9 ms·

College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

379 points by iancmceachern 5mo ago

bogzz 5mo ago
The kids are alright.
- tyleo 5mo ago
  Every one of these posts about boos at commencement speeches has one of these comments near the bottom. I feel like I’m failing some pop culture quiz. What does this mean?
  - bananaflag 5mo ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_Alright_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_Alright_(song)
    - jackdoe 5mo ago
      in contrast with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Aren%27t_Alright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Aren%27t_Alright
      - bix6 5mo ago
        When we were young the future was so bright woahohh The old neighborhood was so alive woahohh
        larodi 5mo ago
        "When you were young, the light shined so bright. Shine on, you crazy diamond" a song from the same bygone time, we'll romanticizing about, we've not really even started romanticizing about yet.
        derwiki 5mo ago
        IIRC that was very specifically about Syd Barrett, the first Pink Floyd frontman, who took* too much acid and “retired early.” * it is super lame that people dosed him without his consent
        larodi 5mo ago
        Indeed, and while they did the recording for Dark Side of the Moon he miraculously, almost creepily appeared in the studio. They did not recognize him - bald head and all. I did not know Sid got dozed without consent, but this is not something to do to people. There was knew a girl who was doing it and eventually everyone figured out and started avoiding her like plague.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - ahoy 5mo ago
    AI is largely unpopular outside of the tech & business worlds. Most laypeople see it as falling on a spectrum between unwanted and annoying (google getting worse, AI chatbots proliferating in every app and site) to actively harmful (jobs being replaced by ai). The fact that comments agreeing with this sentiment get downvoted here isn't a huge surprise, hn is firmly inside the tech/business world.
    - jknoepfler 5mo ago
      Most people will experience it as sludge, if they experience it at all. Countries that do not aggressively regulate AI out will see our already profoundly eroded customer service ecosystem disintegrate completely. The already opaque and awful systems that determine things like access to credit or access to healthcare will become even more opaque and inscrutable and produce measurably worse outcomes for actual humans. This is kinda obvious to most people, who are already experiencing an enormous amount of sludge in their daily life. Tech-bro optimism in the face of GenAI is so painfully decoupled from lived reality it's frightening. Tech has not made the world a better place for most people over the last fifteen years, and it is poised to make things much, much worse.
    - inanutshellus 5mo ago
      What's this have to do with the thread you replied to? And... anyway... Google just changed its homepage to make "AI Mode" / LLM responses the norm. LLM usage is just going to be the norm for the foreseeable future. Doesn't matter if a wary set of "laypeople" are reticent. They're still going to ask Google questions and be affected by it in their digital lives.
    - ImPostingOnHN 5mo ago
      For what it's worth, you're probably downvoted way more for the whole "woe is me, I'm always downvoted for being right by people who are wrong" false martyrdom routine. Maybe leave that part off your post next time: it only detracts from the rest of it. You might also refrain from generalizations like "hn is firmly inside the tech/business world". HN is not a single person, there are a variety of people here with a variety of experiences and opinions and biases.
  - jfyi 5mo ago
    It's a song by "The Who". Though given the controversy their lead songwriter (Pete Townshend) has been through, I personally would refrain from quoting him on the topic of kids.
  - aaron695 5mo ago
    [dead]
  - JKCalhoun 5mo ago
    As others point out, a song by the band, "The Who". But it's since come to be a phrase to suggest that the upcoming generation (the kids) are going to be okay. As opposed to the more common refrain of "the kids these days…" (and then append some generational gripe like, "are just weed-smoking, lazy, game-playing, phone-staring, TikTok-headed, etc…"
    - dylan604 5mo ago
      Other than the TikTok-headed part, the phrase could easily be applied to at least as far back as the 80s (NES) depending on definition of game-playing. Before then, there was foosball and pinball. Nevermind the kids that play card/board games. Also, while not staring at a phone implying smart phone use, it was often said about teens having a phone growing out of the shoulder from them constantly being on the phone with friends. So, yeah, kids these days...are just like the generations of kids before them.
      - chadgpt3 5mo ago
        Which is a good thing.
      - mghackerlady 5mo ago
        And what is tiktok if not MTV on steroids
        dylan604 5mo ago
        It's personalized and made by peers vs professional Hollywood productions. Of course, I'm thinking about original MTV and not whatever it evolved into with reality crap programming.
        mghackerlady 5mo ago
        Right, but it still has the same kind of energy as MTV. Music, counterculture (to en extent), and crude humour. It got to the point where when Beavis and Buthead got a reboot, they reacted to tiktoks
fractorial 5mo ago
> Schmidt, who served in various capacities as CEO, Chairman, and technical advisor to Google and its parent company Alphabet across several decades, ... It is gratuitous to say “several,” no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt
- dfxm12 5mo ago
  Just like Mickey Rooney's span of being the top box office draw from 1939-1940. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UDQfFtiOk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UDQfFtiOk4
- koolala 5mo ago
  From all the articles I see about him I feel like he's constantly paying money to get in the news / social media.
lithos 5mo ago
AI Bros are spending too much good will being obnoxious about fancy approximation algorithms, when their purpose in real AI will be lizard brain/reflex type actions. The next AI winter can't happen soon enough. (Note each past AI winter did give us new tools just like this one will, it's just a shame that it'll be an excuse to worsen customer support)
- tdeck 5mo ago
  Unfortunately this AI ship has the US economy lashed to its bow, and the moment it begins to founder we're all going to have to hold our breath for a while in the best case. Thought leaders are all out of ideas that don't have AI in them (and even that ideation is probably being delegated to an LLM these days).
sarreph 5mo ago
Discussed here (2 days ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- dijksterhuis 5mo ago
  other recent related submissions based on searching for "commencement" - Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at Arizona U commencement speech https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204166 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204166 - 26 points | simonebrunozzi | 5 hours ago | 6 comments - Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48200823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48200823 - 6 points | 65 | 13 hours ago | 1 comments - Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196546 - 116 points | 1vuio0pswjnm7 | 19 hours ago | 179 comments - Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 - 163 points | wrxd | 2 days ago | 167 comments - Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175130 - 4 points | mgh2 | 2 days ago | 0 comments - University of Arizona students boo Eric Schmidt's AI cheerleading https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171852 - 103 points | latexr | 3 days ago | 1 comments - UCF Commencement Speaker Draws Boos After A.I. Remarks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 11 points | reaperducer | 5 days ago | 13 comments - Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 182 points | cdrnsf | 9 days ago | 217 comments - UCF Commencement Speaker Booed When Calling AI Next Industrial Revolution [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094523 - 6 points | latexr | 9 days ago | 2 comments
