Alice Blair, who enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023, has taken a permanent leave of absence because she believes “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) could arrive soon enough and pose risks severe enough that finishing college may not matter.
“I was concerned I might not be alive to graduate because of AGI,” she said. Blair now has a contract role as a technical writer at the nonprofit Center for AI Safety and does not plan to return to campus. “I predict that my future lies out in the real world,” she said.
A Forbes report bringing her ordeal to light highlights that her decision reflects a broader, anxiety-fueled shift among some students at elite universities who are rethinking the value of staying in school as AI capabilities advance. Some fear catastrophic outcomes from superintelligent systems; others worry more immediately about their careers.
In a survey of 326 Harvard undergraduates conducted by the school’s undergraduate association and its AI safety club, half said they were concerned about AI’s impact on their job prospects.
Drop-outs, startups, and AI safety work
Blair is not alone in pivoting early to AI-related work. The report also mentions Adam Kaufman, who left Harvard University last fall to join Redwood Research, a nonprofit probing deceptive AI systems that could act against human interests.
“I’m quite worried about the risks and think that the most important thing to work on is mitigating them,” he said, adding that he works “with the smartest people I’ve ever met on super important problems.” Kaufman’s brother, roommate, and girlfriend have also taken leave from Harvard; all three now work for OpenAI.
Some students are motivated less by existential risk and more by fears of rapid labor-market change. “If your career is about to be automated by the end of the decade, then every year spent in college is one year subtracted from your short career,” said Harvard graduate Nikola Jurković, who served as the AI safety group’s AGI preparedness lead. He believes AGI could be about four years away, with “full automation of the economy” arriving five or six years from now.
AI leaders offer aggressive timelines as well. OpenAI’s Sam Altman has said AGI could come before 2029, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis has suggested a five-to-ten-year window.
How big are these risks and how soon?
The stakes students cite range from disrupted hiring to existential danger. A 2024 U.S. Department of State-commissioned report warned that “extinction-level” risk is possible given the speed of development. At the same time, prominent skeptics urge caution about doomsday narratives.
New York University professor emeritus Gary Marcus told Forbes that “human extinction seems to be very very unlikely,” arguing that “so many core problems (like hallucinations and reasoning errors) remain unsolved” and calling it “marketing hype” to suggest imminent human-level systems. He added that “working on AI safety is noble,” even if little current work has definitive answers.
Forecasts about employment are similarly stark. Students point to corporate comments and recent hiring patterns as reasons to accelerate. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment toward 20% in the next few years.
Against that backdrop, some are leaving to found or join startups. Forbes notes examples including Anysphere and Mercor, whose founders dropped out and later raised significant funding, and dashCrystal, a student-founded venture focused on automating electronics design.
The cost of leaving and a personal warning
Dropping out carries a clear trade-off. Pew Research Center data cited in the report shows younger adults with a bachelor’s degree or more tend to earn at least $20,000 more than peers without one, and a degree could matter even more if entry-level roles contract.
Even veteran startup backers urge restraint. Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham recently advised, “Don’t drop out of college to start or work for a startup.” Blair herself offers a cautionary note to peers considering a similar step.
“It’s very difficult and taxing to drop out of college early and get a job,” she said. “This is something that I would only recommend to extremely resilient individuals who felt they have been adequately prepared to get a job by college already.”
