Jazz Wise: Because talent alone won’t pay the rent

Jazz Wise: Because talent alone won’t pay the rent. The Joy of Jazz brings the music industry into the room and puts young artists in the conversation.

What happened

Skip to main contentSkip to navigation Daniel Susskind: ‘We should try to be imaginative. ’ All photographs: Lydia Goldblatt/The GuardianView image in fullscreenDaniel Susskind: ‘We should try to be imaginative. ’ All photographs: Lydia Goldblatt/The GuardianI’m a father of three who studies the impact of artificial intelligence: this is what parents need to know about AIA Dr Seuss-style story written in seconds alerted me to the power – and perils – of the technology. One day, the story goes, the weather is so perfect that everyone in the world decides to stay away from Disneyland because they expect it to be far too busy.

Thirty years later, I was at my parents’ for dinner with my own children (eight, five and two). But becoming a dad of three small people has made these disruptions far more personal: it is clear that their future is going to look wildly different from my past. For my wife, that realisation really sunk in a few weeks ago, on a journey to her parents’ in Suffolk. But for my wife, a podcast and documentary maker, it was an unsettling moment as well: here was something that would have taken her and a talented team several days to make, and now it was being done without people.

Parents, watching their children use AI to solve problems and answer questions, wonder what they really know.

The wider picture

But at the same time, if we use this technology wisely, what difficult ideas might the next generation now grasp, ones that were beyond us when we were in their shoes? The reason they slipped up was because they had believed in the idea of “future-proof” skills, the thought that there exists some valuable set of skills that AI will not be able to do for some time – and that by thinking deeply enough about the future, we can accurately identify them.

But rather than attempting to resolve this uncertainty, we have to accept it and instead ask a different question: how do we prepare the next generation to flourish in a future that we actually know surprisingly little about? But one of the most important bits is to choose a profession because the problem interests you, not the job. Bluntly, if you go into medicine because you like the look of doctors on House, or law because of Suits, or marketing because of Mad Men, then you are going to be disappointed.

These jobs are soon going to look very different. It is the way we solve them, and the skills required to do so, that will look very different. Without hesitation, I would run towards AI and science – not because it is protected from automation, but because it is where the most excitement is likely to happen in years to come.

What has been reported

But how can children embrace it without forgetting core skills? When I was growing up, my dad and I often talked about a story we wanted to write together. It was called “The Day Nobody Went to Disneyland”. But my dad, who has the same thought as them, sees the disappointment on my face that morning – and decides to risk it. And when we arrive, the park is completely empty. We have everything – the rides, shows, food – to ourselves.

But, as so often happens, we were too busy to do anything about it. For some reason, the idea popped into my mind again.

What happens next

I told my oldest about it – and she wanted to hear the full thing. We turned to ChatGPT, gave it the vague outline and asked it to have a go at writing the story in the style of Dr Seuss (one of our favourites). Of course, what this AI generated wasn’t perfect. A few lines didn’t quite make sense; a few Americanisms had slipped in (“sneakers”, “cinnamon buns”). But that night on the sofa we had great fun together tweaking the prompts, refining the story, adding more scenes, working with this strange new creative partner to do something that had escaped my grasp for decades.

For the last 15 years, I have been exploring the impact of AI on work and society. Three children, confined in a car, stuttering along the A12, is a combustible setup.