Education key to taming the emerging AI beast

A friend recently shared with me a link to a video of a show from a graduation day at Harvard University, in which comedian Ronny Chieng deconstructed and slaughtered artificial intelligence, to cheers from the audience. That video, which had more than a million views, reached me as I was looking to write about the diminishing value of education among the youth. For Generation Z, AI is already taking over. But wait, despite AI and the cosmic changes it has made to the labor market, one still needs an education. Right?

Yes, this is the time of the year when tens of millions of students globally prepare to graduate and join a labor market that is changing and shrinking due to the AI, automation and robotics revolution, as well as due to a different ethos and value regarding hard work. As a result, young people everywhere are souring on the value of university education.

At this time of adversity, however, it is not an exaggeration to say that education is the single most valuable tool to tame the machine and its supremacy over human destiny. This is despite all the changing economic models and cycles that are driving society’s uncertainty and despair, the shrinking labor market, and the seemingly incorrect belief that the pursuit of knowledge has reduced returns in today’s world.

Chieng’s words should resonate, as he praised the need to educate and its necessity to humanity. In his hilarious yet very deep and poignant diatribe, he called on students not to master AI but to kill it by rejigging its algorithm to be on the side of humanity, "before it gains sentience."

An education allows people to appreciate the journey and the joy of creation, which is the fun part of life

Mohamed Chebaro

His deepest thoughts were reserved to awaken students to the importance of the journey of learning against all odds, claiming that they should not be scared of AI, which "makes mediocre people dumber." Notwithstanding the importance of AI for medicine and physics, Chieng waded into the influence of the technology on our daily lives, changing humanity’s ethos and values, as today "you can’t even be a barista in Brooklyn with less than 10,000 Instagram followers."

Chieng insisted that learning the fundamentals still matters and that an education allows people to appreciate the journey and the joy of creation, which is the fun part of life. He claimed that his favorite part of comedy writing "is figuring out the puzzle pieces of a joke and getting the self-regard from having accomplished a difficult thing. Why would I want AI to take that away from me?"

He told the graduates to reject the shortcuts infused into today’s world and the constant pressure to skip to the end. They should instead see the journey as the point. Chieng added that the future battle will not be humans against AI but people with substance versus people with shallow knowledge, mastery versus faking it and good taste versus tackiness.

Public confidence in the value of university education has plummeted after decades of unparalleled growth

Mohamed Chebaro

Away from comedy, the figures are alarming. Public confidence in the value of university education has plummeted after decades of unparalleled growth. A British Social Attitudes study published last week found that the proportion of people who do not believe a university degree is worth the time and money involved has risen from 14 percent in 2005 to 34 percent in 2025. And the proportion of people who believe that a university education ensures better financial prospects has declined from 50 percent to 36 percent over the same period.

Data used to consistently point to those with university degrees being more likely to have a job, earn more and enjoy better health. But that view is withering as young people are today seeing that AI tools and bots are replacing jobs, despite assurances from industries and governments. In advanced economies, jobs in services and knowledge-intensive occupations look likely to be the first to go.

Speak to any Gen Z graduate and you will almost certainly hear that education no longer opens the door to even entry-level jobs and stories abound of AI tools sieving through their AI-produced CVs. A Goldman Sachs estimate revealed that 300 million jobs are likely to be exposed to automation, giving young people less of a desire to embark on a costly education.

No wonder, then, that strong anti-AI sentiments are expressed, not just in the educational sphere but elsewhere too. They focus on the negative impacts of some AI tools in an age of lax accountability and regulation, especially in the US. A 2025 YouGov poll revealed that 40 percent of Americans distrust AI.

In times of change, certainty is the scarcest commodity and, until the road ahead becomes clearer, we ought to hold on to what we know. Spending our formative years in schooling, followed by three or more years in higher education, has long been a good route to expand horizons, deepen critical thinking and equip us to face the challenges that life — and soon the machine — throws at us. Until further notice, education is a part of the journey that needs to be cherished. It remains an essential driving force behind social mobility, economic growth and success in our lives.

• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.