College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt received a cold reception during a commencement address at the University of Arizona when he touched upon the thorny subject of Artificial Intelligence. The ex-Google exec was one of several commencement speakers across the United States this weekend (h/t NBC News) who were booed for their positive comments about AI, a technology that is having a vast and immediate impact on the job market that these graduates are soon to enter.

Schmidt, who served in various capacities as CEO, Chairman, and technical advisor to Google and its parent company Alphabet across several decades, found a mostly hostile reception to the themes within his keynote speech in Arizona. He talked about the impact of technology over the years on young people to the thousands of assembled students, with his fairly positive spin on AI proving to be a point of contention for the audience. Schmidt told the students that “we thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries, but the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated.”

Schmidt’s speech, which also mentioned how “the same tools that connect us also isolate us,” suggesting that they had “degraded the public square,” generally failed to enthuse the audience. Some of the loudest hostile voices were reserved for Schmidt’s comments on AI, however. “You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with the parts you could never accomplish on your own,” comparing it to a “seat on a rocket ship.” He also suggested that the students will be the ones to “shape artificial intelligence,” even if they “don’t care about science… because AI is gonna touch everything else as well.”

Latest Videos From

At one point, the former Google executive was forced to stop as the shouting intensified. “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you. There is a fear,” going on to speak about the concerns within the next generation that their “future has already been written,” calling those fears “rational.” Schmidt’s message, however, doesn’t deviate: AI “will shape the world,” and it’ll be up to them to guide it along the way.

Schmidt’s get-on-board messaging clearly didn’t resonate with the audience at the University of Arizona. Other speakers, including Gloria Caulfield, a VP for a major property development company, suggested that AI was "the next industrial revolution" during her speech at the University of Central Florida, and was promptly jeered. Meanwhile, music executive Scott Borchetta at Middle Tennessee State University suggested AI was "rewriting production as we sit here" and told his audience to "deal with it" as they jeered him in response.

Meanwhile, Google is just one of several influential technology firms involved in the development of AI, spending billions on its development. Nobody quite knows what the future has in store for an AI-dominated world, but an exec at tech rival Microsoft believes AI will replace every white-collar job within the next 12 to 18 months, despite a wider survey of U.S. business executives from earlier in the year reporting little productivity gains from its use so far.

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

• Boasting about the capabilities of AI to students who are struggling to enter the workforce because of AI is a bold choice. The disruption in entry-level tech jobs is insane due to AI's capabilities being overstated, overestimated, and under-scrutinized. These tone deaf executives need to be booed. Unfortunately, I don't think they're receiving the message that people are attempting to send.

  Reply
• Wow, bold choice indeed. Grads in particular are disproportionately affected by AI and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, all after going mountain-high in debt because our society pushes this "you HAVE to at least get a major these days." We're screwing our kids and grand kids almost as fast as you can say "AI."
  
  Oh and hey, uh, aren't speeches supposed to be written FOR the target audience? Absolutely inappropriate to be glorifying AI in front of many of whom will be suffering from it. Sadly though, can't say I'm surprised.
  
  Lastly: I like what Mike Rowe did on his organization's website with "AI-proof six-figure jobs." That man is a national hero.
  https://mikeroweworks.org/

  Reply
• "deal with it" huh?
  then you can deal with it when the pitchforks and hot tar are brought out

  Reply
• hotaru251 said:

  "deal with it" huh?
  then you can deal with it when the pitchforks and hot tar are brought out

  Schmidt: "Without a job they won't be able to afford the pitchforks or hot tar nor the mob training required to use them.
  Problem dealt with :P"

  Reply
• A group of college graduates is about the worst possible crowd to pitch AI to.
  Most of those graduates just went through the most stressful point of their lives as of yet only to be told at the supposed finish line that there services may no longer be needed and any jobs that are available only pay 70% as much.
  
  As tone deaf as Schmidt was he does have a point.
  Graduates do have a right to be angry and fearful of AI, but being angry and fearful of AI won't make it go away.
  The graduate's generation will be the ones to shape artificial intelligence because they don't really have a choice and it's that lack of choice that really infuriates them.

  Reply
• Let them eat cake.

  Reply
• If it was a student, revoke their diploma.
  
  If it was staff or someone else. Decrease their assets/pay.

  Reply
• SteJBorchard said:

  If it was a student, revoke their diploma.
  
  If it was staff or someone else. Decrease their assets/pay.

  
  Why would you do that? The man deserved to be booed. You can't be more tone deaf than trying to pitch AI to a bunch of students, that are going to struggle to find jobs because of AI.

  Reply
• logainofhades said:

  Why would you do that? The man deserved to be booed. You can't be more tone deaf than trying to pitch AI to a bunch of students, that are going to struggle to find jobs because of AI.

  as well as "ai" currently one of leading issues of inflation atm from utility bills to consumer goods. Its literally actively jacking the students lives up

  Reply
• I'd ascribe this to these guys and virtually every other billionaire, especially in tech;
  
  "See, here's the pulse. And this is your finger, far away from the pulse, jammed straight up your ###..." - Brodie, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

  Reply