Welcome to AI book reviews, a series of posts that explore the latest literature on artificial intelligence. Advances in artificial intelligence in the early 2010s, particularly in deep learning, triggered a new wave of panic and fear about technological unemployment. Further intensifying those fears were a host of sensational articles about the magical capabilities of AI algorithms and ambiguous statements by company executives creating the impression that human-level AI is just around the corner. But the past few years have only highlighted the limits of current AI technologies. At the turn of the decade, as the world locked down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, we got to see whether the promises of artificial intelligence and robots replacing humans would materialize.

Advances in artificial intelligence in the early 2010s, particularly in deep learning, triggered a new wave of panic and fear about technological unemployment. Further intensifying those fears were a host of sensational articles about the magical capabilities of AI algorithms and ambiguous statements by company executives creating the impression that human-level AI is just around the corner. But the past few years have only highlighted the limits of current AI technologies. At the turn of the decade, as the world locked down to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, we got to see whether the promises of artificial intelligence and robots replacing humans would materialize. But while AI isn't ready to replace humans, there's no denying that it will change the employment landscape, including areas that were previously considered to be off-limits for technology and automation. AI will not eliminate humans, but it will redefine the economy, creating many new jobs and making some of the old jobs obsolete or less dependent on human intelligence.

During the first industrial revolution there was chaos. Machines had taken over many of the jobs that were once reliant upon a steady stream of human workers. In the fields mechanized harvesting equipment replaced people who harvested crops by hand. There was a general feeling that soon there wouldn't be any work for those who did the hardest of jobs. But as the economy shifted so did the job opportunities for those workers, and they moved into jobs like manufacturing and service industries.

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As advanced machines and computers become more and more proficient at picking investments, diagnosing disease symptoms, and conversing in natural English, it is difficult not to wonder what the limits to their capabilities are. This is why many observers believe in technology's potential to disrupt our economy--and our civilization--is unprecedented. Over the past few years, my conversations with students entering the workforce and the business leaders who hire them have revealed something important: to stay relevant in this new economic reality, higher education needs a dramatic realignment. Instead of educating college students for jobs that are about to disappear under the rising tide of technology, twenty-first-century universities should liberate them from outdated career models and give them ownership of their own futures. They should equip them with the literacies and skills they need to thrive in this new economy defined by technology, as well as continue providing them with access to the learning they need to face the challenges of life in a diverse, global environment. Higher education needs a new model and a new orientation away from its dual focus on undergraduate and graduate students.

Artificial intelligence is all around us. As I shared in Content Creation Robots Are Here, billions of AI-created pieces of content are published yearly. What does this mean for humans who create content? Are you in danger of losing a job? Despite the growth in artificial intelligence capabilities, the human content writer is needed more than ever.