Irreplaceably Human

The current AI technological displacement in the labor market exposes the failures of our current credential-based education system and firms' maximalist approach to efficiency. The clearest depiction of these issues lies in the financial sector, where corporate structural changes and decades of institutional credentialization have conditioned young professionals to hone the same skills AI is trained to excel at. In my essay, I explore how political and economic incentives led to our current reliance on AI. Firstly, I explore the erosion of the Jeffersonian educational philosophy and the products of the credentialization of higher education. This foundation provides the ideal backdrop for AI displacement, as market competition has incentivized firms to select for AI labor, while young professionals struggle to remain competitive. Students must now rely on their innately human characteristics, the same traits the education system neglected, to cement their place in the workforce.