We\u2019ve all been there, perhaps as graduating students, perhaps as the parents or grandparents. Graduation day. We managed to get through college, and\/or we watched our offspring complete a course of study. It\u2019s a proud day. And it is always capped off by optimistic speeches, either by a student who prophesies a brilliant future or a noteworthy speaker who promises a welcoming world of opportunity.<\/p>\n
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The graduation speaker hopes that the audience will learn something from what she or he has to say. In most cases, hours of preparation have gone into producing the statements that are to be uttered. In many, if not most, cases, the speech has been rehearsed, revised, even field tested. And, above all, the speaker has striven to make the subject relevant to the lives of the audience. When this is the case, the speaker is rewarded for the hard work with appreciative applause.<\/p>\n
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This year, for a few speakers, all that preparation backfired. Several renowned speakers who so much as mentioned AI (Artificial Intelligence) had their speech interrupted with boos from the audience. As Heather Hollingsworth and Jocelyn Gecker, writing for the Associated Press (AP), point out, \u201cAs artificial intelligence casts a shadow over career prospects, it is becoming an unwelcome subject at this season\u2019s commencements.\u201d <\/p>\n
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The authors report that Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, spoke about the rise of AI in our society. He faced repeated jeers during his keynote address to about 10,000 graduates at the University of Arizona. Schmidt told the students, \u201cIt will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have.\u201d As he continued with his speech, the booing grew louder. <\/p>\n
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In an article for The Independent, Josh Marcus reports that the tech billionaire tried to convince the already-booing audience that they should help to shape AI. He told them, \u201cWhen someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat. You just get on.\u201d One of the students stood up and shouted, \u201cOh (bleep) this guy,\u201d as he walked out on the graduation ceremony. <\/p>\n
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After spending four, five, or more years in college preparing for the job market, many graduating students are facing an uncertain future. Hollingsworth and Gecker explain, \u201cPart of the backlash from graduating students stems from the dismal job market they\u2019re entering.\u201d One of the TV comics remarked that today\u2019s college graduates are making the transition from their dorm room to their parents\u2019 basement. The college students in the various commencement audiences probably would not find that comment to be the least bit funny. <\/p>\n
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As pointed out in the AP article, \u201cThe unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years.\u201d Consequently, according to a 2025 survey by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, about 70 percent of graduating seniors and grad students view artificial intelligence as an over-qualified and threatening competitor in their quest for meaningful jobs.<\/p>\n
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As students look even further into the job market, their sense of worth in today\u2019s economy seems even more disheartening. Eric Schmidt, writing for The Independent, says that \u201ceven within Silicon Valley itself, which helped create AI, tech workers are being laid off in droves, in some cases after AIs were trained on their work.\u201d This may give students a feeling that they have no future. The tech workers who have been laid off can\u2019t find jobs. Senator Josh Hawley recently told Fox Business, \u201cThirty to 40 percent of them are unemployed, and they blame AI for this, and you know, they may well be right,\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Independent\u2019s Josh Marcus writes, \u201cFrom coast to coast, commencement speakers have faced an audience of booing graduates each time they bring up artificial intelligence.\u201d Scott Borchetta, music producer, told the student audience at Middle Tennessee State University that AI is a tool. He said, \u201cMake it work for you.\u201d Boo! Boo! Boo! Gloria Caulfield, a real-estate executive informed grads at University of Central Florida that AI is the \u201cnext industrial revolution.\u201d Boo! Boo! Boo!<\/p>\n
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When Vice President J.D. Vance addressed the graduates at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, he had already seen the reports of other commencement speakers who had been booed when introducing the topic of artificial intelligence into their speeches. He told the cadets, \u201cNow, you can\u2019t boo me. I\u2019m the vice president of the United States.\u201d That, at least, drew laughs rather than jeers. <\/p>\n
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Vance went on to tell the 900 graduates that he, along with \u201cmany Americans,\u201d is concerned about the effect that AI will have on \u201cthe labor market, its use of water and energy, and how it will change society on the micro and macro level,\u201d according to Joseph Konig, writing for People. He continued to express his feeling about the use of AI in warfare. The academy\u2019s graduates, of course, would soon be commissioned as officers in the Air Force or the Space Force. He also told his audience that he endorsed Pope Leo XIV\u2019s encyclical that human beings should \u201cnot outsource the most important moral decisions to digital technology,\u201d according to Konig.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s not surprising that Vance did not draw boos like other commencement speakers. Of course, his audience was composed exclusively of young people whose futures were already secured as members of the armed services. So, he was addressing 900 mind sets that were quite different from those in most colleges and universities.<\/p>\n
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And finally, there was one incident of booing that cannot be ignored. At Glendale Community College in Arizona, an AI-powered machine was used to read the names of the school\u2019s graduates. However, it omitted several names. Writing for The Guardian, Sanya Mansoor informs, \u201cCollege president Tiffany Hernandez apologized and told graduates\u2026 \u2018Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening. We\u2019re using the new AI system as our reader.\u2019\u201d Aidan Benjamin, who is graduating with an associate\u2019s degree, said, \u201cI was booing because I was like, this sucks. This is such a big moment for students\u2026. It just didn\u2019t feel good at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
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