- teekert 5mo ago
  And here yesterday (different source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198281 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198281
ghaff 5mo ago
Correctly or not (probably to some degree correctly) new grads are hearing AI is a major reason why they're having trouble finding jobs which is simultaneously 1.) Probably mostly has always been the case--I no longer have the vast sheaf of rejection letters when I ever got one at all and 2.) Is anecdotally actually the case for a variety of reasons that also include pandemic overhiring and probably an out-sized AI effect on junior engineers, probably especially programmers.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- xmcp123 5mo ago
  I think the overhiring sentiment is largely accurate, but not as it’s frequently presented. It’s not purely over hiring, it’s that many of these companies are doubling down on AI spend(in terms of model creation, hardware investment, etc), and need to allocate their funds differently. So it’s not AI efficiency causing the layoffs, it’s AI resource allocation. And the reason they don’t have the funds to invest? Overhiring. A lot of the companies doing layoffs (META, Microsoft, Amazon) aren’t just using AI coding tools, they’re trying to be the hardware and be the models behind the AI. And they see the failure to do so as an existential threat.
- AnimalMuppet 5mo ago
  I think it's more than that. They've heard for most of their lives that college is the way to a good job. Now they're graduating, many of them with debt, and as they do, they're hearing that AI means that the jobs won't be there. And now, at their commencement, someone is talking about AI. One of the people responsible is talking about AI! Who thought that this was going to go well?
  - chadgpt3 5mo ago
    this isn't the first instance of society failing to deliver on its promises - I'm almost 40 and still no house. What makes this time different, I think is the question?
Y-bar 5mo ago
> “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.” The total lack of self-awareness that Schmidt and his cohort of tech billionaires has significantly contributed to all this is screaming even louder than the boos.
- nemomarx 5mo ago
  His next line was about agreeing with that fear so his messaging is just incoherent to me. I guess very "well we did it anyway, get ready for your jobs to go away and to deal with a big mess we made"?
  - redwall_hp 5mo ago
    "Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."
- MSFT_Edging 5mo ago
  Tim Robinson in the hotdog costume loudly exclaiming "we're all trying to find the guy who did this"
  - mghackerlady 5mo ago
    God I love that video (sketch? I forgot where it came from but I originally saw it on youtube)
    - MSFT_Edging 5mo ago
      It's a skit from the show "I think you should leave". Generally absurdist skit comedy.
      - mghackerlady 5mo ago
        I thought that might be where it was from, but I hadn't seen it and its been so long since I've seen the skit that I forgot where it came from. Thanks :)
dude250711 5mo ago
They just have not considered the massive shareholder value being captured, which under capitalism is certainly guaranteed to trickle down, as it had been historically proven time after time.
- internet_points 5mo ago
  </s> ?
  - spacechild1 5mo ago
    The parent comment was so sarcastic, it actually defeats Poe's law.
- overrun11 5mo ago
  Most Americans directly own stocks and a college graduate is even more likely to. This isn't the 1860's so a lot of these critiques of capitalism are anachronistic. The reality is "shareholders" are fairly ordinary people and not a tiny and mysterious group of elites.
  - spacechild1 5mo ago
    First, trickle-down economics is a modern neo-liberal concept. Second, most people just do not earn enough to invest a significant amount of money in stocks. It's a system that largely benefits the rich. The more money you already have, the more you can invest.
analogpixel 5mo ago
> 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. Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.
- tdeck 5mo ago
  For folks that didn't read the article, it seems he was talking about music production.
  - whizzter 5mo ago
    Yeah, people in art production are far far more negative about AI than most sceptical developers. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge percentage of concept artists are out of jobs or changing specialization these days (Creating a throwaway image for a pitch or imaging document can probably be as easily conveyed through a prompt and the people looking at them are probably often not savvy enough to appreciate the difference). Where the music industry goes will be interesting, knowledgeable musicians are way too into fiddling/toying to feel any need for AI tools, but since music is pretty much an industry these days fed by promotion, it isn't far fetched that bedroom "AI" artists can leapfrog established ones.. the question is if it'll stick if they can't reach the pinnacles (megahits is part of it, but concerts still seem to matter quite a bit, and an AI won't help you perform even if Milli Vanilli might disagree).
    - WarmWash 5mo ago
      The most jarring thing for me is that artists tend to be the most "communally oriented, socially forward" group of people. I've definitely spent my fair time around them. As soon as tools came about that socialized their skill, opened it to everyone, they immediately and violently opposed it. Which is totally understandable, except when your core ideology you have been pushing for your whole life is to socialize everything. The hypocrisy is so suffocating that it was like a 9.0 earthquake in my moral landscape. And yes, before you come at my throat, free local image generation tools get no hatred exemption.
Frusn 5mo ago
[flagged]
tedggh 5mo ago
Eric Schmidt’s speech was particularly bad regardless of the subject, his condescending tone alone deserved the booing.
- Ecstatify 5mo ago
  Not the only issue people have issues with: > Ritter filed a lawsuit in November that alleged Schmidt, a former chief executive and chairman of Google, “forcibly raped” her while on a yacht off the coast of Mexico in 2021. > She also claimed they had sex without her consent during the 2023 Burning Man festival in Nevada. ref: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-06/former-google-chiefs-spying-sex-assault-lawsuit-sent-to-arbitration https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-06/former-goo...
  - bckr 5mo ago
    When you have everything but can’t even keep your hands to yourself. Shameful.
    - delecti 5mo ago
      It seems that when you can have anything money could buy, you start to look at the things money can't buy.
      - johnnyanmac 5mo ago
        Why can't that ever be talent, or wisdom, or passion? So many filthy rich people. Seem to instantly go "hmm, what's some illegal stuff I can do despite so many legal things available to me". I'm sure all the above happened back in the day too, but: rich people of previous centuries would go to the arts to find meaning. Being part of an orchestra or theatre troupe or artist alley was a peak achievement. Now we just have boring dystopia where rich guys literally build bunkers for the end of days they are personally bringing about. What the hell happend?
    - mschuster91 5mo ago
      It's a common issue. When you got everything you could possibly want in life or have enough money to buy whatever you want... then for quite a lot of people of either gender, the illegal and illicit becomes the next thing to obtain. For some, it's an increasingly worrisome amount (and type of) drugs, for others, it's women, and for a select few it's children.
