In the age of artificial intelligence, being knowledgeable — memorizing facts, or knowing where to go find them — isn’t nearly as valuable as learning how to ask great questions, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“There will be a kind of ability we still really value, but it will not be raw, intellectual horsepower to the same degree,” Altman told Wharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant’s “ReThinking” podcast, in an episode that published last week. “Figuring out what questions to ask will be more important than figuring out the answer.”
Understanding how to ask thought-provoking questions, especially when trying to understand or add broader context to an idea, is already an important skill, Grant noted.
“We used to put a premium on how much knowledge you had collected in your brain, and if you were a fact collector, that made you smart and respected,” said Grant. “Now, I think it’s much more valuable to be a connector of dots … If you can synthesize and recognize patterns, you have an edge.”
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Altman’s observation could be interpreted in a couple ways: ask other people great questions, or design questions for AI chatbots so they’ll give you the answers you need, a process known as prompt engineering. (OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for clarification.)
Asking other people clear, concise questions can show empathy or establish your credibility, communication expert Matt Abrahams told CNBC Make It last year. And prompt engineers are in “crazy demand,” Lydia Logan, IBM’s vice president of global education and workforce development, said in June, with some jobs paying over $100,000 a year.
Altman isn’t the only entrepreneur preaching the career value of soft skills. Curiosity, adaptability and mental agility are the three top skills young people need to land jobs, both today and in the future job market, billionaire investor Mark Cuban told CNBC Make It last year.
“I can pretend that I’m going to be able to predict where AI’s going and the exact impact on the job market, but I’d be lying. I have no idea,” Cuban said. “But I do know that I am going to pay attention, and be agile, and be curious, and be able to adapt.”
Recruiters are particularly looking for adaptability among job applicants right now, with employers placing a premium on workers who can adjust to new situations over time, according to a LinkedIn blog post published last year.
AI could eventually take over most workplaces’ administrative tasks, but it won’t entirely replace human intellect, Altman predicted. Instead, people will need to help the technology learn critical thinking skills to strengthen arguments and come up with new ideas, he said.
“I have certainly gotten the greatest professional joy from having to really creatively reason through a problem and figure out an answer that no one’s figured out before,” said Altman, adding: “What I expect to happen in reality is, there’s going to be a new way we work on the hard problems.”
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