While Silicon Valley seems to be going gaga over AI talent, with researchers and engineers getting millions of dollars in offers from tech companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Google, Jad Tarifi, who founded the first generative AI team at Google, said in a recent interaction that he would not encourage young people to get a PhD in order to get in on the AI hype.
In an interaction with Business Insider, Tarifi said, “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. So either get into something niche like AI for biology, which is still in its very early stages, or just don’t get into anything at all.”
Tarifi himself has a PhD in AI from the University of Florida but states that doctoral studies are for “weird people” like he was because it involves sacrificing “five years of your life and a lot of pain.”
“I don’t think anyone should ever do a PhD unless they are obsessed with the field,” Tarifi told the publication.
He further noted that with the advancing pace of AI, people can achieve a lot more outside of school.
“If you are unsure, you should definitely default to ‘no,’ and focus on just living in the world … You will move much faster. You’ll learn a lot more. You’ll be more adaptive to how things are changed,” Tarifi added.
It’s not just PhDs that Tarifi warns against doing; he also notes that any degree that takes a long time to complete, like law and medicine, is in trouble, too.
“In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization,” Tarifi said, while noting that people end up “throwing away” eight years of their lives for advanced degrees.
What then, you ask, should one do in order to thrive in the AI age? Tarifi says that they should develop skills and empathy because while hard sciences can be learned, having an expertise at prompting and using AI involves “emotional attunement” and “good taste.”
“The best thing to work on is more internal. Meditate. Socialize with your friends. Get to know yourself emotionally,” he stated.
Demis Hassabis on jobs AI can’t replace:
Tarifi isn’t the first one to talk about the importance of empathy in the AI age. Just a few days ago, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis had also talked about how jobs that involve human empathy could not be replaced by an AI system.
Speaking to Wired magazine, Hassabis said, “There’s a lot of things I think we won’t want to do with a machine. You know, I sometimes give this example of doctors and nurses. Maybe a doctor and what the doctor does and the diagnosis, one could imagine that being helped by an AI tool or even having an AI kind of doctor,” he added.
