary the style or feel of the AI's work. Like how we would say Van Gogh and Leonardo Da Vinci are both great artists, but their differences are not on who is better, it's just different styles.

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OlderAndAngrier t1_j6wpf8n wrote

Critical source thinking is already one of the most important skills.

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Miketogoz t1_j6vp4g2 wrote

Exactly. I apply this thinking to the whole artists vs art generators debacle. It's sad to see them so myopic, when in reality, it's not that lay people can be mediocre artists, is that mediocre artists can become true genius.

I myself can create some pretty pictures, sure. But I lack the knowledge to edit the imperfections, to generate more content without modifying the central piece, to portray exactly what I need.

Is just another tool. Regarding education, I wonder how many fearmongers where all about "memorizing and vomiting everything is soo outdated" and now fear ai. This sub is full of people that should stay on r/conspiracy.

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warkel OP t1_j6w12bc wrote

Yeah the implications to education are interesting. I am thinking that instead of teaching our children how to code an app, it would be better to teach them how to discern what makes an app good. Then, when they tell an AI to code an app, they're able to judge with confidence what's good or bad.

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CathodeRayNoob t1_j6ybnlk wrote

Public speaking will be more important. Not necessarily in front of a crowd. But your ability to speak to others and present will become vital.

No other way to stand out in the world of AI-assisted content creation.

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warkel OP t1_j6zw7bj wrote

You should check out Synthesia, feed it some text, and it'll create a video presentation of a human talking. It's definitely not as good as a real presenter at the moment, but it's just a matter of time.

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CathodeRayNoob t1_j70gaii wrote

I should have clarified I meant for irl interactions; which will become necessary for anything important thanks to all the digital fakes.

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[deleted] t1_j6whx5u wrote

The most important skill in the future is to just enjoy yourself and help others. Why strain your brain so hard just to maybe keep up with the AI another few years？Just learn to be kind to others and be empathetic. Who cares if you can spot logical errors in ChatGPT output? Once that goes- then what?

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warkel OP t1_j6wnlip wrote

Learning to be happy is probably the most important and timeless skill of all. But in the context of earning a living in an AI future, then my sentiment still remains the same.

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hanatheko t1_j71qvx3 wrote

Someone brought up an interesting analogy to this whole chatGPT frenzy. He mentioned scientists and mathematicians were equally spooked when graphic calculators came out. Yep, humans adapt to new technologies.

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netherfountain t1_j6vl280 wrote

Rings true. It's hard to imagine that AI is going to push out much finished work in the near future besides click bait random information articles. Those types of articles are about to completely engulf the internet. So many opportunities for ads.

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warkel OP t1_j6vlyfw wrote

Yeah. This is especially evident with the image generation AIs like DALL-E and Midjourney. The results generated by users are clearly not equal.

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sparklequest64 t1_j70fz7r wrote

No, you have included too many recursive steps. A student won't be able to tell what a good paper is unless they could write an informed paper on the same subject. And now you want them to also know how to build AI, which is a totally different subject. AI won't magically imbue the whole world with the knowledge to do things. Presumably it would take an expert to "grow" an AI that could just write passable articles, that's the normal circumstance for judgment. Congratulations, in a situation where nobody knows or learns anything but how to perform tech maintenance you've turned us into robot slaves.

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Dumguy1214 t1_j716c60 wrote

people say that I am lazer beam that cuts through everything

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californiarepublik t1_j7641cn wrote

they are wrong

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Dumguy1214 t1_j7644wh wrote

well, one woman said that

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californiarepublik t1_j764lp9 wrote

the most important skill of the future is judgement

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Dumguy1214 t1_j764xe8 wrote

I dont judge people or nations

I might touch on matters that I think we can fix

I would rather be a electrician then Mr Judgment

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Exel0n t1_j6w7a8q wrote

schools will be obsolete in the future.

modern school is an invention in the 18th century. totally outdated. only reason they still exist in current form is coz of cultural inertia and they're part of the government.

with internet and ai, things can be learned much more efficiently than those traditional schools

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[deleted] t1_j6whtbd wrote

also with AI the reason to learn things at all diminishes. So thats nice

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