𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀

The folks at Anthropic might have it figured out.

The maker of the Claude AI tool plans to triple the size of its communications team this year, according to a story published last week by Axios. 

"Claude is definitely a prominent team member for everyone, but comms people are sort of like BS detectors," Anthropic head of communications Sasha de Marigny told Axios. "I need very strong domain experts who can spot an oversimplified explanation or provide context that the model does not have."

That’s exactly right. None can doubt the extraordinary capability of artificial intelligence. None should doubt the probability that innate human inference can understand our minds and motives in ways a machine never will.

"Critical thinking is still a huge comparative advantage for humans,” de Marigny said.

We can't dismiss, of course, the inherent dangers of AI. The historian Yuval Noah Harari argues persuasively about the human tendency "to summon powers we cannot control." It's scary stuff.

Here’s my thinking, for what it’s worth: AI will obviously disintermediate the hard skills. Balance sheets, contracts, and code can be generated by AI tools today, and so can press releases. But AI can never disintermediate the soft skills — the attributes that make us uniquely human, like a handshake, a smile, and the eye contact that confirms someone is deeply listening to and connecting with another human being. 

It is in these exchanges that community and creativity flourish, in the same way that great improvisational musicians listen to each other on stage to create in that moment music never before heard. 

As AI becomes more prevalent, the soft skills will become more relevant. And cultivating the soft skills means returning to a time when the humanities and liberal arts were more prominent in our educational system. With computers covering the hard skills, we humans must focus more on what makes us uniquely human – books, music, art, philosophy, civics, and other explorations that elevate the spirit. (I'm inspired by the modern vintage enthusiasts buying vinyl albums and printed books.) That is also the best way to defend against the dangers identified by Harari.

I’ll admit that I’m talking my own book. This liberal arts major barely got of out high school because of calculus.

I now have a large number of successful college buddies for whom the off-campus bar was a second home and the library was a rumor. But they know how to strike up a conversation with strangers, to intelligently and civilly discuss the issues of the day, to detect BS, and to develop real human relationships. 

These are the kinds of people who will have the ultimate advantage (I hope) in the age of AI, not the robots that we fear.