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As AI changes the workplace, experts say critical thinking, adaptability, and ethical reasoning could give college graduates an edge

• Critical thinking, communication, adaptability, and ethical reasoning could become even more valuable as AI takes on more routine tasks.

• Knowing how to use AI may become a basic workplace expectation, while knowing how to question and apply its output could set workers apart.

• Experts say college can help students build durable human skills that remain valuable even as technology and jobs continue to change.

Artificial intelligence is changing the way people work, but that doesnt necessarily mean a college degree is becoming less valuable. Instead, the rise of AI may be shifting which skills employers value most.

As AI tools take on more routine tasks, workers may need to bring something technology cant easily replicate: the ability to think critically, ask the right questions, solve complex problems, and make thoughtful decisions about how technology should be used.

ConsumerAffairs spoke with Andy Chan, vice president for innovation and career development at Wake Forest University, who explained that durable human skills can give students an advantage regardless of what they choose to study. In an increasingly AI-driven job market, knowing how to use technology is only part of the equation knowing when, why, and whether to use it may be even more important.

Fostering human skills

Whether youre a recent grad just entering the job market, or a seasoned expert in your field looking for a new opportunity, Chan recommends fostering human skills.

The top of his list? Critical thinking.

AI can give you answers very quickly. But it still takes a thoughtful human being to determine whether it is answering the right question, whether the answer makes sense, and what to do with it, he said.

Id add communication, relationship-building, empathy, creativity, ethical reasoning, and self-awareness. And increasingly, I think adaptability, initiative, and patience are essential. Employers want people who can figure things out, work well with others, learn quickly, and actually get things done.

While these have often been referred to as soft skills over the years, Chan thinks this has always been a terrible description.

There is nothing soft about them, he said. In an AI-enabled workplace, they may actually be the hardest and most valuable skills to develop.

Combining AI and human skills

For many college students, learning how to effectively use AI has been a big part of their college experience. But balancing that with the human skills necessary for the workforce can be challenging.

Chan advises students not to take an either/or approach.

You absolutely need to learn how to use AI. But knowing how to use AI will increasingly become a basic expectation, much like knowing how to use a search engine, a spreadsheet, or a calculator, he said.

The differentiator will be what you bring to the technology. Can you recognize a problem worth solving? Can you ask a better question than someone else? Can you tell when the AI is wrong? Can you understand another persons needs? Can you persuade people, build trust, make a difficult judgment call, or come up with an idea nobody else has considered?

Chan explained that students can hone those capabilities from reading, writing, discussing difficult ideas, working with people who are different from you, trying things, making mistakes, reflecting on what happened, and having real experiences in the world.

You can learn so much from the experience, perspective, and wisdom of elders even those just a few years older than you, he said. College is an extraordinary place to develop those abilities. Students shouldnt outsource that precious opportunity to AI.

Taking your skills to the job market

Another factor that college students should consider is that the classroom may be the best place to start honing these skills for long-term success in the job market.

The great advantage of developing these skills in college is that they are durable, Chan said. Technologies will change. Jobs will change. Some of the technical skills students are learning today will undoubtedly become obsolete just as they have before.

But the ability to learn, think, communicate, collaborate, exercise judgment, and adapt will grow within you throughout your career. The stronger your foundation built in college, the higher your potential trajectory will be.

Preparing students for their futures

Though there is a great deal of fear around AI in business, schools, and society, Chan sees it as a great opportunity to develop students into more thoughtful people.

I believe that AI is actually making a great education and particularly the kind of broad education that develops the whole person, like we aspire to provide at Wake Forest University more valuable, not less, he said. The best college education should prepare students not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of work, learning, relationships, contribution, and change.

AI is extraordinarily good at helping us with the how. But human beings still have to wrestle with the what, the why, and the should.

New research suggests recreational athletes can swap meat for plants without sacrificing strength or endurance

• Recreational runners performed similarly on plant-based and omnivore diets.

• Resistance trainers saw no statistically significant difference in strength.

• Researchers say longer studies are needed to understand the effects over time.

For people who exercise regularly, switching to a plant-based diet can raise an important question: Will cutting back on meat affect performance?

A new study from researchers at four universities suggests that, for recreational athletes, the answer may be no at least over the short term. The study found no statistically significant differences in endurance or strength when participants followed plant-based and omnivore diets for four weeks each.

The research comes as athletes and other active people navigate conflicting claims about whether plant-based diets can provide enough protein and calories to support exercise. Rather than looking at professional athletes, researchers focused on recreational college athletes who regularly used university dining halls.

Popular social media claims frequently spread misinformation that plant-based diets fail to provide enough calories or protein to meet the demands of exercise, researcher Peggy Policastro said in a news release.

The study specifically sought to test these claims by examining recreational student athletes who rely on university dining halls for most of their daily meals.

How researchers compared the diets

The study included 36 undergraduate students from Rutgers University, Stanford University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Reading in England. Sixteen participants were recreational runners, while 20 were resistance trainers. All exercised three or four times a week.

Each participant completed two four-week diet phases in randomly assigned order. During the omnivore phase, participants were asked to eat at least two servings of animal protein each day. During the plant-based phase, they replaced meat with at least two servings of plant protein, such as beans, tofu, or plant-based meat alternatives.

Participants tracked their food intake at least three days a week and were asked to maintain their usual exercise routines. Runners completed a 12-minute run, measuring how far they could travel, while resistance trainers completed three-repetition maximum tests for the chest press, lat pulldown, and leg press.

What the results mean for consumers

The runners covered an average of nearly 2,658 meters during the omnivore phase and about 2,622 meters during the plant-based phase a difference of roughly 36 meters. Resistance trainers had a combined strength measurement that was about 4% lower during the plant-based phase. Neither difference was statistically significant.

