A high school dropout who now works as a research scientist on OpenAI’s Sora team says he taught himself PhD-level artificial intelligence using ChatGPT. Gabriel Petersson, who left high school in Sweden in 2019 to join a small startup, credits the AI model with helping him master complex machine learning concepts without formal academic training. Speaking on the “Extraordinary” podcast, Petersson described how he used ChatGPT to guide his learning journey. “Universities don’t have, like, a monopoly on foundational knowledge anymore,” he said. “You can just get any foundational knowledge from ChatGPT.” He emphasized a top-down approach: starting with a real-world problem, building a project, and using the model to generate code and debug issues. When errors arose, he’d ask ChatGPT for help, then dig into the underlying principles until they clicked. “This way, you don’t need to go bottom-up,” Petersson explained. “Suddenly, you have all the foundational knowledge, and it just makes sense.” His hands-on experience began when he joined a startup that required him to build product recommendation systems, web scrapers, and integrations—tasks that demanded immediate coding skills. “The good thing with just working is that you always have a real problem,” he said. That practical pressure, he believes, accelerated his learning more than any classroom ever could. Petersson joined OpenAI’s Sora team in December, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he worked as a software engineer at Midjourney and Dataland. Despite lacking a college degree, he now contributes to one of the most advanced AI video generation projects in the world. He argues that in today’s tech landscape, results matter far more than credentials. “Companies just want to make money,” he said. “You show them how to make money, that you can code, and they’ll hire you.” Petersson’s story reflects a broader shift in the tech industry. College dropouts are increasingly emerging as key innovators, empowered by AI tools that democratize access to advanced knowledge. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, himself a Stanford dropout, recently expressed admiration for today’s young, self-taught talent. “The amount of stuff you can build, the opportunity in this space is so incredibly wide,” he said during a recent interview. Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz echoed this sentiment in a March blog post, stating that “the playing field has leveled for younger founders” and calling it “the best time in a decade for dropouts and recent graduates to start a company.” Some leaders have gone further, challenging the relevance of traditional education. Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC in February that “everything you learned at your school and college about how the world works is intellectually incorrect.” In response, Palantir launched the Meritocracy Fellowship—a four-month, paid internship for high school graduates not currently in college—aiming to identify talent based on ability, not degrees.