OpenAI highlights graduates who used ChatGPT to create working AI tools during university
OpenAI announced its ChatGPT Futures Class of 2026, naming 26 students and recent graduates who relied on the tool throughout their degrees. The group produced projects in areas such as space mapping, disaster detection, language preservation, healthcare and education. All projects were built without traditional coding backgrounds. The selection focuses on students who treated ChatGPT as a constant collaborator rather than an occasional helper. OpenAI presents the cohort as proof that the first full generation to use generative AI at university is now entering the job market.
Until now most graduates assumed AI skills required computer science training or expensive courses. Non-technical degree holders therefore treated ChatGPT as a writing aid and left their subject knowledge untouched by the tool. The announcement changes the reference point. It shows that four years of consistent ChatGPT use inside any discipline can produce concrete outputs that employers can see and test, shifting the baseline expectation for entry-level candidates who lack technical degrees.
Analysis
Stop using ChatGPT only for cover letters. Pick one narrow topic from your degree, spend this week prompting it to generate a small, shareable project such as a mapped dataset or summarised policy brief, then post the result on LinkedIn with the prompts you used.
Citation
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