Jad Tarifi, the founder of Google’s first generative-AI team, says higher education is on the verge of “becoming obsolete.” As Gen Z graduates are struggling to land jobs, Tariff warned that pursuing a doctoral degree to stand out is not the answer. He said students could end up “throwing away” years of their lives, as technology is moving so quickly.
He claimed undergraduate degrees have lost their benefits thanks to AI. This, he said has made young people turn to advanced schooling to unlock jobs with competitive salaries. Tarifi urged Gen Z not be so fast to jump on the PhD train, as even doctoral degrees may have lost their edge due to AI.
“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,” Jad Tarifi told Business Insider. Tarifi graduated with a PhD in AI in 2012, when the subject was far less mainstream. But today, the 42-year-old says, time would be better spent studying a more niche topic intertwined with AI, like AI for biology—or maybe not a degree at all.
“Higher education as we know it is on the verge of becoming obsolete,” Tarifi said to Fortune. “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.” “Even studying to become a medical doctor or lawyer may not be worth the time anymore.
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, Tarifi added to Business Insider. “In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization,” he said.
Tarifi is not alone in his feeling that higher education is not keeping up with the shifting AI tides. In fact, many tech leaders have recently expressed concerns that the rising cost of school paired with an outdated curriculum is creating a perfect storm for an unprepared workforce.
