Nobel Prize winner Simon Johnson is convinced that young people must choose between two paths to avoid being replaced by AI.
Artificial intelligence has come to stay. This also applies to the job market. According to a study by MIT in 2025 AI systems could theoretically take over the tasks of around 11.7% of the US workforce.
In particular, cognitive and administrative tasks in finance, healthcare administration, human resources, and logistics, as well as legal and accounting services, could already be well taken over by AI.
Now, Nobel Prize winner and renowned MIT professor Simon Johnson has explained what young people need to do to ensure they are not replaced by artificial intelligence. According to the 63-year-old, they need to make a decision about their career path.
Those who do not want to be replaced by AI must make a choice
What is this choice? Johnson explained in an interview with the Financial Times that young people fundamentally must choose one of two career paths.
- Either they become experts in highly skilled professions that require human judgment
- or they become universal nerds who combine life experience, communication, and various skills
Johnson himself uses the career paths of his daughters as an example. One of his daughters is interested in laboratory research. He thinks that while she will work with AI, she will not be able to be replaced by AI. One wants human judgment, human values, and the human ability to communicate in that field.
He describes his other daughter as a generalist. Just as AI is a universal technology, there is also a need for universal nerds. By this, he means all-rounders who take on various tasks.
“The all-rounder nerd is someone who can dive into the latest AI over the weekend. On Monday and Tuesday, this person conducts personal interviews with real people and gains new insights. On Wednesday, they read a 50-year-old book that has not yet been digitized, grasp its meaning, and develop an idea of how to use it. On Thursday, they moderate a podcast. And on Friday, they write a one-page memo for the minister.”
Johnson is convinced that individuals who cover such a broad range of tasks are very attractive to leaders because they can “piece together puzzles, solve problems, and deliver solutions to the decision-maker faster.”
“When I meet leaders who say: ‘This AI is overwhelming. I know it will change everything, but I just don’t have the time to keep up’, I tell them: ‘You need to hire a universal nerd’,” Johnson states.
The penetration of artificial intelligence into the job market concerns not only young people and individuals like Simon Johnson. Dario Amodei, the CEO of the AI company Anthropic, also sees the development critically and believes that AI companies must stop downplaying the situation. More on this here: The head of AI giants warns: AI is destroying jobs and companies are downplaying the threat
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