The Rise of AI: How Students Can Adapt & Thrive in a Changing Job Landscape

Photo Credits: AI

  By: Olivia Cannon 

As a junior in high school, who is constantly getting told that I need to pick a career, I am also getting told that I need to be careful because some career fields are being taken over by artificial intelligence (AI). I'm extremely confused. What kind of jobs are being taken over? If we are not supposed to use AI in class, how are we going to be prepared to use it in our future careers, are the schools preparing us for this, or are they just throwing us into the world not knowing whether AI is a useful tool or the enemy?  Are there going to be any jobs left? What do the teachers think? I have so many questions, and luckily, I got to talk to a lot of intelligent people at the High School to help clear up some of my questions and figure out how to approach AI. 

“I think that people who are familiar with it, who can write good prompts, who can get what they want out of it, are going to be in higher demand,” said Erik Olsen, a history teacher at Jenks High School. “One example I've heard a lot is paralegals, Chat GTP can do the work of thirty paralegals way faster than they can, so you're going to see companies start cutting jobs that are specifically information systems, because you don't need thirty paralegals anymore, you can have one paralegal who does the job of thirty much faster.” 

Olsen believes that Artificial intelligence is going to cause job losses,  and we can already see that happening.  According to a Fobes article In April of 2024, there were 47,436 jobs lost due to the new technology and AI. With all the job cuts it makes you not only worried about getting and keeping a job, but the unemployment rate too.

“Being a history person, I've seen that anytime that a new technology has come along,  initially, there is a time where there is job loss, but a lot of times there are new jobs that are created,” said Curt Sharp a U.S. history and government teacher at Jenks High School. “Some people who study this have seen that AI may be so good at its job that there isn't something necessary to replace it. Sometimes if people lose their job, they can take another one, but if AI  does its job so well there won't be jobs for them to take. I don't know if new jobs will be created, that's where governments have been talking about how they may have to have something like universal income to basically give a certain amount to their citizens, enough to live on because jobs won't be available. I think we're far off from that but that's something that governments around the world are starting to look at.”

Although Sharp thinks that the job market may be impacted so badly, to the point of having to have a government sponsored check to live off of, there are many possibilities of what could happen and lots of people have different opinions. 

“Ever since the onset of the cotton gin hundreds of years ago, people have always complained about how technology is going to take our jobs,” said Dr. David Conelly, a British literature and AP Literature teacher at Jenks High School. “Ever since I was a kid in the eighty’s I've heard robots are going to take our jobs. AI is a different sort of situation. There are some rote tasks that don't require a lot of creativity that a computer can do a lot faster than people, so I think eventually it will cut into the job market. With that being said, I think there are a lot of jobs it will create, like computer jobs or jobs working with AI. I think that a lot of kiddos will go to school to learn about computer information systems, and there will be a lot of new jobs that we didn't even think about back in the day. So, I think the market will balance itself out, but in the short term the next ten or fifteen years, it will cut into some jobs.” 

Although, we don't know anything for certain in the future. We do know, as of now, the job market is becoming more competitive. So what kind of things do we need to be focusing on to put us ahead of the other people?  Olsen said that we need to know how to manipulate AI to be able to find the answers we need. Sharp also has a similar idea. 

“One thing for students being able to focus on other skills like soft skills, communication, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, I think the students that work on those aspects will set themselves apart from the others,” said Sharp.

While Olsen and Sharp have good ideas to help prepare us for the future, I’ve always been told that using AI is cheating, is it not? Are we allowed to be using AI for schoolwork?

“Unfortunately as of right now the Jenks High School policy is that no AI is to be used on any assignment, so there is a complete moratorium on it. I do know Mr.Biller is putting together an AI task force to talk about how we can ethically use AI in the classroom. As of right now it's not being encouraged at all,” said Connley.

“We're pulling a group of teachers together to start examining that issue,” said David Biller, the site principal at Jenks High School while talking about students using AI. “What we do know is anytime there's an advancement in technology it changes our lifestyle and it also changes the way that we teach or learn certain things.” 

A task force for AI sounds like it could be a great idea. AI is going to be a very big part of our future, and this task force could help the students at Jenks if it's done right, and a lot of the teachers are for this choice, and think that teaching how to use AI is a necessity. 

“I think teaching them responsibly and first of all not being scared of it,” said Sharp. “I think as history teaches, when new technology comes around, the people who are able to understand it and utilize it typically have a competitive advantage over other people. I think schools right now especially have a responsibility to not shy away from it, but actually embrace it and teach people how to use it responsibly and to show them the various capacities that it has. Viewing it as a tool and not as something to fight, I think will make humanity better, people's lives easier and free up more time, but at the same time, there is going to be some pain with it.”

Seeing as how important Artificial Intelligence is going to be for our future, I think that it's also important to see what the school is doing right now to prepare us for the future with AI. 

Photo Credits: jenksps.org

“I would actually say a lot of what you see with portraits of a graduate, that poster should be up in every classroom,” said Biller while talking about how they're helping students prepare for a future with artificial Intelligence. “A lot of those attributes you see listed there play into the kind of skills that's going to allow someone to be successful. Those are the six attributes right there: self-advocate, problem solver, collaborator,  resilient, empathetic, effective communicator. To be more successful now and you definitely need those skills to be successful in the future, none of those say, as a  portrait of a graduate, you need to be able to use artificial intelligence, but obviously, if you have these attributes you know how to leverage artificial intelligence to help you collaborate to help you problem solve those are going to be skills that will help you be successful in the future.” 

While the school is trying their best to figure out how to teach us to use AI as a tool, they have already figured out some of the amazing things it can do, and not only the teachers but also the principals are using AI to become better at their job. 

“I would say that the principles using artificial intelligence have helped with a lot of brainstorming, and developing plans. If you want to develop a professional development workshop, you can do it five times quicker if you have artificial intelligence to help you develop it,” said Biller.

Some of the teachers use Artificial Intelligence on a daily basis and you wouldn't even be able to tell that Chat GTP helped them create the lesson they are teaching you. 

“I use it literally every day. I will upload my lesson plan and ask AI how it can make it better, make it more engaging, make something more clear. I also use it for history class to generate pictures of a historical event that there aren't any photo records of to visually help students understand lessons better,” said Sharp.

Although there are many ways AI can be used as a tool to help us, it can also be dangerous and could cause more damage than it would help. 

“If we rely too heavily on AI, it will make us stupider, it will make us lazy, and not be able to do things. So I think there's a nuanced way that we can think about how to use it just like any tool, but then I do think sometimes it can be too much of a crutch,” said Connely.

Olsen has a very similar view to Sharp, and thinks it's very important to be using AI in classrooms as soon as possible.

“I think that there is going to be Some growing pains For how teachers view AI. I think that there are always going to be some teachers who are for  it and some people who don't want to adapt to it,” said Olsen.  “My worry for teachers is that we're already behind The curve. What teachers are doing right now is probably not enough. We have to think about where we are going, what we are building towards, and if we're building a system or a society that says no no no don't do AI we're not going to reap all the benefits of it.”

Overall, I think artificial intelligence is going to be a very big part of our future, and will not be going away. If anything, it is definitely going to be getting bigger and more complicated. Because of that, I think that learning how to use AI is very important, and will put you ahead of your peers who haven't learned how to use AI, and it is very important that we get artificial intelligence into our school's curriculum, so we can be better prepared for our future. 

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