Graduation season is in the air, with students dressed in flowing togas and bright smiles. Hopeful graduates, excited for their futures, marched to claim their hard-earned diplomas.  But as they took their seats for the commencement speeches by distinguished guests, which were supposed to provide inspiration, the happy occasion quickly took a different turn, and there was one common denominator among a number of graduation ceremonies: AI.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a commencement speech at the University of Arizona, where he was met with boos from the graduates when he compared the transformative impact of the computer with that of Artificial Intelligence (AI).  

Schmidt proceeded to say that the transformation brought about by AI will affect “any profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person, and every relationship.”

The boos come from the growing anxiety about the impact of AI on their future. According to a BBC article, tech giants such as Amazon and Meta, and smaller companies like Pinterest, have announced plans to reduce their workforce to make way for AI developments, which will allow them to do more with fewer people.

As the boos came, Schmidt tried to take control of the situation by saying that he understood where the graduates were coming from: “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating…and I understand that fear,” he said.

“The question is not whether AI will shape the world – it will. The question is whether you will shape AI,” Schmidt said, which was met with more boos from the graduates.

Not the first time

Strangely, this was not the first time that a commencement speech was met with disapproval from the audience. Gloria Caulfield, a Florida-based businesswoman, also experienced the same treatment as Schmidt when she delivered her commencement speech at a graduation ceremony at the University of Central Florida.

Caulfield said that we are living in a time of profound change, and that AI is “the next industrial revolution”. To which the audience expressed their dismay with boos.

And as its streak of continued unpopularity at graduation ceremonies continues, the names of several students were not called as they walked to the stage during their graduation ceremony at Glendale Community College in Arizona.

Tiffany Hernandez, the college president, went up on the stage to explain the mishap: “We’re using a new AI system. That is a lesson learned for us.” The explanation was met by boos from the audience.

An actual ally

In an unlikely end to this story, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also went up the graduation stage to give a commencement speech, but instead of boos was met with cheers and applause from the graduates of Grand Valley State University.

Instead of praising AI as Schmidt and Caulfield did, Wozniak reassured the graduates.

“You have AI – actual intelligence,” Wozniak said.

This was met with applause and laughs from the audience.

Aside from this witty remark from Wozniak, he also reflected on his time with Apple and gave advice to graduates as they step out into the world.

“You should always try to think differently,” Wozniak said. And advised the graduates to: “Don’t follow the same steps as a million other people. Think, is there something that I can do a little differently?”

While this season’s graduation ceremonies might have taken a strange turn of events, there is no doubt that their graduates will be facing a different landscape than the one before them, but hasn’t that always been the case?