RickJWagner 5mo ago
I’d be anxious, too, if I were just starting my career. Those kids just invested a lot of time and money in an education, and the payoff looks a lot like a gamble. But AI is going to help, not hurt in the long run. Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. Poverty diminishes, free time increases, things truly do get better over time. This’ll be a short term bump, but it’ll be a steep one.
- goda90 5mo ago
  Your viewport is too zoomed out. When you zoom in on the march of human progress, you'll find a lot of spikes in the amount of human suffering along the way. As we start to hit the limits of what Earth can sustain, do you really feel confident that the next spike will dissipate quickly?
- nemomarx 5mo ago
  How short term do you think it'll be, and how confident are you in that? If it takes until these kids are in their 30s their careers will be pretty affected. "maybe the next generation of kids after you will be fine" isn't super comforting.
  - JohnFen 5mo ago
    If the genAI cheerleaders are correct, and this is a change much like the industrial revolution, then things will be horrible for the average person for multiple generations.
- cyclopeanutopia 5mo ago
  > Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. How so?
- pesus 5mo ago
  Are you willing to join in the suffering in the meantime? That's what everyone saying "it'll get better in the long run!" seems to ignore.
TrackerFF 5mo ago
Yeah, it is incredibly tone deaf. I can fully understand some executives trying to hype up AI with the "It'll create more jobs!" mantra, but as it happens, the AI boom coincided with the post-COVID layoffs (from the hiring frenzy we saw back then) - so even though AI might directly not be responsible for less junior/grad hiring in the various industries, the vibe is that it is still responsible for the tough times college grads are facing.
- GrinningFool 5mo ago
  I am starting to see so much consistency in the "it's not AI, it's overhiring" commentary that it's actually starting to feel like a narrative constructed to allay concerns about AI impacts. At this point it's a "pandemic overhire correction" that the industry has been doing for two years, and is accelerating.
  - ryandrake 5mo ago
    Yea, I don't know how long they're planning to milk the "pandemic overhiring" excuse. Ten years? In 2030, we'll still be seeing headlines like "Company X lays off another 10,000 workers due to overhearing ten years ago..."
- nemomarx 5mo ago
  The over hiring explanation will only last so long - you can't really say we were still over hiring after about 2023, right? So by next year you'd expect that shedding to be mostly done I think. and then companies no longer hiring juniors to train up will be obviously ai related
bix6 5mo ago
Imagine bringing a new technology into the world, telling everyone it’s gonna take everything from them including possibly their literal lives, and then telling a bunch of kids to get on board or they’re gonna miss the billionaire rocket ship! lol these people are so out of touch.
- alistairSH 5mo ago
  From the same guy who was part of a conspiracy to suppress wages in his industry. He's completely tone deaf. Not that I'm surprised coming from a billionaire tech executive.
- footy 5mo ago
  imagine using that rocket ship analogy in a world where OceanGate happened. You don't get on a moving ship without asking questions.
hermannj314 5mo ago
"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market" Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)
- forgetfreeman 5mo ago
  The first step in resolving any problem is acknowledging that it exists. Ignoring real issues in favor of comfortable narratives is insane.
  - jerf 5mo ago
    College students had 4+ years to learn about the real issues before the graduation ceremory, and the rest of their lives after it. Rubbing every problem in the world in their face at a graduation ceremony is just gauche. To everything a time and a season. Not every second has to dedicated to "problems".
    - forgetfreeman 5mo ago
      "Not every second has to dedicated to "problems"." I was a lot quicker to agree with this sentiment in prior decades where we had notionally fewer of them, the big ones seemed better understood, and the folks managing the levers of power at least managed the appearance of competence.
      - stvltvs 5mo ago
        This will go over great at weddings and birthday parties! We need to fight for a better world, but that requires that we're not burnt out by thinking about our problems 24/7. We need some fun and joy to make the fight worthwhile.
      - jerf 5mo ago
        There has never been a commencement speech made when the speaker couldn't have spent the entire time speaking about problems. Ever. Not even one. It has always been possible to spin an hour of doom and gloom about the future, based on 100% real problems. A commencement speech is not the time or place for that. I'm not saying it has to be 100% upbeat each time, just that it is not the time or place for an enumeration of problems. It won't even do any good. What are they supposed to do with this that they weren't already doing? It's not like the world was sunshine and rainbows for all of them up to this point and the commencement speech is the correct time to disabuse them of that notion. This isn't your one chance to reach them with news of doom. It's your one chance to send them off and maybe encourage them to fight the doom. It is appalling to miss out on that opportunity because you've got an axe to grind and don't understand that not every opportunity to grind it is appropriate. Actively depressing and discouraging them is almost certainly achieving the opposite of what even you want to achieve.
numron-dev 5mo ago
AI is hitting junior positions way more than senior ones right now, and students with no professional experience are exactly who that affects most. They're walking into a job market where the kind of role they were supposed to start in is shrinking. That said, booing a speaker mid-speech wouldn't be my move on my own graduation day. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be grinding my teeth in my seat.
- nemomarx 5mo ago
  Once the rest of the crowd is booing it seems pretty safe to join in.
cute_boi 5mo ago
Needs more booing. These so-called rich people have the gall to say, “You guys are going homeless, and there is nothing you can do about it. However, please use AI.”
analog31 5mo ago
The same people who are being boo'd for being AI tycoons would have been cheered by the same students 4 years ago for just being tycoons. I hope everybody reflects on the fact that it's the same people.
- nehal3m 5mo ago
  Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.
  - Nasrudith 5mo ago
    [flagged]
    - r_lee 5mo ago
      are you proud of being old and not being able to emphasize with the younger generations? I feel like I see this a lot. oh I'm so old bla bla bla I don't get this oh I have no idea why xyz... if you're young right now, your future seems to be certainly fucked. do you think the youth is going to be all upstraight and say "take the bull by its horns!" as they give up any hope of owning a house or having a family? but I guess they are "fucked in the head". they should be appreciating the S&P500 all time highs on their 401ks... oh right, they're not part of the gravy train. whoopsie
      - madnewgrad26 5mo ago
        These older dudes are just ladder pullers, they’re always talking down to us. We don’t care anymore. They're shocked by our behavior? They should take their own advice: accept reality, deal with it, this is the future.
    - nehal3m 5mo ago
      Did you expect them to cheer on a billionaire that had a direct hand in fucking up their future? In this case the hate is rational if you ask me, and I’m a late millennial.
    - deleted 5mo ago
josefritzishere 5mo ago
Read the room pal.
scotty79 5mo ago
"Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer." There's an interesting duality. If you are someone people can target with relentless online harassment, you should be mortally scared to share your honest opinion. If you are not, like Eric Schmidt's, there's absolutely no reason to care what other think.
Fraterkes 5mo ago
Apart from being tonedeaf, this stuff just strikes me as very lazy. Who still needs to be told that AI is new and transformative? Getting the privilege of monologueing to a crowd of people on one of the biggest days of their lives, and then just throwing out a bunch of obvious cliches... pretty damning imo.
- skrebbel 5mo ago
  I think this is the key point. HN commenters on this thread and related ones like to assume everybody’s an activist luddite but actually I bet the majority of the audience is just rolling their eyes at the amount of open doors being kicked in while being forced to sit still and listen to that drivel.
  - bluefirebrand 5mo ago
    Which is why they booed the mention of AI specifically, surely. It's because they're bored of the speech, not because they're angry at the hearing praise for the technology that is poised to fuck up their careers and futures You can be pissed off about AI without being an "activist luddite" you know
    - chadgpt3 5mo ago
      The word "Luddite" is no longer such an insult as it once was, by the way, now that everyone realises they had a point.
      - skrebbel 5mo ago
        yep I meant it positively.
- eschulz 5mo ago
  Absolutely, great graduation speeches are unique and from the heart. They don't sound like a sales pitch for the latest trend or thing, and mentioning AI shows how clueless theses speakers are.
OutOfHere 5mo ago
By rejecting AI, these students have a particularly bad future ahead. Rejecting reality doesn't make reality bend to you. Due to this rejection, they risk having few jobs, then no jobs. The Schmidts of the world have negative sympathy for such deniers.
- mekdoonggi 5mo ago
  They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. Why? Because it's a useful technology, but so far has succeeded in taking jobs away, poisoning minds, art, and politics, hoovering up all the capital, and getting shoved into every possible thing. The billionaires tell us over and over, "Get on board or you'll starve!" and I am certain they will be stunned when they meet the rude end of a pitchfork. Edit: I did not intend to advocate violence, just warn about public opinion. Please do not harm anyone.
  - OutOfHere 5mo ago
    > They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. It is one and the same. > I am certain they will be stunned when they meet the rude end of a pitchfork. Is that a threat? Also, do you understand how the police and government work, and whose side they will take? Even if magically the government were on the side of the luddites, which they won't be, China would then take over the country hurriedly by its embrace of AI. This is why the US military is embracing AI. I don't think you or the graduates have the faintest idea of how aggressively and pervasively China is using AI. > in taking jobs away The people should be asking for basic assistance benefits, and the graduates should striving to automate more so that even more people can have these benefits. This is the only answer that could be fully consistent with reality. Doing repetitive dumb work is appropriate for ants, not humans. These graduates want a salary without competitively delivering value, and that's not going to happen.
    - mekdoonggi 5mo ago
      > It is one and the same. Wrong. I have a hugely negative opinion on cars that I express often. Still, I think streets should be complete, and roads built for all modes of travel, and more restrictive laws on car use. > Is that a threat? No. Do you feel threatened? Rest assured, you won't be the billionaire and I won't be a part of the mob, but I'm warning that is what will happen when ordinary people are pushed too far. China taking over the country would be a massive improvement, but they're going to do that by prompting, "Chat take over the US"? Unlikely. > The people should be asking for basic assistance benefits You have resigned your agency as a free human being. We are just a bunch of humans on earth. If we all decided AI was bad enough we could ban it. The people don't want basic assistance, they want a say in the direction of their lives. At the moment, their lives are being directed by billionaires and those who saw a fancy chatbot and decided to willingly become a serf.
ks2048 5mo ago
Schmidt will get over it. In the coming unrest/wars, he will profit nicely from all his investments in weapons and surveillance.
- Kapura 5mo ago
  nah, he's gonna be in the line of head spikes
  - 512akHaf 5mo ago
    He keeps his Gulfstream fueled and ready to go to Cyprus, where he bought a passport. In Cyprus there is an international "elite" of Western and Russian oligarchs.
    - Kapura 5mo ago
      i want them to do the atlas shrugged thing so bad. it would end so funny.
    - mixmastamyk 5mo ago
      Really? Cyprus is the country that seized large bank accounts a decade or so ago.
0xbadcafebee 5mo ago
Meanwhile they're doing all their homework and tests with AI
- johndough 5mo ago
  Goomba fallacy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Goomba_fallacy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Goomba_fallacy
  - infraredshift 5mo ago
    [dead]
  - SirMaster 5mo ago
    That's what I'd be curious to know. Are they the same people who are booing it who are also using it?
- ryeights 5mo ago
  Not necessarily contradictory. If all your peers are using AI, you might feel you have to use it too to avoid falling behind… especially with curved grade thresholds
  - boelboel 5mo ago
    Why put in the effort if a potential employer can't tell.
somelamer567 5mo ago
Unfortunately, this is typical of the feral business overclass. It seems that the rampant Trump regime, the advent of AI, the long-term decline of the United States, coupled with the complete impunity the business class were granted during the 2008 crisis, has gone to their heads. The hate saddens, but doesn't surprise me.
romaniv 5mo ago
GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.
- ryandrake 5mo ago
  My own conspiracy theory is that AI, and the increasingly authoritarian government swings, are the Boomer generation's last shot at freezing the world in time and ensuring our world is shaped to their vision long after they're all gone. The thing that generation fears the most is that we're all going to just move on from them when they're dead, and finally progress past this "1970-2020" economic/cultural stasis that we've been stuck in for basically my entire life.
  - amoss 5mo ago
    kind of wild that you think there has been no shift in culture between 1970 and 2020
    - Larrikin 5mo ago
      A lot of the cultural changes that were achieved are actively being fought against and are slowly being reversed. Seems like every few weeks there is something from the civil rights era being chipped away at.
    - runarberg 5mo ago
      I grew up in the 90s in Europe. Back then Europe had strong consumer protection, pretty strong worker protection, low entry jobs still payed a bunch, cheap housing (my single parent mom was able to buy a flat while working at a gas station at the age of 23). Today’s Europe is nothing but austerity, there is no consumer protection left, they’ve split the society by having “jobs that only immigrants want” (i.e. insultingly low paying jobs), nobody can buy a flat anymore unless they’re a 10 year senior at a tech company. Today’s Europe is exactly the kind of world I always imagine the 1970s to be like. The only exception is in the 1970s Europe had a strong communist or socialist opposition which actively fought for a better world with strikes every week (or at least that is how I read European history).
isityettime 5mo ago
You can watch Schmidt's commencement speech here, at 2h:13m:05s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eM3jv0vWY&t=7985s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eM3jv0vWY&t=7985s It seems like they start booing him pretty close to the start, and pretty often.
