How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Your Career

1 unit

Today's undergraduate students have been promised-or maybe threatened-that they will graduate into an economy utterly upended by artificial intelligence. Less than six months after the launch of OpenAl's ChatGPT, Goldman Sachs reported that generative Al could replace 300 million jobs and a quarter of work tasks in the ones that remain. Those figures are probably overblown, but Al has already started changing professions across the entire economy-sometimes in earnest ways, and others through the consequences of Al hype. Where does this leave you, as a student who might hope to enter the workforce in the next one to four years? This one-credit, pass/fail course offers an overview of how actual professions are contending with Al. Each week, a guest from an industry in which WashU graduates have historically pursued careers (derived from data collected by the university's Center for Career Engagement) will join the class to discuss what's happening now in their profession, and what they see on the horizon. Some of you may know (or think you know) exactly what job you want-doctor, lawyer, financier, software engineer, whatever . Students change their minds, but they also end up in different jobs than they expect. No matter what career you choose, you will also find yourself working with professionals across sectors. For that reason, students will benefit from a broad view of the whole Al economy, not just the narrow part of it you currently think applies to your career goals. In addition to learning from professionals on the ground, students will also take an active role in imagining the Al future of a career, through a future forecasting method called design fiction. Design fiction involves creating a designed object (such as a quick-start guide, a menu, a mailing, an advertisement, a how-to video-or really anything!) that imagines how it might feel to live in a world that works differently from our own. This is a one-unit course graded pass/fail based on attendance and completion of a project.