How to get tech jobs with an Arts degree: Google DeepMind and Anthropic hiring humanities students for AI jobs

For years, the tech world followed a fixed belief that only STEM students could work in the tech industry. Coding, maths, and engineering were seen as the only entry points into top tech companies. But that idea is now starting to break.

Big companies like Google DeepMind and Anthropic are now hiring art and humanities students for key roles in AI development.

AI companies are now realising that building powerful systems is not enough. These systems also need to be safe, fair, and aligned with human values. Because of this, roles like philosophers, ethicists, and social scientists are now becoming part of AI teams.

These are not traditional tech jobs, but they are slowly becoming central to how AI is designed, trained, and controlled.

Google DeepMind's in-house 'philosopher'

In April 2026, Google DeepMind made headlines when it hired Cambridge University cognitive scientist and philosopher Henry Shevlin as an in-house “Philosopher”. The role is rare in the tech industry and signals a clear shift in how AI companies are thinking.

Shevlin will work on complex questions such as whether AI can have awareness or experience, how humans and AI should interact in the future, and how society should prepare for highly advanced AI systems.

He will also help ensure that AI systems remain aligned with human interests and values, while continuing his academic research at Cambridge University.

Anthropic focuses on AI Ethics

Anthropic has gone even further by building a strong ethics-focused AI team.

For example, Anthropic has hired philosopher Amanda Askell to help shape the values reflected in its AI models, and moral philosopher Peter Railton to support ethics training for its systems.

Anthropic co founder says 'humanities more important than ever'

Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei in February has said that humanities education is becoming more important in the AI era, not less. According to her, companies now actively look for skills such as empathy, communication, curiosity, and human understanding.

“I continue to believe that humans plus AI together actually create more meaningful work, more challenging work, more interesting work, high-productivity jobs. And then I think it will also open the aperture to a lot of access and opportunity for many people,” Amodei added as quoted by Fortune.

Real-World AI ethics battle under way

The global AI-versus-ethics debate is already playing out in real-world cases that force companies to choose between performance and responsibility. In the United States, Amazon scrapped an AI recruiting tool after it learned to discriminate against women by downgrading resumes with the word “women’s” (e.g., “women’s chess club”), proving that bias in training data can embed sexism into automated hiring.

In the EU, the EU AI Act has classified emotion-recognition systems in workplaces and schools as high-risk or outright banned them, directly challenging companies like Affectiva that wanted to deploy AI that “reads” human feelings. Meanwhile, in the UK and US, lawsuits have surged against facial-recognition vendors like Clearview AI and police departments using predictive-policing algorithms, arguing they violate privacy and due process by disproportionately targeting minority communities.

As AI systems become more powerful, companies are facing deeper questions. Can AI think or feel? Should it be treated as more than just a tool? How can AI be kept safe and prevent harm to humans? These are no longer just technical problems, but ethical and philosophical ones as well.

Because of this, AI development is shifting away from being purely performance-driven and is becoming more focused on responsibility and human impact.

This change is opening new opportunities for students who were earlier not part of the tech pipeline. Art students, philosophy students, psychology students, sociology students, and communication students are now finding direct roles in AI companies.

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