swordlucky666 5mo ago
[flagged]
steelkilt 5mo ago
If I were an adversary of the U.S. I would encourage anti-AI sentiment among young people, to my strategic advantage.
- mpalmer 5mo ago
  They don't need much help, the industry's incentives are not aligned with the public interest.
  - steelkilt 5mo ago
    Disruption, by definition, has winners and losers and the losers tend to be more visible, more vocal, and more immediate than the winners.
    - hatefulmoron 5mo ago
      Who do you imagine the winners and losers will be? To the extent AI is useful and disruptive, it's best utilized by people with capital. Which is to say, the winners are few and the losers are everybody else. In this case, the losers aren't just more vocal, they're louder and more visible because they're much more numerous.
      - steelkilt 5mo ago
        See below. Small business owners who learn how to use the tools right are one example.
    - philipwhiuk 5mo ago
      Who are the winners? Where's the profitable billion dollar industry?
      - steelkilt 5mo ago
        I’ve been a small business (manufacturing) owner for about 25 years. AI saves me time, extends my reach and reduces my time to market. AI isn’t a threat to me; it’s a daily tool I use. I’m also a former SWE - I took time most of Anthropic’s courses to maximize my ability to leverage the tools. It’s a win/win for me.
panny 5mo ago
I wonder how many of those booing used AI to write their term papers. From the teaching side, I hear AI has become an epidemic of students scamming their way into degrees.
- mixmastamyk 5mo ago
  Curious! https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-somewhat https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-som...
ChrisArchitect 5mo ago
2 days old news OP; [dupe] The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310 Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419 Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 An AI Hate Wave Is Here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173318
ludicrousdispla 5mo ago
If you don't want to be booed at while yapping about AI during a commencement speech, then maybe you shouldn't be doing that in the first place.
throwaway613746 5mo ago
[dead]
deaux 5mo ago
This is like the 4th post I've seen on here about the exact same event.
NDlurker 5mo ago
I thought Fauci's comments were pretty good. Just common sense stuff about using critical thinking when confronted with misinformation/disinformation. 1hr 36min https://www.youtube.com/live/RyWsFYj6380?si=p2W6ih3USKdyDLY1 https://www.youtube.com/live/RyWsFYj6380?si=p2W6ih3USKdyDLY1
matonseca 5mo ago
A commencement speech should leave people motivated, not feeling like they’re about to be economically replaced before even starting their careers.
SirMaster 5mo ago
How many of those booing used AI to do some of their homework?
- honeycrispy 5mo ago
  What are you trying to say? That AI benefited the students because they skipped their homework?
  - SirMaster 5mo ago
    I am trying to understand how many of the students are complaining about AI when they themselves may have been using it a great deal. Because that seems hypocritical.
    - hopfenspergerj 5mo ago
      I can be pressured to use it at work to keep up with others who use it, while simultaneously knowing that it is eroding and devaluing my skills, and wishing that we could all stop using it together.
      - SirMaster 5mo ago
        In what world do students need to use it for coursework to "keep up"? I see no positive outcome for using it as a student where your whole existence is to learn the material yourself.
    - watwut 5mo ago
      It is not hypocritical to hate tool you use. Likewise, it is not hypocritical to dislike people you work or live with. And it is not hypocritical at all to hate or dislike or fear impact of a thing you used.
NoSalt 5mo ago
Next time just let AI give the damn speech and be done with it ... LOL.
trynumber9 5mo ago
I suspect general attitude to AI will split along those who had to apply for jobs in the post-AI world of automatic resume generation and filtering and those who didn't.
softwaredoug 5mo ago
Tech execs made choices that made the public hostile to AI. They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs a not participate in the upside (implication: they get all the wealth). They cozied up to a corrupt administration that stripped public benefits while enriching themselves (now from tax dollars). They forced towns to accept environmentally toxic data centers that take their water/power We’re all going to suffer the economic consequences of being left behind in AI (and other fields) all because execs wanted to double down on privatize the gains / socialize the losses.
- philipwhiuk 5mo ago
  > They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs They didn't just tell everyone, they stopped hiring and started firing despite already making double digit YoY profits.
- soundworlds 5mo ago
  Totally. As I've commented elsewhere, they thought it would be a great time screwing over artists and other culture works to make quick bucks and outrun the law. Turns out that culture workers are a big chunk of who sets the narrative for the mainstream, and especially younger generations.
gos9 5mo ago
Cotton plantation slaves drown out cotton gin-praising introduction speeches with boos Seamstresses drown out sewing machine demo speeches with boos The serf class really thinks they’re “upper middle class” don’t they
arjie 5mo ago
All right, I read the Eric Schmidt speech and it's fine https://xcancel.com/Jason/status/2056413992369676293?s=20 https://xcancel.com/Jason/status/2056413992369676293?s=20 It's not "out of touch" or rubbing everyone's noses in it or any of the other nonsense that people are talking about. It's got a pretty clear thesis: this is a revolutionary technology of a kind that many of us thought impossible even within this last decade; and it hasn't been fully defined what its use and shape will be for humanity; and then there's a note of optimism in it. As far as I can tell this is a pretty decent commencement speech. It's not "disconnected from reality" or "living in a bubble" or "spiteful" or any of these other phrases that people are using. A commencement speech has to address the elephant in the room: this present revolution. It has to exhort the students on to something: which this aims to do. And it has to present challenges in order to do so: this does that as well.
- pesus 5mo ago
  It is absolutely disconnected from reality. An old billionaire does not in any way understand what new graduates are feeling and fearing about AI and its impact on the world. He has not existed or lived like any normal person does for decades at this point, and holds significant blame for the current state of tech/AI and everything that comes with it.
- mixmastamyk 5mo ago
  I heard a clip of it and it wasn’t the words per se that were offputting but the tone of delivery.
billbrown 5mo ago
There was an effort to disinvite him as soon as it was announced that he was the speaker.[1] And then when that failed, activists passed out flyers encouraging students to boo Schmidt during his speech.[2] This all took place before he set foot on campus because of alleged sexual harassment. This wasn't about what everyone wants it to be about. [1] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_078e3449-29cb-4e43-8193-42b666ce166c.html https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_078e... [2] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_ab7ed72c-4efb-4b2c-a46e-7afe81e15949.html https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_ab7e...
- gizzlon 5mo ago
  He wasn't the only one being boo'd for AI though. I heard a podcast where they played clips from at least 3 or 4 different ones
heathrow83829 5mo ago
"Deal with it" is the response these CEOs give. Well, don't be surprised when society starts to regulate or even outright ban AI and data centers. Companies will need to "deal with that".

