How long before Higher Ed collapses due to AI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spoken like a true SAHM who knows nothing about AI.

Well why don’t you bless us with your knowledge instead of this weak retort?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What kind of country do we want? All uneducated people who don’t go to college, for what? What is even the point of human life if we don’t have work to support ourselves?

Well, right now the uneducated people are going to college and graduating just as uneducated as when they started, having cheated to get over a standards bar that has been lowered to the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What kind of country do we want? All uneducated people who don’t go to college, for what? What is even the point of human life if we don’t have work to support ourselves?

The point would be to learn. The leisure to learn! Imagine if we had universal basic income so that we could enroll in college part time our whole lives! Two classes a semester and one in summer. Anything you want! If we didn't have to work we could learn for fun. AI
wouldn't be the death of college it would be the birth or college - we just have to decouple college from the idea of it's purpose of getting a job since ai would be doing our jobs now.

There will always be people interested enough in something that they will want to work at it - and perhaps there will be a incentive structure for that.

We had a nigh-universal basic income during covid and, unfortunately, approximately nobody did that. But people did spend a lot of quality time with video games and worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never, AI will take over the grunt work, entry level jobs which will change the workforce dynamic but pursuit of academic attainment for higher level jobs and general enrichment will remain.

I don't see the value of credentials from top schools going away anytime soon.

The credentials of top schools, unable to get a handle on flagrant cheating, will be hammered along with everyone else's. The probable reversal of Griggs v. Duke Power will not help, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us wish for our children to become part of the Borg.

My son is 13 and uses AI to study for his tests. He asks Claude to give him harder and harder teats until he can't answer them. He has a 100% average in Algebra 1.

Keep isolating your child....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of these kids are unemployed because they haven’t found the job they thought they would have, not because there are no jobs.
I am fully prepared for the possibility that my son may eventually work as a mechanic or carpenter after finishing at a SLAC.

Who is going to hire his services when the people he is going to provide service to are unemployed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are eventually going to need some level of government intervention to stabilize job loss due to AI. More and more CEOs are starting to talk about this. I'm hoping that isn't too far away. The unemployment numbers are quite staggering from this year's graduating class. And those who were lucky enough to secure offers are just as nervous about having those offers rescinded.

We also have to see how tech evolves to account for this as it's a much greater impact to society.

I have a lot of sympathy for young American grads. Americans have always been privileged. In my country probably 10 to 15% at most get a job post college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5 years? I know some top schools will stay around as novelty but overall seems like collapse is imminent. When graduating classes start experiencing increasing double digit unemployment? Seems like that is just around the corner.

There is zero chance of this. For one thing, AI is no where close to ready for prime time. Second, you still need humans to develop content, review fact and oterhwise be creative. Three AI can do things that humans can in the physical world. The fact is, yes, there are tasks that AI can complete, but only 80% of the way there and it requires humans to get the other 20%, regardless of task.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never, AI will take over the grunt work, entry level jobs which will change the workforce dynamic but pursuit of academic attainment for higher level jobs and general enrichment will remain.

I don't see the value of credentials from top schools going away anytime soon.

The credentials of top schools, unable to get a handle on flagrant cheating, will be hammered along with everyone else's. The probable reversal of Griggs v. Duke Power will not help, either.

Blue books solve this problem....ask me how I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of these kids are unemployed because they haven’t found the job they thought they would have, not because there are no jobs.
I am fully prepared for the possibility that my son may eventually work as a mechanic or carpenter after finishing at a SLAC.

Consulting firms, for example, are only hiring 20% of the 2026 grads as compared to 2024 grads. When you see that kind of job loss in various sectors, then in fact, there are no jobs, or certainly fewer than just a couple of years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are eventually going to need some level of government intervention to stabilize job loss due to AI. More and more CEOs are starting to talk about this. I'm hoping that isn't too far away. The unemployment numbers are quite staggering from this year's graduating class. And those who were lucky enough to secure offers are just as nervous about having those offers rescinded.

We also have to see how tech evolves to account for this as it's a much greater impact to society.

certainly not coming from a GOP administration any time soon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP is the same poster who asked 5 years ago if crypto would cause all banking to collapse; and if self-driving cars would cause the auto industry to collapse. How's that going?

I work for a bank regulator. Trust me when I say this, banks are worried!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-15/crypto-s-win-on-landmark-legislation-reshapes-rivalry-with-banks

Crypto will be gutted once things get too precarious. Keeping sovereign control of money is one of the few things that the EU, US, and China will agree upon.

The US actually doesn't agree with that since it's full speed ahead on incorporating crypto into the mainstream. [We are aiming to the be the crypto king of the world! Pun intended, if you get my drift!] So good luck with that thinking but maybe you should start following the bank regulators to see the regulations that are coming out on this due to multiple legislative actions that have passed with bipartisan support.

The GOP is for this because its a mafia platform. It needs regulation but it won't happen for a few years at the earliest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It may go the other way, Op. When jobs are hard to get, then people go back to school for master’s degrees or certificates.

Already happening, and law apps are significantly up as well, phD up mildly though a lot are internationals.
MD apps were already highest in 20+ years. MD is a harder path to pivot to.

Medical school applications have dropped every year since 2022 and except for a spike during COVID they have been generally stable for the past 10-15 years. I do expect them to rise but it hasn’t happened yet.

The graduate student loan limits will make a rise difficult. The lifetime cap for government loans for all grad schools has been lowered to $100,000, or $20,000 per year.

Sallie Mae just made some changes to med school loan limits last week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of these kids are unemployed because they haven’t found the job they thought they would have, not because there are no jobs.
I am fully prepared for the possibility that my son may eventually work as a mechanic or carpenter after finishing at a SLAC.

Consulting firms, for example, are only hiring 20% of the 2026 grads as compared to 2024 grads. When you see that kind of job loss in various sectors, then in fact, there are no jobs, or certainly fewer than just a couple of years ago.

Sorry but consulting hiring is not down 80%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all of us wish for our children to become part of the Borg.

My son is 13 and uses AI to study for his tests. He asks Claude to give him harder and harder teats until he can't answer them. He has a 100% average in Algebra 1.

Keep isolating your child....

Oh yes, let’s all use AI to do tasks we already had perfectly adequate, far less resource intensive ways to do.

Generations of kids somehow managed to learn Algebra without Claude. A lot of AI use right now is just a solution in search of a problem.