Why a godfather of AI still thinks his 4-year-old grandson should go to college

Is there any value in going to college when AI is expected to fundamentally reshape white-collar work?

Yes, according to Yoshua Bengio.

On Monday’s episode of the “Silicon Valley Girl” podcast, its host Marina Mogilko asked Bengio if he would encourage his four-year-old grandson to go to college. Alongside fellow computer scientists Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun, Bengio is known as one of the “godfathers of AI” thanks to his pioneering research in deep learning and neural networks.

Bengio quickly responded “yes,” adding: “Education is really important, and education, contrary to what some people think, isn’t just about acquiring the skills to get a job.

“Education is, in my opinion, mostly about how to become a better human being, how to understand yourself, how to understand our society and each other.”

Bengio’s comments add to the debate on whether it’s worth pursuing the traditional college career pathway in a world where AI is matching or bettering humans on a wide range of cognitive tasks.

Hinton told a June episode of the “Diary of a CEO” podcast that AI may already be making it harder for college graduates to get jobs, and that it’s a good time to become a plumber. Stanford professor Fei-Fei Li, nicknamed the “Godmother of AI,” told “The Tim Ferriss Show” in December that when hiring for her AI startup, a candidate’s degree matters less than the tools they can use, including AI.

Bengio’s comments on Monday echoed what he told “The Diary of a CEO” podcast in December, when he said his advice for his four-year-old grandson in our current world is to focus on being a “beautiful human being.”

“I think that part of ourselves will persist even if machines can do most of the jobs,” he said.