The Growing Value of Humanities in the Age of AI
In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, skills traditionally associated with the humanities are gaining new relevance. According to Steven Johnson, the editorial director of NotebookLM, a new role called the “AI wrangler” is emerging, requiring knowledge of AI models and their capabilities. This shift suggests a potential career renaissance for those with backgrounds in fields like philosophy and psychology.
The ‘Revenge of the Humanities’
Johnson, who has co-founded several startups and worked as an author, is now instrumental in building Google’s AI-powered research tool, NotebookLM. He believes the rise of large language models (LLMs) marks a “revenge of the humanities.” He emphasized that philosophical and psychological skills are particularly useful. “There’s just a whole set of questions around AI that no one was thinking about, except for philosophers, until about two years ago,” Johnson explained, highlighting the critical importance of these skills.
One major aspect of this shift involves fine-tuning the tone and conversational mode of AI models. Johnson references Amanda Askell, a philosopher working as an alignment fine-tuning researcher for Anthropic. She is involved in “character training” for AI models, grappling with complex questions about moral considerations and human principles.
Askell, in a June interview posted by Anthropic, described how building the character of Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, feels “philosophically rich.” When asked if it was strange for a philosopher to train an AI model, Askell responded, “Lots of people are like, ‘See, I told you the degree would be useful.'”
The Role of the ‘AI Wrangler’
Before the current role, Johnson initially assisted in writing prompts for AI models at Google Labs. As AI advanced further, the role of prompt engineer captured the attention of English majors interested in the field of AI. However, he anticipates that prompting methods will change, especially as AI models become better at rewriting prompts themselves. This will lead to the emergence of the “AI wrangler,” something that Johnson refers to as the next stage of the prompt engineer.
An AI wrangler doesn’t necessarily need coding expertise, according to Johnson. Instead, it involves a deep understanding of the latest models and their functions. He gave the example of using AI to create a 30-second animated video, where an AI wrangler would know the correct tool and how to use it. Johnson said the role requires “a certain level of technical sophistication,” but coding skills are not necessary.
Johnson feels that one of the most important skills to learn right now is functional fluency in the latest models and their respective functions. “That’s just a general purpose skill that is actually going to be valuable in every single industry,” he said.
The Continued Importance of Technical Skills
While humanities skills are becoming more valuable, technical skills are not decreasing in value. Those from humanities backgrounds may need to build technical skills. For instance, a Google AI sales leader who studied journalism began his career in filmmaking. He later joined Google to work in the media, entertainment, and gaming sectors for AI sales. Initially, he earned technical certifications and worked his way up in engineering roles before taking on AI leadership roles.
Johnson, a published author of 14 books, came to Google with a strong understanding of technology, having sold startups and written extensively on the subject. He noted that more technical skills might be necessary to make API calls. However, he clarified, “if someone wants to hire you to get the best outputs out of the best models, you don’t really need a lot of technical skills to do that.”
