Jad Tarifi is a co-founder of Integral AI, an AI innovation firm that says it is working to bring something called "Universal Operators" to market.

According to company literature, a Universal Operator "is an AI worker capable of operating in both digital and physical worlds. It performs complex planning, acting in the real world using tools and services, and creating new ones when needed. Operators can also collaborate with or spawn and direct other operators forming dynamic networks or ecosystems of intelligence."

Sounds ominous, just a little, and the company doesn't shy away from that fact, comparing the Universal Operators it hopes to develop to gods. "In ancient tales," the company says on its website, "gods spoke worlds into existence."

If Universal Operators become god-like, what room will there be for people?

Well, perhaps very little room.

According to Tarifi, who was once an early member of Google's generative AI team, it is probably too late to bother getting an advanced degree in some fields now that AI is increasing rapidly in capability.

"AI itself is going to be gone by the time you finish a Ph.D.," he told Business Insider. "Even things like applying AI to robotics will be solved by then. So either get into something niche like AI for biology, which is still in its very early stages, or just don't get into anything at all."

AI, he argues, is going to make getting an advanced degree in most any field obsolete. 

"If you are unsure, you should definitely default to 'no,' and focus on just living in the world," he told Business Insider. "You will move much faster. You'll learn a lot more. You'll be more adaptive to how things are changed."

Degrees will be obsolete even in fields formerly considered both secure and of fundamental importance, like medicine. Pursuing a medical degree, he argued, is a waste of time and people doing so will likely end up "throwing away eight years" of their lives.

What should people do, then? "The best thing to work on is more internal," he concluded," offering that people should "meditate" and socialize with friends.

How that will pay the bills is anyone's guess.