Tech leaders and researchers signaled sharply different but related implications for students and careers as AI advances. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is ‘‘envious’’ of today’s Gen Z dropouts for the mental bandwidth they have to start companies, signaling continued appetite for leaving formal education to build startups. Altman’s remarks were delivered at DevDay and frame a growing narrative that college is not the only route to founding tech ventures. At the same time, Geoffrey Hinton, a prominent AI researcher, warned AI will soon be capable of replacing many jobs and highlighted risks including improved deception and accelerated task automation. Together these remarks press university leaders to rethink curricula, entrepreneurship support and career advising as AI changes both job content and the calculus of staying in or leaving school.