Artificial Intelligence

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Low-cost degrees for AI era

Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios Khan Academy, TED and testing giant ETS are launching a low-cost online college program to train students for the AI era, Axios' Ina Fried reports. 🤖 The Khan TED Institute's first program: a bachelor's degree in applied AI, with a price tag around $10,000. Applications should be open in 12–18 months. 📚 The institute will focus on three areas: Core knowledge in math, statistics, economics, computer science, history and writing. Applied AI skills, including app development, agent building and financial modeling. Communication and leadership skills strengthened through tutoring, collaboration and public speaking. 👩‍💻 Khan Academy founder Sal Khan tells Axios that the jobs of the future are still unpredictable. But students will clearly need a broad mix of knowledge and skills — including but not limited to AI. Khan is also pushing for every student to have an AI tutor. 🤔 Reality check: The program isn't yet accredited. And it's unclear whether employers will value the degrees it bestows. The organizations said the institute is pursuing accreditation: "We are announcing now because the partners believe it is important to begin expanding access now rather than waiting years to serve capable students who are ready today." ⏱️ Go deeper: Anderson Cooper interviews Sal Khan for "60 Minutes" in 2024.

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The kids aren't AI-right

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

America, we have a problem: Young adults are scared and unprepared for the AI revolution upending their early career choices and prospects, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column. Young people tell pollsters they're frightened, even angry, about AI's fast arrival. They're rightly unnerved by a tough job market for college grads. And most aren't remotely equipped by schools to be AI-savvy. Why it matters: This is a growing problem for just about everyone — kids, educators, employers and politicians. The youngest, most technologically native age group should be among the biggest cheerleaders and beneficiaries of AI. They aren't. If anything, their feelings are growing more sour. 🧮 By the numbers: Gen Z's excitement about AI dropped 14 points over the last year to just 22%, according to Gallup polling released last week. Hopefulness about the technology fell nine points to 18%, while anger rose nine points to 31%. You can't blame that trend on the AI-averse. Daily AI users among the cohort saw even bigger drops in sentiment, with excitement falling 18 points and hopefulness tumbling 11 points. The school failure is real. More than half of college students surveyed in another Gallup poll this month say their school either discourages (42%) or outright bans (11%) AI use. Educators know this is happening. 63% of faculty think their schools' 2025 graduates were not very or not at all prepared to use AI at work, per an American Association of Colleges and Universities survey. Some students are trying to outsmart the times. 16% of currently enrolled college students changed their major due to AI, Gallup found. Khan Academy, the TED conference and testing giant ETS announced this week that they're spinning up a $10,000 interactive online program that aims to train students for AI-era jobs. The job market isn't helping. Fed data pegged the unemployment rate for recent grads at 5.7% in Q4 2025. That's above the national rate, which almost never happens. Underemployment for recent grads is at 42.5%, the highest since 2020. At companies that adopted AI, junior hiring fell nearly 8% within six quarters — not via layoffs, but through a quiet freeze on new positions, according to a Harvard working paper tracking 62 million workers. 🔎 Between the lines: The cruelest part of this shift is structural. Entry-level jobs are likely the ones AI will automate first — and they're what teach young workers to think, build judgment and ultimately move up. If a company's bottom rungs are empty, it's hollowing out its own management pipeline years down the road. A bright spot: IBM announced earlier this year that it's tripling entry-level hiring, predicting that the rush toward AI will fundamentally expand what the newest workers do. The other side: There's a counterargument that the tepid job market for the youngest workers isn't solely due to AI. Some prominent economists see it as an overcorrection from the post-COVID hiring binge in 2021. Almost 60% of hiring managers use AI as an excuse for layoffs or hiring freezes because it plays better with stakeholders, per a Resume.org survey. Marc Andreessen called AI a "silver-bullet excuse" for layoffs last month. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said it's "the lazy way out." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman branded it "AI-washing." The honest, less sexy answer is that it's probably both: Layoffs and hiring freezes are real and targeting younger workers, while AI solidifies changes in the workforce that are already underway. 🧠 Here are three things you can do to help young people in your life tackle this shift in the most clear-eyed way: Get them using AI — now. It's a vital tool for every job at every level. Encourage them to pay $20 per month for Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. Share Jim's letter to his kids as a possible road map. But don't just take our word for it: YouTube is loaded with free how-to videos. Lobby schools to teach basic AI ethics and techniques. It's fine for teachers to ban AI use for a specific class. But it's nuts not to equip students with the workplace skills of the future. Encourage AI awareness. Don't repeat the mistakes of the phone-and-internet era. Get everyone you know to think about the ethics, healthy use and societal implications before it captures their minds and habits like their phone did. The bottom line: The generation best positioned to thrive in an AI world is the most frightened of it — because the people who should be teaching them aren't, and the companies that should be hiring them won't.  Axios' Shane Savitsky contributed.

