Bill Gates, Jack Ma, others advise students on what to study for high-paying jobs

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla was reported to have said that technology will take so much jobs from people that many will have to rely on a universal basic income to survive, CNBC reports.

Jack Ma, the owner of Alibaba also said that the technology of automation will make the next few decades very painful for those whose survival rely on manual way of working.

To be ready for the great change, professional and wealthy businessmen have come up with a list of courses to study to have a high chance of nailing that big and well-paying job in the future. Here is therefore the list:

1. Data analytics: Ma said that AI will outperform human knowledge in the next 30 years as many jobs will be taken away. “The new wave is coming. Jobs will be taken away. Some people, who catch up [with] the wave, will be rich, will be more successful,” he said.

2. Science, engineering and economics: Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder said that someone who has a background in those three fields of study will be very successful irrespective of the change that will come with advancement in technology. He said those with the knowledge in those areas will be the agents of change.

3. Coding: Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors said that coding is a “core skill” that will increasingly become important in the future, adding that coding is very necessary in every industry.

4. Liberal arts: Mark Cuba, the multi-companies investor who made his money investing in tech companies, said the liberal arts is the way. He said he would study philosophy as his major over accounting if he were to start college all over again.

Cuba based on judgment on the simple logic that AI will only be able to replace jobs that require technical skill but not those that heavily rely on personal judgement.