Some of the top tech leaders in the industry visited the White House Thursday for a meeting of the Trump administration's new artificial intelligence education task force.
Scripps News spoke with Kim Majerus, the vice president of global education and U.S. state and local government at Amazon Web Services, about what went on.
"I think it's an exciting time for education, especially when we look at the future workforce, whether they're students today or part of the workforce tomorrow," Majerus said. "It was exciting to see the commitment from the first lady and the White House task force and all the commitments that they're going to see across the industry. The support from students, parents and also the many companies that are here to support the overall activity."
But the advent of AI is also bringing potential upheaval to the workforce.
The unemployment rate for recent college grads is already outpacing the overall unemployment rate with the broader workforce.
Some tech CEOs, like the leader of AI firm Anthropic, have predicted more white collar jobs are going to disappear over the next 5 years as AI gains capabilities.
"I think AI for the workforce is something that needs to happen now," Majerus said. "Every person should think about education as something that you do throughout your life. It's all about upskilling and reskilling. So whether you're a student recently graduated or a person that's in the workforce today, I think the the interesting quote today was 'you have to always ensure that you're using the tools that are making the impact for today.'"
"I don't feel that this is about AI taking away roles. I really do believe that this is more about making people more productive and giving them the opportunity to think bigger, which is really we're looking to support," Majerus said.
RELATED STORY | 'Like a sales mission:" White House continues its push to embed American AI worldwide
Majerus also spoke on how to reduce the risk AI may present to our mental health.
"I think the important part is integrity in leveraging AI and ensuring that there's the right guard rails for all ages who are leveraging technology today. And I think that's the part about ensuring that these young people, these students and and the future workforce is really considering the ethical use of AI and ensuring that they're trusting and more importantly, using tools that are battering their opportunity for the future. So mental health is extremely important. But again, this is something that takes people, and it take support of a community to ensure that they're successful and not just looking at one piece of information, they're actually vetting out the opportunities ahead."
Watch the full interview with Majerus in the video above.
