Jack Clark, cofounder of Anthropic, has said that degrees often seen as less useful in the tech world, such as liberal arts, are becoming more relevant in the age of AI. Speaking during Semafor’s World Economy Summit, Clark said his own background in literature has helped him understand how people think about the future and technology. “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,” he said, adding that this knowledge has become “extremely relevant” for AI.Clark said that subjects which combine different fields of study are likely to become more important. He pointed to the need for skills that involve analysing ideas from multiple areas rather than focusing only on technical knowledge. “I think that majors which are going to become more important are ones which involve like synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking about that,” he said. According to him, one of the most valuable skills is the ability to ask the right questions and think critically about problems. “The really important thing is knowing the right questions to ask and having intuitions about what would be interesting, colliders, different insights from many different disciplines,” Clark said.
Focus shifting beyond traditional coding
Jack Clark also suggested that traditional coding roles may change as AI tools become more advanced. He said “rote programming” could become less important over time, as technology continues to evolve.However, he added that some people will still need to understand basic technical skills, even as the industry moves toward higher-level problem solving.Clark noted that companies like Anthropic are already hiring people from non-technical backgrounds, including philosophers. He said this shows how different kinds of thinking are becoming important in building and understanding AI systems.
