Illustration: Alex Williamson/The Chronicle

When ChatGPT made its public debut last year, the CEO of OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company, predicted that its significance “would eclipse the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the Internet revolution all put together.”

Even discounting for hyperbole, the release of ChatGPT suggests that we’re at the dawn of an era marked by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, with far-reaching consequences for nearly every facet of society. So, how will AI change higher education? Twelve professors, administrators, and writers weigh in.

Every fall, fewer than 1 in 10 applicants to the University of Chicago walk beneath a flock of gargoyles adorning a fortress-like stone gate onto the main quad as admitted students. Years ago, Alana Nii’s father was one of them.

When Nii applied to UChicago, she checked a box indicating her status as a family member of an alumnus. Nii believes that box shouldn’t exist. Yet it does, on applications to hundreds of selective universities across the country. That may be changing.

Tejani Francis, 13, is an apprentice for Julia Mejia, one of Boston’s city councilors. The eighth grader has a desk in Mejia’s office where he works for two hours after school, learning about the city council and Mejia’s different committee responsibilities.

Led by Apprentice Learning, the apprenticeship program introduces young people to different career paths starting in the eighth grade. Advocates say the effort is part of a growing national trend to reach middle schoolers before they "harden" their thinking about what careers might suit them.