A common argument is that AI will make smart people redundant, as their jobs are replaced or AI outperform them. I disagree. AI does not change this or devalue IQ. As I argued last week, AI will only amplify differences of human capital. Smarter people will be able to use AI more effectively to increase their already big advantage. In this way, AI is like a force multiplier.
People with high-paying white-collar jobs and elite degrees will simply adjust. The long-awaited ‘white-collar job apocalypse‘ due to AI, that the media is constantly forecasting, will remain in the realm of fiction or wishful thinking.
Consider the viral tweet a couple weeks ago of a UCLA graduate who brazenly showed off his laptop with his Chat-GPT session screen open:
UCLA graduate celebrates by showing off the ChatGPT he used for his final projects right before officially graduating 😠pic.twitter.com/hZAvrY1fJk
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) June 18, 2025
This elicited collective gasps decrying his audacity, as well as predictable jeremiads about ‘education being devalued’ or the ‘death of higher-ed’, such as from Matt Walsh, who referenced the incident in a video, that in no uncertain terms, is titled “Public School Is Finished. AI Killed It.”
But alluding to above, someone who is able to use AI effectively, even if for ‘cheating’, is also likely to be smarter. So if I had to wager, this cheater is likely smarter than the average graduate, and hence even more qualified from the perspective of employers. If I were an employer, I would choose a candidate who can use AI effectively to increase his or her productivity, over a prospect who is unable or unwilling to avail oneself of this technology.