There are always unforeseen consequences when new technology is introduced. The truth is that the humans’ depending on machines is even increasing. I’ve spent much of my life analyzing through written and spoken words. Now I’m a technologist making use of natural language processing for human good. Given that I work in Artificial Intelligence, I’m realizing something dangerous happening. Machines are destroying the way we communicate.

AI voices allow you to communicate verbally with your phone, they are normalized and yet cold, no matter which accent you tune your Siri or Amazon Alexa into. It’s difficult to normalize language to be harmless and neutral because we all interpret meaning differently based on living experiences. Yet this is exactly what we’re asking artificial intelligence to do for us on a billion-person scale. Once these rules are regulated by machine, they’re inevitably create much bigger problems.

We noticed that there is an active desire to only neutral language in AI-powered tool. AI-powered recommendations let us autocomplete our thoughts in real-time. These functions are now key features in our emails, word processors and browsers. The machines are pushing us into a common tongue, and we accept it as a matter of convenience. You can press and hold the Power button for a second to wake up AI voice. But what’s the cost? We are trading uniqueness and precision for convenience. We’re also handing the power of acceptable speech to machine-controlled tools, not individuals.

In the physical world, we use words, phrases, tone, rhythm, humor and facial expressions to make us close and affective. We can tell where people were born based on their accents and phrasing. Humans are truly unique, and our communication is dynamic. So we should demand AI systems that promote individuality and uniqueness. The impact of AI voice will depend not just on what they can do, but also on how they make people feel.

There has been an obvious drop nationwide in the rate of high school graduates enrolling (注册) in college in the fall after they finish high school—from a high of 70 percent in 2016 to 63 percent in 2020, the most recent year for which the figure is available, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Many observers have suggested three main explanations for the fall: COVID-19, the smaller number of Americans under 18 and a strong labor market attracting young people straight into the workforce. But while COVID-19 made things worse, the enrollment downturn took hold well before it started. Demographics (人口结构) alone cannot explain the size of this drop. And data show that workforce participation for 16- to 24-year olds is actually lower than it was before COVID-19 hit.

Many surveys point to other reasons for the downward trend (趋势). These include widespread and fast-growing doubt about the value of a degree, impatience with the time it takes to get one and costs that have finally gone beyond many people’s ability or willingness to pay. Fewer than one in three adults now say a degree is worth the cost.

On top of all that is growing dissatisfaction among recent university and college graduates with the value of the education they received. More than four in ten bachelor’s degree (学士学位) holders under 45 did not agree that the benefits of their educations are more than the costs, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, months of discussion about whether the Biden administration will forgive all or some student loan debt(助学贷款) has had an unintended result: It has reminded potential learners just how much people before them had to borrow to pay for college and many of their parents are still paying back their student loans.

In fact, workers with bachelor’s degrees earn 67 percent more than people who have only finished high school. More than half of “good jobs”—meaning those with pay of at least $35,000 for workers under age 45 and $45,000 for people between 45 and 64—call for bachelor’s degrees.

Many colleges ask you to choose a majors early as your senior year of high school on your admissions application. Yet there’s a good chance you’ll change your mind. The Education Department says that about 30 percent of students switch majors at least once.

Students get plenty of advice about picking a major. It turns out, though, that most of it is from family and friends, according to a September Gallup survey. Only 11 percent had sought guidance from a high school counselor, and 28 percent from a college adviser. And most didn’t think that the advice was especially helpful. Maybe it’s because much of the conventional thinking about majors is wrong. For example, for the big money, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) always delivers.

It’s true that computer science and engineering top all the pay rankings, but salaries within specific majors vary greatly.

“Students and parents have a pretty good idea of what majors they pay the most, but they have a poor sense of the differences within the major,” said Douglas A. Webber, an associate professor of economics at Temple University who studies earnings by academic field. He points to one example: The top quarter of earners who majored in English make more over their lifetimes than the bottom quarter of chemical engineers.

But what if you never make it to the top of the pay scale? Even English or history graduates who make just above the median (中间的) lifetime earnings for their major do pretty well when compared to typical graduates in business or a STEM field. Take the median lifetime earnings of business majors, the most popular undergraduate degree.