Anthropic billionaire cofounder Jack Clark, a former journalist who majored in English literature and creative writing, said his literary education helped him become an influential figure in AI, arguing that liberal arts degrees may regain importance in the AI age. Speaking at a conference earlier this year, Clark said learning history and the stories people tell themselves about the future turned out to be extremely relevant for AI. He said young people’s best bet may be learning to ask the right questions and having intuitions about colliding insights from many disciplines, and that they should avoid basic or “rote programming,” while degrees involving “synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking about that” will become more relevant. His comments come as enrollment in STEM education exploded, with science and engineering graduate enrollment increasing by more than one-third between 2000 and 2015, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Between 2013 and 2023 STEM job growth outpaced non-STEM job growth with a 26% increase, compared with a 9% increase, respectively, according to NCSES. A report by Anthropic researchers Maxim Massenkoff and Peter McCrory found AI can theoretically take over 94% of computer and math tasks, and computer programming jobs are among those most exposed to AI.