Big AI is trying to own the pathway to work. Universities shouldn’t play along | Ella Hafermalz

Big AI is trying to own the pathway to work. Universities shouldn’t play along | Ella Hafermalz. Universities shouldn’t play alongElla HafermalzUniversities need protect their position in education so that students have an independent pathway to employmentAI companies like OpenAI are insinuating themselves into the pathway from education to work.

What happened

Universities need protect their position in education so that students have an independent pathway to employmentAI companies like OpenAI are insinuating themselves into the pathway from education to work. Soon they may claim it entirely, a disastrous result for students. We know that students are using AI at school and at university. In conversations with those I teach, I’m struck by the trust many place in it. They turn to ChatGPT and similar tools for personal problems as well as study help. Some even doubt their abilities without AI. Ella Hafermalz is an associate professor of work and technology at the Kin Center for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Continue reading. . .

Skip to main contentSkip to navigation ‘OpenAI could soon be selling young people a one-stop-shop for learning, credentials and a job, all heavily dependent on its tools. ’ Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreen‘OpenAI could soon be selling young people a one-stop-shop for learning, credentials and a job, all heavily dependent on its tools. ’ Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesBig AI is trying to own the pathway to work. We shouldn’t hand the pathway to work to big AII understand that the picture I’ve painted here may be appealing to some.

Ella Hafermalz is an associate professor of work and technology at the Kin Center for Digital Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Explore more on these topicsTechnologyReworkedAI (artificial intelligence)commentShareReuse this contentMost viewedMost viewed They already own the tools where learning and work are increasingly happening – next, they can compete with universities by brokering access to employment. Consider what a 23-year-old recently told the Wall Street Journal when discussing the appeal of “white-collar apprenticeships”: “Companies want to help mold you into the employees they’re looking for. ”That may be so, but if commercial actors own the pathway from education to work, how will the next generation learn who they are and could be outside of the immediate demands of these structures?

That means offering education, credentials and access to work – owning the entire pipeline, infusing AI at every step.

The wider picture

The company is positioning itself to directly compete with universities. As big AI companies search for a business model beyond subscriptions, universities need to be alert to this threat and urgently protect their position. Big AI is slowly commandeering the pathwayEven though many young people are ambivalent towards AI, it’s easy to see why they’d trust a service that’s explained accounting calmly and patiently for the 20th time and counselled them through a breakup.

It’s sending over 150 “forward deployed engineers”, a military metaphor used to describe engineers embedded in companies, to the “frontlines” of its network of organisations to re-engineer work around OpenAI’s tools. But a company that is at the centre of shaping work across industries also sees and influences what employers are looking for. It can help shape the skills employers want, while becoming increasingly involved in how students learn those skills and prepare for work.

So, OpenAI will have insight and influence over students and their learning on one hand, and employers’ workflows and needs on the other. With that, all that is needed for OpenAI to unbundle universities is credentialing.

What has been reported

The difference this time is how the credentials fit into a larger ambition to capture every step of the journey from learning to work. Look at the language it uses to sell the delivery of the program: “A full learning experience is available directly inside ChatGPT, where learners can practice real tasks, receive feedback in context, and reflect on their work in a single environment. Students are nervous about their futures, and employers are urgently seeking workers with the ‘right’ skills.

Universities can and should offer an alternative path to a totalizing “single environment”. Soon they may claim it entirely, a disastrous result for students. We know that students are using AI at school and at university. In conversations with those I teach, I’m struck by the trust many place in it. They turn to ChatGPT and similar tools for personal problems as well as study help.

What happens next

But we need to urgently look up from the use of AI to pay attention to big AI companies’ attempts to take over the educational pipeline, else we lose sight of the people that matter, our students. The industry has spent the past few years making our young people afraid of unemployment. On a website introducing its new certification programs, OpenAI gives a peek into the bigger picture. The company says it wants to “connect learning, certification and real economic opportunity in one clear journey, laying the foundation for our upcoming OpenAI Jobs Platform”.

I don’t mean that we’ll soon see shiny new ChatGPT campuses. These companies don’t need to build a university out of bricks and mortar to take over key parts of higher education. Otherwise, the possibility of an independent path for students may be lost.