379 points by iancmceachern 5mo ago

bogzz 5mo ago

The kids are alright.

tyleo 5mo ago
Every one of these posts about boos at commencement speeches has one of these comments near the bottom. I feel like I’m failing some pop culture quiz. What does this mean?
- bananaflag 5mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_Alright_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Are_Alright_(song)
  - jackdoe 5mo ago
    in contrast with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Aren%27t_Alright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kids_Aren%27t_Alright
    - bix6 5mo ago
      When we were young the future was so bright woahohh The old neighborhood was so alive woahohh
      - larodi 5mo ago
        "When you were young, the light shined so bright. Shine on, you crazy diamond" a song from the same bygone time, we'll romanticizing about, we've not really even started romanticizing about yet.
        derwiki 5mo ago
        IIRC that was very specifically about Syd Barrett, the first Pink Floyd frontman, who took* too much acid and “retired early.” * it is super lame that people dosed him without his consent
        larodi 5mo ago
        Indeed, and while they did the recording for Dark Side of the Moon he miraculously, almost creepily appeared in the studio. They did not recognize him - bald head and all. I did not know Sid got dozed without consent, but this is not something to do to people. There was knew a girl who was doing it and eventually everyone figured out and started avoiding her like plague.
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
- ahoy 5mo ago
  AI is largely unpopular outside of the tech & business worlds. Most laypeople see it as falling on a spectrum between unwanted and annoying (google getting worse, AI chatbots proliferating in every app and site) to actively harmful (jobs being replaced by ai). The fact that comments agreeing with this sentiment get downvoted here isn't a huge surprise, hn is firmly inside the tech/business world.
  - jknoepfler 5mo ago
    Most people will experience it as sludge, if they experience it at all. Countries that do not aggressively regulate AI out will see our already profoundly eroded customer service ecosystem disintegrate completely. The already opaque and awful systems that determine things like access to credit or access to healthcare will become even more opaque and inscrutable and produce measurably worse outcomes for actual humans. This is kinda obvious to most people, who are already experiencing an enormous amount of sludge in their daily life. Tech-bro optimism in the face of GenAI is so painfully decoupled from lived reality it's frightening. Tech has not made the world a better place for most people over the last fifteen years, and it is poised to make things much, much worse.
  - inanutshellus 5mo ago
    What's this have to do with the thread you replied to? And... anyway... Google just changed its homepage to make "AI Mode" / LLM responses the norm. LLM usage is just going to be the norm for the foreseeable future. Doesn't matter if a wary set of "laypeople" are reticent. They're still going to ask Google questions and be affected by it in their digital lives.
  - ImPostingOnHN 5mo ago
    For what it's worth, you're probably downvoted way more for the whole "woe is me, I'm always downvoted for being right by people who are wrong" false martyrdom routine. Maybe leave that part off your post next time: it only detracts from the rest of it. You might also refrain from generalizations like "hn is firmly inside the tech/business world". HN is not a single person, there are a variety of people here with a variety of experiences and opinions and biases.
- jfyi 5mo ago
  It's a song by "The Who". Though given the controversy their lead songwriter (Pete Townshend) has been through, I personally would refrain from quoting him on the topic of kids.
- aaron695 5mo ago
  [dead]
- JKCalhoun 5mo ago
  As others point out, a song by the band, "The Who". But it's since come to be a phrase to suggest that the upcoming generation (the kids) are going to be okay. As opposed to the more common refrain of "the kids these days…" (and then append some generational gripe like, "are just weed-smoking, lazy, game-playing, phone-staring, TikTok-headed, etc…"
  - dylan604 5mo ago
    Other than the TikTok-headed part, the phrase could easily be applied to at least as far back as the 80s (NES) depending on definition of game-playing. Before then, there was foosball and pinball. Nevermind the kids that play card/board games. Also, while not staring at a phone implying smart phone use, it was often said about teens having a phone growing out of the shoulder from them constantly being on the phone with friends. So, yeah, kids these days...are just like the generations of kids before them.
    - chadgpt3 5mo ago
      Which is a good thing.
    - mghackerlady 5mo ago
      And what is tiktok if not MTV on steroids
      - dylan604 5mo ago
        It's personalized and made by peers vs professional Hollywood productions. Of course, I'm thinking about original MTV and not whatever it evolved into with reality crap programming.
        mghackerlady 5mo ago
        Right, but it still has the same kind of energy as MTV. Music, counterculture (to en extent), and crude humour. It got to the point where when Beavis and Buthead got a reboot, they reacted to tiktoks

fractorial 5mo ago

> Schmidt, who served in various capacities as CEO, Chairman, and technical advisor to Google and its parent company Alphabet across several decades, ... It is gratuitous to say “several,” no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Schmidt

dfxm12 5mo ago
Just like Mickey Rooney's span of being the top box office draw from 1939-1940. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UDQfFtiOk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UDQfFtiOk4
koolala 5mo ago
From all the articles I see about him I feel like he's constantly paying money to get in the news / social media.

lithos 5mo ago

AI Bros are spending too much good will being obnoxious about fancy approximation algorithms, when their purpose in real AI will be lizard brain/reflex type actions. The next AI winter can't happen soon enough. (Note each past AI winter did give us new tools just like this one will, it's just a shame that it'll be an excuse to worsen customer support)

tdeck 5mo ago
Unfortunately this AI ship has the US economy lashed to its bow, and the moment it begins to founder we're all going to have to hold our breath for a while in the best case. Thought leaders are all out of ideas that don't have AI in them (and even that ideation is probably being delegated to an LLM these days).

