Microsoft's President Says Liberal Arts Majors Are Necessary For The Future Of Tech

In 2011, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told a panel of US governors that liberal arts education would delay college graduates in the modern economy.

A few days later, the late co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, declared that "technology is married to liberal arts, married to the humanities, which gives us the result that makes our hearts sing."

Seven years later, Gates 'company is on Jobs' side.

Microsoft president Brad Smith and IA and research EVP Harry Shum wrote in their new book "The Future Computed" that "one of the most important conclusions" of Microsoft's recent research on artificial intelligence is that the lessons of the liberal arts will be essential to unleash the full potential of AI.

 Smith and Shum wrote:

    "At one level, AI will require even more people to specialize in digital skills and data science, but training for an AI-driven world involves more than science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as computers behave more like human beings, the social sciences and the humanities will be even more important.The courses of languages, art, history, economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology and human development can teach critical, philosophical and ethical skills that will be fundamental for the development and management of artificial intelligence solutions. "

The two executives imagine a world in which our daily life will be inextricably linked to AI.

For example, driverless car developers are already facing ethical challenges, such as how a car should classify the safety priorities of passengers and pedestrians in unavoidable accidents.

Finally, Smith and Shum argued that teams developing new uses for AI with human parity should include members with engineering and humanities experience. And both parties will also need to know aspects of each other.

"If AI is going to reach its potential to serve humans, then every engineer will have to learn more about the liberal arts and every liberal arts specialty will have to learn more about engineering," wrote Smith and Shum.

You can download the book "The Future Computed" for free on the Microsoft website. Hard copies will also be available at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum for 2018 in Davos.