GoKawiilKey Takeaways Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings said that science, technology and math fields were “overdone” as AI encroaches on those subjects, and predicted a swing back towards the humanities.
Hastings said that AI will dominate logical, analytical work like software engineering.
If he were raising a young child today, he said he would “double down on emotional skills” rather than pushing coding.
Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings says chasing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields is “overdone” and urges students to refocus on studying the humanities instead.
On the Possible podcast earlier this month, Hastings said that in an AI-driven era, emotional pursuits like entertainment, art and sports will stand out as AI-proof.
“You’re not going to watch a basketball game of robots,” he said on the podcast.
Hastings argued that AI will advance fastest in areas built on structured problem-solving, like software engineering and medicine. He suggested that tasks involving writing code and analyzing data are especially well-suited for AI, which can process large amounts of information and identify patterns.
“The kinds of things that you do with a biology background will be done so much better and faster by AI that it’ll be hard to compete for jobs in that space,” he said.
Reed Hastings, cofounder of Netflix. Photographer: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg
He added that for the past two decades, society has pushed the importance of STEM and teaching everyone how to code. Now, he predicts that people will start to realize that STEM has become saturated and “overdone” as AI takes over tasks.
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