Higher Education has been intertwined with society's needs for producing talent and a citizenry that responds to the needs of the times. The American Civil War defined the liberal arts education that evolved to include vocational skills and understanding of basic sciences, which itself evolved into a practicum of engineering. The rise of computing as a discipline with its roots in engineering and math gave us a glimpse into how human thought could be emulated and the vision of "thinking machines.” Over the six decades of starts and stops, recent advances have finally arrived with capabilities that have surprised even the most ardent researchers of AI. These capabilities are forcing, subtly but inexorably, fundamental changes in what and how we prepare the talent for the future. How should our research enterprise be organized in a world that seems to have rapidly passed the endless frontier that drove the dominance of US universities since WW II? This talk will examine intuitively what lies at the core of AI advances, its impact on higher education, and the organization of universities at the frontier of new knowledge and skills.