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🤖 Complaining about Claude

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

AI power users are complaining in online forums that Claude suddenly feels ... bad, Axios' Madison Mills and Ina Fried write. Why it matters: The backlash lands just as Anthropic, Claude's parent, is testing a more powerful model, Mythos — raising questions about whether cutting-edge AI is becoming less accessible even as it gets more capable. 🔬 Zoom in: Over the past few weeks, users on X, GitHub and Reddit have been swapping anecdotes, benchmarks and prompts in an effort to pinpoint what changed and why. Much of the speculation centers on whether Claude has been deliberately scaled back — what users are calling "nerfed" — either to control costs or to redirect scarce compute toward Mythos and other frontier efforts. 🤖 Robot response: Analyst Patrick Moorhead asked Claude what happened. "Anthropic made real configuration changes that objectively reduced default thinking depth across all surfaces including claude.ai," the model replied, "but the most extreme 'secret nerfing' narrative overstates what happened." 🧠 Human response: Anthropic says it adjusted the default level of reasoning in Claude Code, but denies the changes were tied to compute constraints or Mythos. Asked about the online complaints, Anthropic pointed us to a March 6 post by Boris Cherny, head of Claude Code, who advised users to "double check you're on the latest version, and ... don't have confusing/conflicting instructions." Keep reading ...

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OpenAI's new science experiment

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios OpenAI unveiled new AI models today built to help life sciences researchers work faster, Axios' Megan Morrone reports. They're designed to accelerate research, drug discovery and translational medicine, turning scientific discoveries into better health outcomes. 🧬 OpenAI's first such model, GPT-Rosalind, is named after Rosalind Franklin, "whose rigorous research helped reveal the structure of DNA and laid the foundation for modern molecular biology." The company says the models won't replace scientists, but rather speed up some of their most time-intensive and analytically demanding work. Humans still need to be in the loop for their expert judgment and result validation, the company says. 🦠 Researchers have warned that AI models trained on biological data could be misused to design dangerous pathogens. OpenAI is reserving access to its new models for organizations working on improving human health outcomes, conducting legitimate life sciences research, and maintaining strong security and governance controls. Yunyun Wang, OpenAI's life sciences product lead, says the idea is to maximize use while mitigating potential misuse. Among those included: Amgen, Moderna, the Allen Institute and Thermo Fisher Scientific. 💊 Reality check: AI-discovered and AI-designed drugs are promising, but only a few have reached clinical trials so far. Go deeper.

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🦀 Scoop: Moore to huddle with AI execs

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in February. Photo: Heather Diehl / Getty Images

🤖 Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will host AI executives from Microsoft and other tech companies for dinner at his official mansion in Annapolis tomorrow to discuss protecting the state from cyberattacks in the "Mythos era," Axios has learned. 🤫 Why it matters: The private conversation offers a glimpse into how state officials are scrambling to deal with the benefits and threats of rapidly evolving AI, as the Trump administration takes a laissez-faire approach to regulating it. AI is likely to be a top issue in the 2028 presidential race, and Moore — who's widely seen as a potential contender — could benefit from positioning himself as a leader on the topic. Many Democrats also are eager to win over Silicon Valley CEOs after some in the tech industry broke with the party in 2024 and backed Donald Trump. AI safety experts are expected to join the conversation tomorrow too. Zoom in: Anthropic revealed this month that its new model, Claude Mythos Preview, poses such massive cybersecurity risks it can't be released publicly. The company said it disclosed the new model's frightening abilities to sound the alarm about heightened AI threats. ⚠️ Governments and corporations have expressed concerns about the risks raised by Mythos. Moore has been holding private conversations about AI with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei over the last year, a person close to the governor told us. Read more. — Holly Otterbein

