The Guardian | US students on why they booed their pro-AI graduation speakers: ‘They’re not reading the room’ by Sanya Mansoor

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Recent college graduates across several U.S. campuses have repeatedly booed commencement speakers who extolled artificial‑intelligence as the next industrial revolution, seeing the message as out‑of‑touch and threatening to their career prospects. A music‑industry executive, Scott Borchetta, urged students to embrace AI even as they jeered, while former Google CEO Eric Schmidt received similar hostility for likening AI’s rise to the advent of the computer. The backlash reflects broader anxiety: a 2025 Harvard poll found most young Americans view AI as a job threat, and a national NBC‑News survey showed only 26 % of voters see AI positively. Students argue that their costly degrees feel devalued when AI can perform tasks for a fraction of the price, and they call for executives to acknowledge their concerns rather than press ahead with hype. Even an AI‑driven name‑reading system at a Arizona community‑college graduation sparked boos when it mispronounced graduates, underscoring the pervasive unease about AI’s role in education and the workforce.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/26/students-boo-pro-ai-graduation-speakers

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