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Key Takeaways Jack Clark is a cofounder of Anthropic and a former journalist who majored in English Literature as an undergraduate.
In a new interview, Clark explained why his degree was “useful” — he “got to learn a lot about history” and “about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future.”
Clark said that majors that seem out of place in the age of AI can actually turn out to be valuable.
Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark was a liberal arts major in college and found it to be “extremely relevant for AI.”
At Semafor’s World Economy Summit earlier this week, Clark, a former journalist who studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, explained why his degree was an asset in the era of AI.
“What turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future,” Clark said. “That’s turned out to be extremely relevant for AI in a way that I think people wouldn’t have predicted.”
He said that the best majors to study are the ones that involve “synthesis across a whole variety of subjects” and require “analytical thinking.” The most important skills to learn, according to Clark, are “knowing the right questions to ask” and bringing together insights across disciplines.
Jack Clark, cofounder of Anthropic. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Clark said that even majors that seem out of place in the age of AI can still prove valuable. He noted, for example, that Anthropic hires philosophers. “When was the last time you heard that a philosophy degree was a great job prospect?” he asked.
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