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🤖 CEO goes all-in on personal AI

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios A blockchain exec built a digital assistant that showcases the promises and pitfalls of a fully AI-integrated life, Axios' Lucinda Shen writes. Alchemy CEO Nikil Viswanathan created the helper, "Dave the Minion," with OpenClaw, a personal AI platform. He tells Axios: "It basically automates all aspects of my life." 📆 Dave pulls from nearly all of Viswanathan's personal data, including his Oura Ring, calendar, MyFitnessPal history and GPS. It can calculate how long it will take him to get from his current location to his next event and then order an Uber unprompted. Dave has even ordered birthday flowers for his girlfriend. 🍛 Yes, but: Dave sometimes goes rogue — ordering Indian food on DoorDash even though Viswanathan never ordered that cuisine on the platform, for example. Go deeper.

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The kids aren't AI-right, Part 2

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

Jim and I wrote last week about the future fallout from an AI-scared generation of young Americans ("The kids aren't AI-right, Part 1"). Today, we dig deeper into job panic in a new "Behind the Curtain" column. Young Americans are scared of more than AI. They're downright panicky about finding a job at all. Only 20% of young workers told Gallup in Q4 last year that it's a good time to find a quality job, down from 62% at the pollster's peak for the measure in October 2021. You rarely see mood swings this severe. Why it matters: For 70 years, a bachelor's degree was the most reliable on-ramp to a stable career. That's no longer true. And that's before AI hits entry-level work at scale. This isn't just worried kids succumbing to bad vibes. It's a hard, empirical reality. Let's dig deeper into the numbers, all based on the latest N.Y. Fed data from December: The U.S. unemployment rate is 4.2% — near generational lows. For recent college grads ages 22-27, it's 5.6%. That remains near the widest gap on record. Until COVID, college grads almost always had lower unemployment rates than the overall workforce. Blame AI, right? Well, the evidence is inconclusive. There are many reasons, but uncertainty strikes us as the leading cause. It doesn't motivate employers to hire when AI execs warn their products will handle huge swaths of entry-level white-collar tasks. That gives permission to pause hiring — or even shed jobs — in anticipation. We talk to scores of CEOs every month and hear a common theme: With so much uncertainty about the economy, tariffs, geopolitics and AI, it's easier to freeze hiring and take a wait-and-see approach. Many feel they overhired during COVID and don't want to staff up now, only to lay people off if AI does what its makers promise. Indeed, CEOs tell us they assume AI will replace lots of white-collar work. So they've paused backfilling jobs typically filled by junior new hires. Think of it this way: AI anticipation is the factor right now, not AI implementation. Between the lines: Even the glimmers of good news might not be what they appear. ZipRecruiter's annual grad report, out last week, found that the share of recent grads landing a job within three months of graduation increased to 77% this year from 63% last year. But the survey also found that 73% of recent grads are actively considering gig or freelance work. Only a quarter are on their dream career path. "It could be working in a fast-food place or driving for DoorDash," ZipRecruiter economist Nicole Bachaud told The Wall Street Journal about the pop in employed grads. 🥊 Reality check: Young people aren't helpless and unemployable. They need to ensure their majors match the changing landscape and master the AI skills employers will demand in the coming years. The bottom line: This is an employment problem that'll likely grow into a big political one as America heads toward 2028.

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OpenAI's cyber push

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

OpenAI has been briefing federal agencies, state governments and Five Eyes allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. — on the capabilities of its new cyber product over the past week, Axios' Sam Sabin has learned. Why it matters: Companies, countries and federal agencies are clamoring for the latest AI tools. 🏛️ OpenAI held an event in D.C. yesterday for approximately 50 cyberdefense practitioners across the federal government to demo the capabilities of its new GPT-5.4-Cyber model, which it rolled out under a tiered access program last week. Keep reading.

