One of the most influential venture capitalists in Silicon Valley says the tradition of a four-year college education is up in the air.
“All education should be free,” Khosla said, while noting the fate of universities themselves is “a real question.”
To be sure, people like the idea of institutions, he added. But in a world where technology rules and higher education is free, attending college may be more like a hobby than a necessity.
“You won’t need a college to get an engineering degree. You won’t even need the engineering degree, except if your passion is learning,” Khosla said.
At the same time, when AI levels the playing field by making expertise free and nearly equal, it raises serious questions about how to value the knowledge a person actually has.
“Do you pay a farmworker the same as an oncologist, because they happen to have the same expertise, which is the expertise of AI?” Khosla asked.
Still, hand in hand with free education and the freedom to pursue our interests comes major disruption in the job market.
Khosla warned the impending AI jobs apocalypse will upend the economy by the end of the decade, and tech could soon replace some 80% of jobs, including some of the roles that have traditionally been associated with years of training or education.
“Two-thirds of all jobs will be capable of being done by an AI. So whether you’re a physician, whether you’re a radiologist, whether you’re an accountant, whether you’re a chip designer, whether you’re a salesperson, AI will do your job better,” he told Fortune.
This AI-fueled disruption to the job market will immediately erase $15 trillion in GDP associated with labor, Khosla said, creating a deflationary environment. But thanks to the productivity potential of AI, the economy will produce plenty of goods and services to go around while prices remain low.
By 2040, Khosla predicts that a person with a $30,000 salary will be able to buy more than what they could with a $100,000 salary now.
“I think we will have enough abundance; the need to work will go away,” Khosla said.
