Can English Majors Survive the Proliferation of AI in the Workforce?

I am petrified of artificial intelligence (AI). As a GenXr I can remember futuristic, postapocalyptic movies from my childhood and teenage years. We are feeding the machine that will take over our lives . . . at least that is my concern. But like all the trite sayings, such as we can’t put the Jeannie back in the bottle or runaway freight train. It’s too late. We will need to learn how to embrace AI in our society, especially the workforce. We are the future that was once in the imaginations of creative writers and scientists many decades ago. The future is now.

Some argue that the generative AI used for writing college papers or work-related materials are just the next generation of writing tools like applications that check grammar and spelling etc. This topic is discussed in De La Guerra’s University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign article titled “Is the English major obsolete in the age of AI? English professors weigh in on the ‘death of the English major’ and the future of the humanities.” According to De La Guerra, artificial intelligence applications may be impressive, however, “they rely on machine learning models based on training data and human input.”

There are debates about the use of AI that include ethical dilemmas such as academic integrity and intellectual property.

As a literacy scholar who focuses on digital literacies I am captivated by the implications of AI for the English field. Content area literacies are an equally important focus for this topic.

As an English professional I am hopeful at this piece of information: “Employers also consistently rate communication and critical thinking as two of the most desirable skills in employees. According to the university’s most recent data, 94% of English and Creative Writing majors secured employment, acceptance to graduate school, or volunteer work within six months of graduating” (De La Guerra).

As a social justice English teacher educator one of the most alarming concerns that I have are that AI will perpetuate injustices. Garbage (i.e., racism) in, garbage (i.e, racism) out. “ ‘When a language model produces text, it’s not producing text based on some perfect idea of what English is. It’s based on the data that’s been provided to the model, and it’s subject to all of the same oversights and biases and flaws that human knowledge always is. And so if anything, I think the skills that we teach in the humanities — skills for critical reading, evaluation, understanding context — are more urgent’” (De La Guerra).

I am looking forward to researching and learning more about artificial intelligence despite my fears.

References

De La Guerra, F. (2025, Feb 10). Is the English major obsolete in the age of AI? English professors weigh in on the ‘death of the English major’ and the future of the humanities. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. https://english.illinois.edu/news/2025-02-10t165321/english-major-obsolete-age-ai