On August 7th 2025, Sam Altman and OpenAI launched their newest AI update: GPT 5. 2025 has already welcomed rapid change in the job market landscape due to GPT and its counterparts. Among recent college graduates, unemployment statistics have been on a rising trend from a low 3.9% 6th months before the release of AI, to 5.8% where it now rests. For OHS juniors and seniors who are in the thick of choosing which disciplines to study in college, AI creates a challenge as a new rival in the future job market–but also presents itself as a potential ally for exploring and narrowing in on fields of study rising college students might want to do.
According to an Economist report, “GPT 5, right on trend, can handle tasks that would take a human a little over two hours.” Those headed into the job market must now consider in which fields competition with AI would be the fiercest, and which jobs would be replaced entirely.
CBS News reports that layoffs caused by AI have spiked sharply as of 2025–a 36% increase from 2024 in private tech companies. Likewise, in September 2025, workers in US Private Sector businesses lost 32,000 jobs to AI. Many companies have newly adopted an “AI-first” approach, giving job priority to AI instead of humans. It’s evident, however, that jobs are being replaced at different speeds. “A.I. companies are starting with software engineering and other technical fields because that’s where the low-hanging fruit is,” says a New York Times article.
High school juniors and seniors, including those at OHS, must consider which majors are likely to give them a competitive edge in the shifting job market. “I think [AI] will take away a lot of career options,” says one student who confirms they have a very negative view on AI. Other students express similar sentiments, such as the concern that only jobs that require manual labor will be available in the future.
Students planning to major in Computer Science tend to feel especially threatened. “We have seen a decline in the number of [OHS] students express an interest in Computer Science, presumably out of concern that positions for those students coming out of those majors are less available due to AI,” says Dr. Adam Lips, Head of College Counseling at OHS.
However, AI comes with a silver lining; It’s helped many OHS students decide what they want to do–or what they don’t. One student shares, “AI helped me with brainstorming to find potential interdisciplinary majors I can pursue based on my interests.” Other students find that the rise of AI spurs them away from something they were interested in before, in pursuit of other fields. “AI and its onslaught of tech bros just made me feel more disgusted about the blurring line between profits and CS, with ethics and human creativity sidelined,” says a student who was interested in computer science before AI developments and now pursues the pure sciences.
Despite OHSers’ mixed experiences with ChatGPT and other AI, the opinions of OHS juniors and seniors on ChatGPT skews negatively. In a survey with 18 responses from 11th and 12th graders, 38.9% said their opinion on ChatGPT was “very negative”, 16.7% “somewhat negative”, 22.2% “neutral”, and 22.2% “somewhat positive”. No responses detailed a Very Positive view on ChatGPT.
Going forward, OHS juniors and seniors must balance between choosing a major they love and responding to changing circumstances. “With a rapidly changing tech environment, this may mean seeking options that provide some flexibility,” says Dr. Lips.