Why you should not become an AI expert

I still remember the thrill I felt in 2013 when I got the chance to interview IBM’s Watson team. Two years earlier, it had competed on the popular game show Jeopardy! and beaten human champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. After that interview, I wrote an article for Forbes arguing that Watson would inaugurate a new era of cognitive collaboration.  As I look back now, more than a decade later, the article holds up remarkably well. I compared learning to collaborate with AI to pilots learning to “fly by wire,” using automated rather than manual controls. We still have pilots, of course, but they don’t actually fly planes anymore. They manage the systems that fly the planes. Today, we’re at a similar juncture. Wall Street analysts estimate that investment in AI will approach $700 billion this year. McKinsey reports that nearly 90% of businesses are using AI and, perhaps not surprisingly, a horde of newly minted AI experts are rising to meet the demand, thinking they’re on the groun