The global battle for AI talent is intensifying, with tech giants like Meta offering bonuses worth hundreds of millions of dollars to lure top researchers. But Jad Tarifi, the man who founded Google’s first generative AI team, says the frenzy should not push people into pursuing Ph.D.s for the wrong reasons.
In an interview with Business Insider, Tarifi warned that the AI landscape is evolving so fast that by the time someone finishes a doctorate, the technology could already be obsolete.
“AI itself is going to be gone by the time you finish a Ph.D. 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,” he said.
Tarifi, 42, earned his Ph.D. in AI from the University of Florida in 2012. That same year, he joined Google, where he spent nearly a decade before founding his own startup, Integral AI, in 2021. Having lived through the demands of doctoral study, he cautions that the journey is not for everyone.
“Doctoral studies are an ordeal that only weird people — much like I was — should undertake, because it involves sacrificing five years of your life and a lot of pain,” he said. “I don’t think anyone should ever do a Ph.D. unless they are obsessed with the field.”
Tarifi added that the current pace of technological change makes real-world experience more valuable than years of academic pursuit. “If you are unsure, you should definitely default to ‘no,’ and focus on just living in the world,” he said. “You will move much faster. You’ll learn a lot more. You’ll be more adaptive to how things are changed.”
He extended his criticism beyond AI to other fields, arguing that degrees requiring many years, such as medicine and law, are also vulnerable.
“In the current medical system, what you learn in medical school is so outdated and based on memorization,” he said. “People might end up throwing away eight years of their lives for their advanced degrees.”
Instead, Tarifi believes thriving in the AI age will depend less on mastering technical minutiae and more on developing human-centered skills. He emphasized that emotional intelligence and social skills are crucial because much of AI work — from effective prompting to applying tools creatively — requires what he calls “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 said. “I have a Ph.D. in AI, but I don’t know how the latest microprocessor works. For example, you can drive a car, but you might not know every single thing about the car. But if you know what to do if something goes wrong, that’s good enough.”
Tarifi is not alone in this assessment. Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y Combinator, echoed similar concerns about AI’s impact on careers. Writing on X on August 5, Graham noted that low-level programming jobs are “already disappearing” because AI excels at repetitive work.
“So I think the best general advice for protecting oneself from AI is to do something so well that you’re operating way above the level of scutwork,” Graham said. “It’s hard to do something really well if you’re not deeply interested in it.”
The warnings come as competition for AI experts reaches unprecedented levels. Industry reports suggest that salaries for top AI researchers can rival those of professional athletes, with offers from Silicon Valley firms sometimes exceeding $1 million a year in base pay alone — not including stock grants and bonuses. But for veterans like Tarifi, the real key to survival in an AI-dominated world may lie not in chasing degrees or inflated paychecks, but in cultivating adaptability, passion, and the uniquely human qualities that machines cannot replicate.
