How should today’s teens think about their futures in an AI-driven world? Kathleen deLaski, founder of the Education Design Lab, former ABC News White House correspondent, and author of Who Needs College Anymore?, joined us to share why she’s optimistic about the opportunities ahead. Kathleen spoke about how young people can experiment with new tools, stay curious, and prepare for careers that will thrive even as technology reshapes the job market.
Michael Horn:
On this episode, we’re thrilled to welcome Kathleen deLaski. Kathleen spent the first part of her career as a TV and then digital journalist, including time as the ABC News White House correspondent before she was appointed as the Pentagon's first female spokesperson. More recently, Kathleen founded the Education Design Lab and served as its CEO for a decade before moving on. And she's also the author of the book Who Needs College Anymore? So, Jean, I think it's fair to say she'll have a lot to say on the question that you have for her.
Jean Eddy:
Yes. Michael. And Kathleen, welcome to the podcast! It's great to see you and have you here. The question we have for you is this: Given the debate on a college ROI, the volatile job market and the impact of AI, et cetera, what advice would you give a middle or high schooler who is thinking about their futures and the different careers they might want to pursue?
Kathleen deLaski:
When I think about what it will be like in five or 10 years when today’s teenagers are finishing either high school and going directly to work or college and starting their careers, I get very excited for you all because I feel like AI, rather than taking a lot of jobs away, there'll be some shifting around, sure, but mostly you'll have such a personal set of tools in your pocket to, to accelerate your learning curve and to get more interesting things done and to ask better questions. I think it will be very energizing and powerful as a set of tools for, you know, any, particularly a younger person, who’s coming into the workforce.
So how do you get those jobs though, when perhaps some might argue—as they are arguing—that that robots will take some jobs away?
I think the way about it is that no matter what you want to do, if you want to do a more human-focused job like a doctor, a nurse, something with your hands where you're physically building stuff, you know, those jobs sound today to us, particularly robot proof. But even for those jobs, you're going to need to know how to bring all of the massive information that's going to be, that we'll be able to manage at our fingertips, you need to be able to bring that to bear to, you know, get, get your work done or to excel in field.
And if you're in one of those jobs or in one of those fields where we're quite worried about some jobs going away, what we call the knowledge jobs. I think in those cases, it's just even more important that you think about, you know, not necessarily today, but as you're moving along and as you see technology advancing even in your own daily life, like, how do you experiment with some of the, some of the tools and some of the applications that might make your life today easier? How do you kind of stay on your own cutting edge? Whether it's, you know, using social media or doing your schoolwork or, you know, organizing your, you know, your basketball team, whatever your, whatever your, whatever opportunities your life brings you, to be curious and to ask a lot of questions, to challenge facts, I think, you know, the more you can keep up with that and stay, you know, kind of ahead of it, you'll, you'll, you'll do very well in a world, no matter how fast changing it is.
The Future of Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelbhorn.substack.com/subscribe
