Google Exec: Degrees in Law & Medicine are a waste

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Ex-Google exec says degrees in law and medicine are a waste of time because they take so long to complete that AI will catch up by graduation

Gen Z grads are struggling to land jobs. But pursuing a doctoral degree to stand out is not the answer, warns Jad Tarifi, the founder of Google’s first generative-AI team. Students could end up “throwing away” years of their lives, as technology is moving so quickly. This comes as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ChatGPT can already perform on par with PhD-level experts, and Bill Gates admits that AI is accelerating at a pace that surprises even him.

As undergraduate degrees have lost their payoffs thanks to AI, young people have turned to advanced schooling to unlock jobs with salaries exceeding $200,000 (or in some cases, a $100 million signing bonus). However, one former Google leader says Gen Z should not be so fast to jump on the PhD train, as even doctoral degrees may have lost their edge.

“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, the founder of Google’s first generative-AI team, told Business Insider.

Tarifi himself 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.”

Tech’s warning for education on the changing AI tide
Even studying to become a medical doctor or lawyer may not be worth ambitious Gen Z’s 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 BI.

“In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization,” he said.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....

CEO Sam Altman says ChatGPT can already perform on par with PhD-level experts

Good luck with other degrees then. They require much less learning. Medicine, law and computer science are literally the hardest degrees.

Unqualified workers are already being replaced by AI

So the conclusion is to neet and rot on the sofa. I hope that everyone sees that it's a bad idea