The Four Cs Of AI Literacy: Building The Workforce Of The Future
The AI market is projected to be 190 billion by 2025. AI applications, once the purview of only the most advanced technologists are now pervasive. The average human is likely to interact with at least one AI in their daily life, whether it is auto-correct on their phone, a movie or product recommendation, or, for some, a self-driving car or a digital assistant. While these are the AIs that the average person can see, the impact of the technology is possibly even greater in the AIs that they don’t see, that assist their doctors, their bank’s loan approvals, their city’s budget decisions, and more. The next generation, our children, are the first AI-Native Generation They have never known life without AI.
As AI permeates every industry, AI knowledge just in the hands of Data Scientists and technologists will not be sufficient. We are seeing the rise of a new type of literacy, AI Literacy, which will complement Digital Literacy in the workforce of the future. But what is AI Literacy and how can it be acquired?
I consider AI Literacy to be the ability to understand and form opinions of the role of AI in our lives, industries, and communities. This includes understanding the basics of what an AI is, how it works, and what the strengths and limitations of the technologies are. Just as I do not need to be a computer programmer to appreciate the role of the internet in my life, understand my role in managing my online privacy, and how to leverage the internet for everything from restaurant reservations to job searches, AI Literacy does not require a Ph.D. in Computer Science. While some may require or desire a deeper learning of data science, algorithms, and programming, broad AI Literacy can be acquired through the following four Cs:
AIs operate via certain core concepts. For example, most AIs need to learn, and this learning occurs either by examining past data or trial and error experimentation and adaptation. For humans, understanding an AI’s need to learn can give them great insight into what the technology is capable of and what its limitations are. Similarly, as many AIs leverage data to learn, this concept helps humans appreciate the relationship between their personal information and the AIs that they interact with.
After core concepts, the next critical area to appreciate is context. The use of AI, its strengths and limitations, and its suitability can be extremely context-dependent. For example, if an AI is used to recommend a movie to me, the worst-case scenario is that I will end up watching a part of a movie I am not enjoying.
