OpenAI employee says this skill will be the most important in 2024

In a recent tweet, Logan Kilpatrick, who is currently building Developer Relations at OpenAI, shared his thoughts on the future of skills in the tech industry. Contrary to popular belief, Kilpatrick argues that prompt engineering, a skill many believe to be crucial for the future, is not as important as effective human communication.

Kilpatrick’s tweet reads, “Many believe prompt engineering is a skill one must learn to be competitive in the future. The reality is that prompting AI systems is no different than being an effective communicator with other humans.”

He further emphasises the importance of reading, writing, and speaking as the three underlying skills that will matter in 2024. He believes that focusing on these skills, which are necessary for effective communication with humans, will future-proof individuals for a world with Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Kilpatrick’s insights come from his experience at OpenAI, where he focuses on enabling developers to build with their API and ChatGPT plugins. He is also on the board of NumFOCUS, a non-profit organization that supports some of the world’s most popular open-source scientific projects.

In his tweet, he also talks about how society is already interacting with 'human general intelligence' and that is very similar to the skills you'll need to interact with AGI. He said, “You already have many instances of Human General Intelligence (HGI) in your life today! You likely work with and have deep relationships with HGI.”

His perspective offers a fresh take on the future of skills in the tech industry, emphasizing the importance of human communication over technical skills like prompt engineering.

Hot take 🔥: Many believe prompt engineering is a skill one must learn to be competitive in the future.

The reality is that prompting AI systems is no different than being an effective communicator with other humans.

The same principles apply in both cases. This makes me…

— Logan.GPT (@OfficialLoganK) December 27, 2023

Also read: 'AI should be hugely deflationary over 25 years': OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla predicts impact of AI on economy

Also read: ‘Better ChatGPT, AGI, woke control’: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reveals top user requests for 2024