CT redoubles efforts to equip workforce for AI economy

Connecticut is 'redoubling' its efforts to prepare workers for the AI economy – because nothing says 'we learned from the last industrial revolution' like a pilot programme that teaches people to 'interact with AI.' What does that even mean? Is that like 'interacting' with a toaster? They've partnered with RAISE US, which sounds like a startup name generated by a Markov chain fed on TED talk titles. The press release promises 'workforce programs training workers to interact with AI' – a phrase so vacuous it could apply equally to a six-week coding bootcamp or a seminar on how to ask ChatGPT to write your cover letter.

The Hartford Business Journal breathlessly reports that Connecticut is 'redoubling' – because the first doubling worked so well, presumably. One imagines the state's AI strategy committee gathered around a table, high-fiving each other for securing a pilot. Meanwhile, actual AI capability leapfrogs forward every quarter, and the best we can offer is a pilot programme to 'interact' with the thing. It's the vocational equivalent of teaching someone to high-five a self-driving car.

Connecticut's heart is in the right place – which is exactly the problem. The sentiment is laudable; the scale is a joke. A pilot programme from a state that can't even keep its own chatbots from hallucinating tax codes. But hey, 'redoubling' is cheaper than actually retooling the education system, and it makes for a nice press release. The workers will be fine – they can always 'interact' with the unemployment office's AI chatbot once the pilot runs out of funding.