Eric Iversen

Getting Ready for the Future

From a For You page on TikTok to Netflix recommendations to shopping on Amazon, artificial intelligence is at work in high schoolers’ lives every day all the time. And that’s just what we can see. In countless other, much-less visible ways, AI is moving deeply and quickly into nearly every realm of their experience. This lightning rate of change, of course, applies to careers, too, and we need an approach to understanding and using AI that can support students as they plot their transition from school to careers.

Not Necessarily Technical Knowledge Needed

This transition to an AI-driven workplace might not be taking the shape that many people assume, though. Of all US job openings posted in early 2024, only about two percent directly involved AI-related technical skills. And among these jobs, the skills in most demand involve analyzing and understanding the data that goes into AI systems.

 For the 98 percent not aiming for the technical AI job market, AI will be a tool they need to know how to use but not necessarily one they know how to make. Just as students will have to know how to use words and numbers in nearly every job they will have, as of basically now, they will also need to know how to use AI tools. Becoming “literate” in AI – understanding how AI works, what it is and is not good for, and some of the risks and shortfalls associated with it – is vital.

AI Literacy Broken Down

So what do we actually mean by “AI literacy”? One way to think about it is in terms of escalating competencies.

1. Be aware of and able to identify AI tools.

2. Know how they are used.

3. Be able to operate and adapt them to specific situations.

4. Understand the social and ethical context in which they are used.

 Here’s how these competencies might break down in ways that could relate to specific work-related applications.

Awareness

With facial recognition systems, for example, the first level of AI literacy could mean identifying the Face ID function of a phone as an example of AI. In the workplace, a border control officer uses a facial recognition system to confirm that real people passing through a checkpoint are the same people as shown in their passport pictures.

Uses

At the next level of AI literacy, you would be able to identify and even imagine multiple uses of facial recognition systems. Based on understanding how a dataset of faces could be used to train an AI system, you could describe various applications of such a system. A police investigator might compare footage of a violent street scene with images of social media profiles to identify individuals committing crimes on camera. Or a doctor might compare images of a patient’s face with faces of other sick people to identify symptoms of disease that the naked eye would miss.

Operating AI Systems

Advanced AI literacy can involve working more directly with AI systems to adjust or even improve their operation. Understanding how to modify a training dataset means you can improve how well a system works or even adapt it for completely different purposes. At a bank, you might apply facial recognition systems to online transactions, enabling customers to make payments by just snapping a selfie in the checkout line.

The Social and Cultural Context

Finally, it’s crucial to understand the broader social and cultural context in which AI systems are used. Early facial recognition systems that could reliably identify only white men were not mistakes. Instead, they reflected basic realities about AI – the systems are only as good as the datasets and algorithms used to build them. Training an AI system using mostly white male faces will teach it recognize white male faces as the norm, and faces of different colors and shapes – those of Black women, for example – will not reliably register as faces at all.

Advanced AI literacy includes understanding that an algorithm is basically a worldview or opinion embedded in math. And if the people who build algorithms bring biases – conscious or unconscious – to the programs they write, the AI systems will reproduce that bias and cause damage in the world. For these reasons, AI development needs to involve diverse cohorts of designers and programmers. And AI systems need built-in safeguards that address transparency in datasets and programming, safety rules, protections against misuse or abuse, and who is responsible for when and how to use them.

A Need for All

Not every career will require AI literacy at all these levels. But as fast as AI is developing, we can assume that every career will require using AI systems in some way at some time. AI literacy, as much as any other skill we can impart to students, will help them stand out in the workplace and function more fully as citizens in the AI-driven future that awaits all of us.

Our New AI Publication

For much more about AI literacy and other career-related AI topics, be on the lookout for our upcoming book, AI & Your Career. It will help high school students (and their teachers and parents!) prepare themselves to succeed in the AI-driven workplace that awaits them. Evolving at hyper speed, this workplace will require a grasp of AI principles and capabilities as well as an ability to keep up with the AI-driven changes taking place all around them. AI & Your Career covers field-changing, innovative AI applications in industries of all kinds and details educational and employment options in both technical and non-technical arenas.

 With an August publication date, AI & Your Career will be available for the school year ahead and even late-summer learning programs looking for resources to teach students about artificial intelligence. Please be in touch with any questions, and feel free to forward to any interested friends or colleagues.

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Eric Iversen is VP for Learning and Communications at Start Engineering. Comments and feedback are always welcome.

Our goal at Start Engineering is to help make STEM careers imaginable and accessible to kids of all backgrounds and interests. We publish educational and career outreach books in STEM fields like engineering, cybersecurity, and biotechnology, with more topics to come. Check out our newest releases here!