Graduation Speech: AI Sparks Strong Reactions

The graduation season is back, and this year, it has highlighted a palpable tension surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). Some speakers have discovered to their detriment that mentioning AI in front of freshly graduated students can elicit unexpected reactions.

Gloria Caulfield, CEO of Tavistock Development Company, delivered a speech at the University of Central Florida, emphasizing that we are living in a time of "profound change," both "exciting" and "discouraging." She referred to the rise of AI as the "next industrial revolution," which immediately provoked boos from the students. Amused, Caulfield turned to the other speakers to ask what was happening, before acknowledging that she had struck a nerve. In attempting to continue her speech, she stated, "Just a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives," but she was interrupted by cheers as the audience seemed to appreciate this idea.

Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, faced a similar reaction during his speech at the University of Arizona. Even before he took the stage, he was already under fire. Some student groups had called for his removal due to a lawsuit in which a former girlfriend and business partner accuses him of sexual assault, allegations he denies. The boos started even before he stepped on stage. During his speech, Schmidt told the students that they would "help shape artificial intelligence," which prompted more boos. He insisted that "you can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with tasks you could never accomplish alone. When someone offers you a seat on the rocket, you don’t ask which seat, you just get on." Schmidt also acknowledged that there is "a fear in your generation that the future is already written, that machines are coming, that jobs are evaporating, that the climate is deteriorating, that politics is fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess you did not create."

However, not all speeches about AI faced such hostility. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, spoke at Carnegie Mellon’s graduation, stating that AI has "reinvented computing," without provoking negative reactions from the students.

These contrasting reactions occur against a backdrop of growing pessimism among young Americans. A Gallup poll reveals that only 43% of 15-34 year-olds believe it is currently easy to find a job locally, down from 75% in 2022. For many, AI symbolizes hyper-growth capitalism that could threaten their future prospects. Journalist Brian Merchant expressed this concern by writing, "I too would boo loudly at the prospect of this next industrial revolution if I were in my twenties, unemployed, and had aspirations for my future greater than inputting prompts into an LLM."

Even when AI was not explicitly mentioned, the theme of "resilience" dominated this year's speeches. As for Gloria Caulfield, she may have underestimated her audience of arts and humanities students, whose aspirations seem out of sync with the praises of business figures like Jeff Bezos. One student noted that Caulfield had already begun to lose her audience with "generic" praise for business leaders even before mentioning AI. Another graduate, Alexander Rose Tyson, told the New York Times: "It wasn’t one person who really started booing. It was just a bit like a collective, 'This sucks.'"