There were nutritional differences between the diets. Participants consumed about 71 grams of protein per day during the plant-based phase, compared with 103 grams during the omnivore phase.

The plant-based diet also contained more carbohydrates, fiber, iron, and calcium, while the omnivore diet contained more saturated fat, cholesterol, and vitamin B12. Reported calorie intake was similar.

This is important because it shows that everyday athletes can safely choose plant-based foods without worrying about harming their fitness or strength goals, Policastro said. These findings provide evidence-based support for colleges to comfortably expand healthy and environmentally friendly plant-based menu options for their active student populations.

However, its also important to note that the study was small and lasted only eight weeks. The researchers noted that it cannot determine how plant-based eating might affect elite athletes or performance, muscle development, and recovery over months or years.

A new experiment suggests small incentives may help college students sleep longer and perform better academically

• College students in a new study increased their sleep by about 19 minutes a night when offered small financial rewards for meeting a seven-hour sleep goal.

• Students who received the sleep intervention saw their average course performance increase by up to 0.089 grade points.

• The biggest academic benefits were seen among freshmen and in STEM courses, while students also spent less time on screens at night.

Pulling an all-nighter to study may feel like a necessary part of college life, but new research suggests that getting more sleep could be a better strategy.

A study published in the Journal of Political Economy looked at whether encouraging college students to get more sleep could also improve their academic performance. At the start of the study, participants slept an average of just 6.6 hours per night, and only 43% were getting at least seven hours on weeknights. More than 85% missed that seven-hour mark on at least one school night each week.

Researchers wanted to see whether a relatively simple intervention could help students change those habits and whether the extra sleep would translate into better grades.

How the sleep experiment worked

The researchers conducted a field experiment involving more than 1,100 university students in the U.S. Participants' sleep was tracked using Fitbit devices, while a custom smartphone app provided bedtime reminders, morning feedback, and for some students, financial incentives.

Students in the primary incentive group could receive about $4.75 per night for getting at least seven hours of sleep, with their sleep verified through the Fitbit trackers. The researchers also tested different combinations of reminders, feedback, and incentives, including immediate versus delayed rewards.

Participants completed weekly surveys covering areas including how they spent their time, stress, and mental health. They also completed tests involving creativity and quantitative problem-solving, allowing researchers to examine whether changes in sleep were accompanied by changes in other areas of students' lives.

Students slept longer and their grades went up

During the four-week intervention, the share of weeknights when students got at least seven hours of sleep increased by 26%. On average, students slept about 19 minutes longer each weeknight. Some of that improvement stuck around after the incentives ended, with students still sleeping about eight additional minutes per night.

Academic performance improved, too. Students receiving the primary intervention earned semester course grades that were 0.075 to 0.089 grade points higher on average.

The effects were concentrated among freshmen and were particularly noticeable in STEM courses and classes held around midday. Students also developed more regular sleep schedules, reduced nighttime screen use, and shifted some studying from late evening to morning without changing their overall study time.

For students trying to balance studying with everything else college demands, the findings suggest that sacrificing sleep isn't necessarily the best way to squeeze in more academic work.

Our results show that helping students sleep more and sleep better can boost academic performance just as effectively as traditional academic interventions, but at a fraction of the cost, researcher Osea Giuntella said.

The latest order brings Meta's total liability in the New Mexico case to $942 million

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

• Meta now faces $942 million in penalties and court-ordered remedies in New Mexico after a judge found its platforms constituted a public nuisance that harmed children.

• Meta says it disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal, maintaining that it works to protect young users and that the case misrepresents its safety record.

• The decision could have consequences far beyond New Mexico, giving states a potential roadmap for using consumer-protection and public-nuisance laws to challenge how social media platforms are designed.

Meta is facing one of its most consequential courtroom defeats over child safety after a New Mexico judge ordered the Facebook and Instagram parent company to pay an additional $567 million and make changes intended to reduce harms to young users.

The latest order brings Meta's total liability in the New Mexico case to $942 million, following a $375 million jury verdict in March. New Mexico became the first state to prevail at trial against a major technology company in a case accusing it of misleading consumers and endangering children.

The financial penalty is substantial, but the potentially bigger threat to Meta is what the case could mean for the way its products operate and for similar lawsuits elsewhere.

What the court ordered Meta to do

The latest ruling came from Judge Bryan Biedscheid following the second phase of New Mexico's case. The court concluded that Meta's platforms constituted a public nuisance and contributed to harms affecting children and the wider community.

The $567 million is intended to fund efforts addressing those harms. According to the Associated Press, about $420 million is earmarked for youth treatment services, while additional money will support prevention and other programs. The ruling also calls for reforms involving age verification, addictive platform features, and measures aimed at combating child sexual exploitation.

That comes on top of the jury's March verdict.

After a lengthy trial, jurors found Meta liable under New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act for unfair or deceptive and unconscionable trade practices. They assessed the maximum $5,000 penalty for each of 75,000 violations, resulting in $375 million in civil penalties.

The state's case relied on internal Meta documents, testimony from former employees and experts, and evidence concerning how Facebook and Instagram operate. New Mexico argued that Meta knew about risks involving child sexual exploitation and young users' mental health while publicly portraying its services as safer than they actually were.

Meta plans to fight the ruling

Meta isn't conceding the case.

The company says it will appeal the latest decision and has defended its efforts to protect young people online. Meta maintains that it works to remove harmful content and bad actors and disputes New Mexico's characterization of its safety practices.

That means the $942 million liability and some of the court-ordered changes could remain tied up in litigation.