sarreph 5mo ago

Discussed here (2 days ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785

deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
dijksterhuis 5mo ago
other recent related submissions based on searching for "commencement" - Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at Arizona U commencement speech https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204166 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204166 - 26 points | simonebrunozzi | 5 hours ago | 6 comments - Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48200823 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48200823 - 6 points | 65 | 13 hours ago | 1 comments - Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196546 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196546 - 116 points | 1vuio0pswjnm7 | 19 hours ago | 179 comments - Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 - 163 points | wrxd | 2 days ago | 167 comments - Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175130 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175130 - 4 points | mgh2 | 2 days ago | 0 comments - University of Arizona students boo Eric Schmidt's AI cheerleading https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171852 - 103 points | latexr | 3 days ago | 1 comments - UCF Commencement Speaker Draws Boos After A.I. Remarks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 11 points | reaperducer | 5 days ago | 13 comments - Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 182 points | cdrnsf | 9 days ago | 217 comments - UCF Commencement Speaker Booed When Calling AI Next Industrial Revolution [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094523 - 6 points | latexr | 9 days ago | 2 comments
teekert 5mo ago
And here yesterday (different source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198281 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198281

ghaff 5mo ago

Correctly or not (probably to some degree correctly) new grads are hearing AI is a major reason why they're having trouble finding jobs which is simultaneously 1.) Probably mostly has always been the case--I no longer have the vast sheaf of rejection letters when I ever got one at all and 2.) Is anecdotally actually the case for a variety of reasons that also include pandemic overhiring and probably an out-sized AI effect on junior engineers, probably especially programmers.

deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
xmcp123 5mo ago
I think the overhiring sentiment is largely accurate, but not as it’s frequently presented. It’s not purely over hiring, it’s that many of these companies are doubling down on AI spend(in terms of model creation, hardware investment, etc), and need to allocate their funds differently. So it’s not AI efficiency causing the layoffs, it’s AI resource allocation. And the reason they don’t have the funds to invest? Overhiring. A lot of the companies doing layoffs (META, Microsoft, Amazon) aren’t just using AI coding tools, they’re trying to be the hardware and be the models behind the AI. And they see the failure to do so as an existential threat.
AnimalMuppet 5mo ago
I think it's more than that. They've heard for most of their lives that college is the way to a good job. Now they're graduating, many of them with debt, and as they do, they're hearing that AI means that the jobs won't be there. And now, at their commencement, someone is talking about AI. One of the people responsible is talking about AI! Who thought that this was going to go well?
- chadgpt3 5mo ago
  this isn't the first instance of society failing to deliver on its promises - I'm almost 40 and still no house. What makes this time different, I think is the question?

Y-bar 5mo ago

> “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.” The total lack of self-awareness that Schmidt and his cohort of tech billionaires has significantly contributed to all this is screaming even louder than the boos.

nemomarx 5mo ago
His next line was about agreeing with that fear so his messaging is just incoherent to me. I guess very "well we did it anyway, get ready for your jobs to go away and to deal with a big mess we made"?
- redwall_hp 5mo ago
  "Some of you may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."
MSFT_Edging 5mo ago
Tim Robinson in the hotdog costume loudly exclaiming "we're all trying to find the guy who did this"
- mghackerlady 5mo ago
  God I love that video (sketch? I forgot where it came from but I originally saw it on youtube)
  - MSFT_Edging 5mo ago
    It's a skit from the show "I think you should leave". Generally absurdist skit comedy.
    - mghackerlady 5mo ago
      I thought that might be where it was from, but I hadn't seen it and its been so long since I've seen the skit that I forgot where it came from. Thanks :)

dude250711 5mo ago

They just have not considered the massive shareholder value being captured, which under capitalism is certainly guaranteed to trickle down, as it had been historically proven time after time.

internet_points 5mo ago
</s> ?
- spacechild1 5mo ago
  The parent comment was so sarcastic, it actually defeats Poe's law.
overrun11 5mo ago
Most Americans directly own stocks and a college graduate is even more likely to. This isn't the 1860's so a lot of these critiques of capitalism are anachronistic. The reality is "shareholders" are fairly ordinary people and not a tiny and mysterious group of elites.
- spacechild1 5mo ago
  First, trickle-down economics is a modern neo-liberal concept. Second, most people just do not earn enough to invest a significant amount of money in stocks. It's a system that largely benefits the rich. The more money you already have, the more you can invest.

analogpixel 5mo ago

> 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. Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.

tdeck 5mo ago
For folks that didn't read the article, it seems he was talking about music production.
- whizzter 5mo ago
  Yeah, people in art production are far far more negative about AI than most sceptical developers. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge percentage of concept artists are out of jobs or changing specialization these days (Creating a throwaway image for a pitch or imaging document can probably be as easily conveyed through a prompt and the people looking at them are probably often not savvy enough to appreciate the difference). Where the music industry goes will be interesting, knowledgeable musicians are way too into fiddling/toying to feel any need for AI tools, but since music is pretty much an industry these days fed by promotion, it isn't far fetched that bedroom "AI" artists can leapfrog established ones.. the question is if it'll stick if they can't reach the pinnacles (megahits is part of it, but concerts still seem to matter quite a bit, and an AI won't help you perform even if Milli Vanilli might disagree).
  - WarmWash 5mo ago
    The most jarring thing for me is that artists tend to be the most "communally oriented, socially forward" group of people. I've definitely spent my fair time around them. As soon as tools came about that socialized their skill, opened it to everyone, they immediately and violently opposed it. Which is totally understandable, except when your core ideology you have been pushing for your whole life is to socialize everything. The hypocrisy is so suffocating that it was like a 9.0 earthquake in my moral landscape. And yes, before you come at my throat, free local image generation tools get no hatred exemption.

Frusn 5mo ago

[flagged]

tedggh 5mo ago

Eric Schmidt’s speech was particularly bad regardless of the subject, his condescending tone alone deserved the booing.