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A letter to our kids on what's ahead

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

My note to my kids about AI went viral with many parents. I touched on it during an interview I taped today with NPR — the topic clearly hit a nerve. I asked lots of people why. Put simply, parents don't know what to say — and kids don't know where else to turn — with so much changing so fast. So here's another look at AI and beyond. 👋 Hey kid, we gotta talk. I want to be blunt — and insanely useful — in helping you navigate the uncertainty, fast change and new opportunity of the current moment. It's bolded because it's so easy to lose hold of hope and action, a dynamic duo. Don't. Ever. 🌀 First, a gut check. It's normal to be anxious. I see what you see: AI eating up work, phones eating up attention, politics eating up hope. That's a lot. It's real. 🌎 For better or worse, you're living through history, with once-in-a-century changes happening in technology, politics, media and how you work. I can't sugarcoat reality. I'm not here to lecture or scold. I want to provide a different, brighter way to think about this moment — and help you navigate it. 🚀 You're not behind. You're early. Nobody knows what the hell they're doing with AI yet — not your professors, not your boss, and not your friends. They simply know what you do: This is big, perhaps discovery-of-electricity big. The people who'll thrive in the next decade won't be the smartest or first to master it. They'll be the ones who use it smartly for their specific job. That lane is still wide open. It can still be you. It's fine to be skeptical or even a little scared of AI. It's not OK to ignore it. It would be like refusing to use the internet. Start using AI for something other than searching for an answer or rewriting a paper. Don't ask Claude or ChatGPT to do the work. Ask it to make you better at the things you don't want to do. Do that every day for 30 days. You'll be in the top 5% of your generation. ✍️ Your major isn't your destiny. Yes, this is a tougher-than-usual job market. Yes, it's likely to get tougher as AI gets better. Yes, it'll get more competitive to land your dream job. Whining or worrying about this does only one thing: It gives someone else a leg up. Most people take crappy jobs before finding good ones. Out-hustle your peers. Apply to more jobs than they do. When you get one, outwork them. Beat them to the office. Use AI better. Be the most competent person in the office and the kind of coworker others admire. The skills that compound aren't in course catalogs. They're writing clearly, thinking clearly, selling your ideas, handling hard conversations and learning fast when the thing you just learned goes obsolete. Do all of this and there's zero chance you won't eventually succeed. 🧠 Build a bionic brain. Use your phone differently. Find smart people on social media or YouTube with smart, practical tips for doing what you want to do better. Replace your daily doomscrolling with that content. Things aren't remotely as gloomy as your TikTok algorithm might have you believe. This is not a get-off-your-damn-phone rant. I want you to realize the apps you use are engineered to convince you that life is worse than it is. They keep you engaged by pointing out what's wrong or scary. These are the simple facts: Violent crime is down. Your peers are smoking and drinking a lot less. More Americans are literate, housed and fed than at any point in history. We're curing cancers we couldn't touch a decade ago. You're living in the safest, richest, healthiest version of America — and being told every 30 seconds it's ending. It's not. This is a great country. 🎯 You control you. Those are the three most important words I can give you. Say them to yourself every morning. You don't control the economy. You don't control AI. You don't control the president, the algorithms, the job market or the group chat. But you control you. You control when you wake up. What you eat. Whether you exercise. Whether you pray, meditate or take five minutes to think. What you read, watch and listen to. How you treat the person in front of you. Whether you send the text, make the call, apply for the thing, show up for the friend. Every one of those is a decision. Every one makes you a little better — or a little worse. Nobody else is making these decisions for you. When it gets hard, control what you can control. AI can't do that for you. I can't do that for you. You can. It's quite liberating, even empowering. 🌱 Get engaged. Nothing makes us feel better than being with others and helping others. I'm not being cheesy or preachy, so don't roll your eyes. Throw yourself into action — and to people. If you're truly so worked up about politics, don't vent. Volunteer. Vote. Use social media to spread smarts and sanity. Worried about poverty? The environment? Homelessness? Go make a difference. You can, even if it's small. Here's the pattern I've noticed in every successful or happy person: They showed up. They volunteered. They applied even though they weren't qualified. They said yes before they were ready. They just did things, anything, to create natural momentum in their life. Worst case? You're too busy to fixate on the craziness around you. Best case? You change the world. And I'm right — again. ⚡ I'm not going to pretend the world isn't changing faster than it ever has. And no, I don't have all the answers. I know this: You're not alone. You're not crazy. You've got this. I'm rooting for you. Go make it happen.