Will AI Replace Humans?
Every week there's a new AI model, a new headline, and a new question from our students: should I be worried? Here's our honest, three-minute take.
- Elon Musk expects AI to out-think all of us within ~5 years. will.i.am says humans still own imagination.
- AI is already everywhere — skipping it means falling behind.
- It's powerful but messy: job cuts, deepfakes and scams, with no global rules yet.
What Elon Musk thinks
In a 2026 interview, Elon Musk said AI could exceed the sum of human intelligence in about five years — leading to "an age of amazing abundance." He admits the risk is "not zero," but thinks AI's momentum can't be stopped, so his philosophy is to enjoy the ride. His one practical ask: the top AI labs should meet every few weeks and review each other's models for safety before release.
I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in… around five years.
Elon Musk
Why humans still win, says will.i.am
Speaking at Davos, will.i.am pushed back: AI can remix what we've already made, but it can't imagine — "We're the ones that are dreaming." He expects live music, theatre and improv to be valued more than ever, and teaches students to build and own their own AI agents instead of handing their data to big companies.
Humans are freaking awesome… One thing AI is not doing is imagining.
will.i.am
How we got here
Remember when every coding problem started with a Google search and ended on Stack Overflow? That changed on 30 November 2022, when ChatGPT launched — and for the first time, not just developers but everyday people could simply ask a computer and get an answer. What felt like a clever chatbot is now everywhere: new models arrive almost weekly, AI videos are getting hard to tell from real ones, and there's hardly a profession left that doesn't use it.
The good: faster, smarter work
AI gets work done quicker — drafting, coding, research, design, customer support — leaving people more time for the parts that need real judgement. In a world moving this fast, not using it means getting left behind. Our advice to anyone choosing an IT degree: step into AI now. It's the most future-proof skill you can pick up.
The bad: jobs, rules and fakes
It isn't all good news:
- Jobs: companies are already replacing roles with AI.
- No global rulebook: there's still no worldwide standard for how AI is built and used.
- Fakes: deepfake videos and AI-written misinformation spread fast.
- Scams: AI makes phishing messages and cloned voices far more convincing.
Our take
AI isn't the villain or the hero — it's a tool, and the people who learn to use it well will lead. Use it to move faster, question what it tells you, own your data, and keep doing what only humans can: imagine, create and connect. That's exactly the mindset we build in our classes.