After searching for an article for about 20 minutes with no luck, my boss suggested I try asking ChatGPT. As a humanities major whose most employable skill is research, I had thus far avoided AI on moral principles. So, when AI found the perfect article in four seconds, I was floored. Were my job prospects out the window?
Since I could no longer ignore AI, I started worrying — and I’m not alone. A recent New York Times opinion piece claimed that AI will soon replace hours of entry-level professional work by performing basic coding and combing through law documents. This will increase the rising unemployment rate of recent college graduates, and current Claremont students will have a harder time finding a job that requires their degree.
College students generally earn their degree in hopes of achieving a higher salary, so the prospect of being unemployed after graduation is scary. We could fight this fear by hoping that companies don’t end up actually finding uses for AI, but with AI already being used in driverless cars, customer service, search engines and travel agencies, the chances of that are slim.
Instead, we should remember that this isn’t the first time technology has threatened the job market. When the computer was invented, people feared that millions of professional jobs would be lost — and many were. Most secretaries lost their jobs to machines that made it easier to book meetings and take notes. At the time this was terrifying, but we can see now that long-term job growth did not disappear. Instead, computing increased the country’s productivity, and a growing economy generated even more jobs.
So, there is hope that in the long run our skills and career aspirations will evolve to fit a job market that is changed, but not gone. But to get that first job after graduation, we might want to pay attention to AI.
We can start by discussing AI’s impact on our future careers. In the age of computing, students are often warned that it is difficult to find a job with a humanities degree. In the age of AI, those striving towards more historically lucrative degrees may have to similarly adjust their career expectations, or their majors. Though we should major in what we enjoy, it would be irresponsible to completely ignore the evolving job prospects associated with degrees such as accounting or computer science.
At the same time, we must remember that education serves a purpose beyond employment. As a liberal arts consortium, the Claremont Colleges pride themselves on teaching students to think critically, so there is no debate over whether to abolish the essay or eliminate basic coding classes. Even if AI can one day write better essays than we can, the point of these assignments is to learn how to use our brains, a skill that is not yet obsolete.
Nevertheless, if part of the reason for earning our degrees is to get a job, we must face the reality that AI will increasingly play a role in that job. To help students prepare for this transition, the Claremont Colleges should continue to host events and discussions about AI. They should also offer a few hands-on prompt engineering classes to teach interested students how to effectively leverage AI.
More importantly, students should do research about how and when their career paths might be shut down. This does not have to be doomsday-prep, but an increased awareness could go a long way. I, for one, would be more willing to learn how to use AI effectively and in creative ways.
We may fear AI innovation, but we cannot ignore it forever. Instead, we must be mindful of AI’s impact on what skills we consider useful and search for career paths that are resilient to AI disruption. With some willingness to accept change and a bit of luck, we may be able to enter the job market relatively unscathed.
Malin Moeller SC ’27 is from Washington, D.C., the newest site of Waymo expansion. While she worries that AI will deskill her future job, she is excited for robo-cars to drive her home from it.
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