"I'm Afraid I Won't Live to Graduate": AI Boom Triggers Dropout Wave in US, 18-Year-Old's PPT-Style Entrepreneurship Shocks Y Combinator Father

Harvard and MIT are experiencing a wave of dropouts, all because of their belief in AGI! The "accelerationists" are starting businesses to seize the emerging opportunities, while the "doomsayers" are devoting themselves to AI safety to prevent risks. The rapid advancement of technology, employment anxiety, and value conflicts are intertwined, making academic degrees a souvenir from the pre - ChatGPT era in the eyes of the new generation in the United States.

Due to AGI, college students from top US universities are dropping out!

On the one hand, The New York Times reported that a group of young people in their 20s or even teens are flocking to drop out of school and gather in Silicon Valley to start businesses. In their view, "AI never waits for anyone. A moment's delay might mean missing the wave."

On the other hand, students from top universities like Harvard and MIT are worried that AGI poses an existential threat to humanity. They drop out to join non - profit organizations and startups in the field of AI safety, hoping to save humanity. In their view, "People underestimate AI. One wrong step and all of humanity might fall into an abyss of no return."

The "doomsday school" and the "acceleration school" of AI together have driven the wave of dropouts in the United States.

The Wave of Dropouts from US Universities

Starting from Harvard and MIT

In the ancient campuses of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a silent "dropout wave" is spreading.

Elite students who were once considered destined for great success in the technology or academic fields are voluntarily withdrawing from their studies. They are not confused but driven by fear - a deep - seated anxiety about the impending arrival of "Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI).

This phenomenon has intensified in 2025. They believe that once AGI is truly realized, it will surpass humans comprehensively in almost all fields and may even bring catastrophic consequences.

"With AGI on the verge of arrival and the possibility of human extinction, what's the point of my degree?"

According to Forbes, just this year, dozens of students from Harvard and MIT have chosen to drop out. They are devoting their energy to startups or research labs in the field of AI safety, trying to promote AI "alignment" to make AI follow human values.

Dropouts from Elite Universities: "I'm Afraid I Might Not Live to Graduate"

Alice Blair, when she entered MIT in 2023, joined the AI ethics group, eager to find a balance between technology and conscience.

However, a year later, she chose to take a permanent leave of absence and joined the AI Safety Center as a technical writer.

She believes that: "In most cases, the way we're working towards AGI will lead to human extinction."

What Alice said is not baseless. On the contrary, it's a question that many researchers are discussing.

As early as 2017, Professor Stuart Russell used a vivid metaphor to emphasize the importance of AI safety:

If we can't control a more intelligent AI system, it's like building an atomic bomb but being unable to control its explosion.

At the end of last year, "the godfather of deep learning," Hinton, warned that AI might lead to human extinction, and the speed of AI development exceeded his expectations.

In 2024, a report from the US State Department pointed out that if AI develops without control, there is indeed an "extinction - level" risk.

Report link: https://assets-global.website-files.com/62c4cf7322be8ea59c904399/65e7779f72417554f7958260_Gladstone%20Action%20Plan%20Executive%20Summary.pdf

Many tech tycoons have stepped in to predict the timeline of AI development.

Altman predicts that AGI will appear before 2029, and Hassabis also says that 5 - 10 years is a reasonable timeline.

AGI might be approaching at an accelerating pace.

Alice is not the only college student feeling scared. In his sophomore year, Adam Kaufman from Harvard University took a leave of absence and joined Redwood Research, which studies "deceptive AI systems."

He said: "I'm really worried about the risks of AI, and I think the most important thing is to mitigate these risks. Moreover, this field is so important that it's worth my full - time commitment."

Adam's brother, roommate, and girlfriend have all left Harvard and are now working at OpenAI.

This "collective leave of absence" behavior has gradually evolved into a group phenomenon of "AI anxiety disorder."

AI Anxiety Disorder

The Last Generation of Graduates in the US?

A survey at Harvard University shows that more than half of the people are worried that AGI will affect their employment prospects.

"If your job will be replaced by AI before 2030, then every year you spend in college is actually squeezing your short career."

From GPT - 5 to autonomous AI systems, the rapid advancement of technology has convinced many students that college courses can never keep up with the development of AI.

A study titled "AI Anxiety" published in the Harvard University Gazette at the beginning of the year revealed that undergraduates are worried that AI will render human skills ineffective, especially in the creative field.

This view has changed from an alarmist statement to a real - life anxiety.

Amodei publicly stated that AI will replace half of the entry - level white - collar jobs. In the next few years, the unemployment rate may soar to 20%.

Some media even predict that the next economic crisis in the United States may bring a large - scale wave of layoffs.

In previous economic cycles, whenever there was an economic recession, enterprises often took the opportunity to accelerate the automation process, thus reducing their long - term reliance on human labor.

In a broader context, when the economic situation tightens, enterprises have more incentive to replace costly human labor with technology.

For example, the number of jobs in the US manufacturing industry decreased by 26% from 2000 to 2019, and one of the main reasons was the efficiency improvement brought about by automation.

However, this trend is not a continuous linear decline. On the contrary, during the two economic recessions in 2001 and 2008 and the following years, the number of jobs decreased significantly, while in the years between these two recessions, manufacturing employment remained relatively stable.

If AI can replace a large number of white - collar jobs in the future, this model suggests that its impact on the job market will be most severe during periods of economic weakness.

Murat Tasci, a senior US economist at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a report:

We believe that in the next economic recession, AI tools and applications will be rapidly and widely adopted in the workplace, which may lead to the replacement of a large number of occupations mainly involving non - repetitive mental tasks.

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook said in a speech last month:

AI has the potential to reshape our labor market, which may also affect our understanding of "full employment" or our judgment of the natural unemployment rate.

Like many technological breakthroughs, some jobs may be replaced. We must face the challenges and potential pains head - on, and we are closely monitoring this trend.

An AI Version of "Tulip Mania"?

Of course, not everyone believes this.

Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta, publicly refuted this view. He even said that "the learning ability of existing large models is not as good as that of a cat."

Gary Marcus, a representative of the AGI safety school, even made a bet with Musk, believing that "we won't see AGI surpassing humans by the end of 2025."

However, for today's young people, their college years have been occupied by one question: Will the future world still need humans?

On social media, posts under the AI dropout hashtag "#AI Dropout" are going viral. A highly - liked tweet reads: "The smartest generation is leaving school to guide the birth of AGI in a positive way."

But there are also skeptical voices.

A study jointly published by Harvard and MIT in The Bridge of Algorithms last month pointed out that current AI models are far from achieving true scientific discovery capabilities, implying that the panic may be overstated.

However, for dropouts like Alice Blair, the risks cannot be ignored. She asserts: "Preventing AI from turning against humanity is the defining challenge of our generation."

There are also voices trying to hit the pause button.

Alice Blair herself doesn't think everyone should drop out:

Only those who are tough enough and have learned to make a living independently in college are suitable to set off early.

Paul Graham, the co - founder of Y Combinator and Altman's former boss, posted on X, emphasizing:

Don't drop out of school to start a business. Opportunities will come again, but college years won't.

In February this year, he met a pair of 18 - year - old entrepreneurs who decided to drop out of school and start a business after getting a $75 investment for a paper. He thinks this kind of behavior that subtly encourages students to drop out crosses the line.

Harvard has even urgently launched an AI ethics course, and MIT has removed a paper advocating that AI improves productivity.