According to Sina Finance, at the 2025 Global Sustainable Leaders Conference held in Shanghai, Nobel Prize winner and Stanford University professor **Michael Levitt** shared a disruptive view on the future of AI and education during an exclusive interview with Sina Finance: "Degrees are becoming increasingly less important."
Professor Levitt believes that artificial intelligence is completely changing the way knowledge is accessed. He pointed out, "In the past, education was the gateway to knowledge; now, AI allows anyone to access knowledge." He used several technology moguls as examples, including Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who all dropped out of university, proving that "their ideas were more important than the classroom."
He emphasized that the popularity of AI is weakening traditional educational privileges. "In the future, a young person without a college degree but who can use AI may be more competitive than a graduate from a prestigious university."
Levitt further explained that AI makes knowledge "available at your fingertips," meaning even people who cannot read can accomplish anything just by speaking to AI. This means the barriers to accessing knowledge have been significantly lowered.
