For decades, higher education was seen as the safest path to success. But in the times of artificial intelligence, that belief is being questioned. As undergraduate degrees deliver diminishing returns and AI reshapes job markets at record speed, many young people, especially Gen Z are turning to advanced education in hopes of securing high-paying roles. However, some of the biggest names in tech say even PhDs may no longer offer the edge they once did.
Ex-Google AI leader sounds the alarm
Jad Tarifi, founder of Google’s first generative-AI team, believes young people should think twice before committing years of their lives to doctoral programs. Speaking to Business Insider, he stated, “AI itself is going to be gone by the time you finish a PhD. Even things like applying AI to robotics will be solved by then.” Tarifi knows the system well. He earned a PhD in artificial intelligence in 2012, long before AI became mainstream. But today, he says, the landscape has changed so dramatically that traditional academic paths may no longer make sense.
Rather than chasing credentials, he argues that future success will depend on deeply human qualities. “Thriving in the future will come not from collecting credentials but from cultivating unique perspectives, agency, emotional awareness, and strong human bonds. ‘I encourage young people to focus on two things: the art of connecting deeply with others, and the inner work of connecting with themselves.’”
Tarifi is also doubtful about elite professions like medicine and law. These degrees require long years of study, and he believes the pace of AI development makes that investment risky. “Those degrees take so long to complete in comparison with how quickly AI is evolving that they may result in students just ‘throwing away’ years of their lives,” he told Business Insider. “In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization.”
Tech leaders have the same concerns
Tarifi is not alone in questioning the value of higher education. Many tech leaders argue that rising tuition costs and outdated curricula are producing a workforce unprepared for today’s jobs.
Mark Zuckerberg recently addressed the issue on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast. “I’m not sure that college is preparing people for the jobs that they need to have today,” Zuckerberg said. “I think that there’s a big issue on that, and all the student debt issues are … really big.”
He added that attitudes are slowly changing. “It’s sort of been this taboo thing to say, ‘Maybe not everyone needs to go to college,’ and because there’s a lot of jobs that don’t require that … people are probably coming around to that opinion a little more now than maybe like 10 years ago.”
Amplifying the debate further is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who believes modern AI systems are already matching the expertise of highly educated professionals.
“GPT-5 really feels like talking to a PhD-level expert in any topic,” Altman said. “Something like GPT-5 would be pretty much unimaginable in any other time in history.”
If AI can already perform at this level, the question many young people are asking is whether years of advanced schooling still make sense.
State of PhDs
Regardless of these warnings, PhDs,especially in AI, still command strong demand in the private sector. According to MIT, in 2023 nearly 70% of AI doctoral students accepted private-sector jobs after graduation, up sharply from just 20% two decades ago. But this shift has raised concerns in academia, where leaders fear a growing “brain drain” as top talent leaves universities for tech companies.
Henry Hoffmann, chair of the University of Chicago’s computer science department, says students are being pulled away earlier than ever. “One student with zero professional experience recently dropped out to accept a ‘high six-figure’ offer from ByteDance,” he told Fortune. For Hoffmann, the choice is understandable. “When students can get the kind of job they want [as students], there’s no reason to force them to keep going,” he said.