Ecstatify 5mo ago
Not the only issue people have issues with: > Ritter filed a lawsuit in November that alleged Schmidt, a former chief executive and chairman of Google, “forcibly raped” her while on a yacht off the coast of Mexico in 2021. > She also claimed they had sex without her consent during the 2023 Burning Man festival in Nevada. ref: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-06/former-google-chiefs-spying-sex-assault-lawsuit-sent-to-arbitration https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-03-06/former-goo...
- bckr 5mo ago
  When you have everything but can’t even keep your hands to yourself. Shameful.
  - delecti 5mo ago
    It seems that when you can have anything money could buy, you start to look at the things money can't buy.
    - johnnyanmac 5mo ago
      Why can't that ever be talent, or wisdom, or passion? So many filthy rich people. Seem to instantly go "hmm, what's some illegal stuff I can do despite so many legal things available to me". I'm sure all the above happened back in the day too, but: rich people of previous centuries would go to the arts to find meaning. Being part of an orchestra or theatre troupe or artist alley was a peak achievement. Now we just have boring dystopia where rich guys literally build bunkers for the end of days they are personally bringing about. What the hell happend?
  - mschuster91 5mo ago
    It's a common issue. When you got everything you could possibly want in life or have enough money to buy whatever you want... then for quite a lot of people of either gender, the illegal and illicit becomes the next thing to obtain. For some, it's an increasingly worrisome amount (and type of) drugs, for others, it's women, and for a select few it's children.

RickJWagner 5mo ago

I’d be anxious, too, if I were just starting my career. Those kids just invested a lot of time and money in an education, and the payoff looks a lot like a gamble. But AI is going to help, not hurt in the long run. Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. Poverty diminishes, free time increases, things truly do get better over time. This’ll be a short term bump, but it’ll be a steep one.

goda90 5mo ago
Your viewport is too zoomed out. When you zoom in on the march of human progress, you'll find a lot of spikes in the amount of human suffering along the way. As we start to hit the limits of what Earth can sustain, do you really feel confident that the next spike will dissipate quickly?
nemomarx 5mo ago
How short term do you think it'll be, and how confident are you in that? If it takes until these kids are in their 30s their careers will be pretty affected. "maybe the next generation of kids after you will be fine" isn't super comforting.
- JohnFen 5mo ago
  If the genAI cheerleaders are correct, and this is a change much like the industrial revolution, then things will be horrible for the average person for multiple generations.
cyclopeanutopia 5mo ago
> Technology always makes things better and cheaper in the long run. How so?
pesus 5mo ago
Are you willing to join in the suffering in the meantime? That's what everyone saying "it'll get better in the long run!" seems to ignore.

TrackerFF 5mo ago

Yeah, it is incredibly tone deaf. I can fully understand some executives trying to hype up AI with the "It'll create more jobs!" mantra, but as it happens, the AI boom coincided with the post-COVID layoffs (from the hiring frenzy we saw back then) - so even though AI might directly not be responsible for less junior/grad hiring in the various industries, the vibe is that it is still responsible for the tough times college grads are facing.

GrinningFool 5mo ago
I am starting to see so much consistency in the "it's not AI, it's overhiring" commentary that it's actually starting to feel like a narrative constructed to allay concerns about AI impacts. At this point it's a "pandemic overhire correction" that the industry has been doing for two years, and is accelerating.
- ryandrake 5mo ago
  Yea, I don't know how long they're planning to milk the "pandemic overhiring" excuse. Ten years? In 2030, we'll still be seeing headlines like "Company X lays off another 10,000 workers due to overhearing ten years ago..."
nemomarx 5mo ago
The over hiring explanation will only last so long - you can't really say we were still over hiring after about 2023, right? So by next year you'd expect that shedding to be mostly done I think. and then companies no longer hiring juniors to train up will be obviously ai related

bix6 5mo ago

Imagine bringing a new technology into the world, telling everyone it’s gonna take everything from them including possibly their literal lives, and then telling a bunch of kids to get on board or they’re gonna miss the billionaire rocket ship! lol these people are so out of touch.

alistairSH 5mo ago
From the same guy who was part of a conspiracy to suppress wages in his industry. He's completely tone deaf. Not that I'm surprised coming from a billionaire tech executive.
footy 5mo ago
imagine using that rocket ship analogy in a world where OceanGate happened. You don't get on a moving ship without asking questions.

hermannj314 5mo ago

"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market" Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)

forgetfreeman 5mo ago
The first step in resolving any problem is acknowledging that it exists. Ignoring real issues in favor of comfortable narratives is insane.
- jerf 5mo ago
  College students had 4+ years to learn about the real issues before the graduation ceremory, and the rest of their lives after it. Rubbing every problem in the world in their face at a graduation ceremony is just gauche. To everything a time and a season. Not every second has to dedicated to "problems".
  - forgetfreeman 5mo ago
    "Not every second has to dedicated to "problems"." I was a lot quicker to agree with this sentiment in prior decades where we had notionally fewer of them, the big ones seemed better understood, and the folks managing the levers of power at least managed the appearance of competence.
    - stvltvs 5mo ago
      This will go over great at weddings and birthday parties! We need to fight for a better world, but that requires that we're not burnt out by thinking about our problems 24/7. We need some fun and joy to make the fight worthwhile.
    - jerf 5mo ago
      There has never been a commencement speech made when the speaker couldn't have spent the entire time speaking about problems. Ever. Not even one. It has always been possible to spin an hour of doom and gloom about the future, based on 100% real problems. A commencement speech is not the time or place for that. I'm not saying it has to be 100% upbeat each time, just that it is not the time or place for an enumeration of problems. It won't even do any good. What are they supposed to do with this that they weren't already doing? It's not like the world was sunshine and rainbows for all of them up to this point and the commencement speech is the correct time to disabuse them of that notion. This isn't your one chance to reach them with news of doom. It's your one chance to send them off and maybe encourage them to fight the doom. It is appalling to miss out on that opportunity because you've got an axe to grind and don't understand that not every opportunity to grind it is appropriate. Actively depressing and discouraging them is almost certainly achieving the opposite of what even you want to achieve.

numron-dev 5mo ago

AI is hitting junior positions way more than senior ones right now, and students with no professional experience are exactly who that affects most. They're walking into a job market where the kind of role they were supposed to start in is shrinking. That said, booing a speaker mid-speech wouldn't be my move on my own graduation day. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be grinding my teeth in my seat.

nemomarx 5mo ago
Once the rest of the crowd is booing it seems pretty safe to join in.

cute_boi 5mo ago

Needs more booing. These so-called rich people have the gall to say, “You guys are going homeless, and there is nothing you can do about it. However, please use AI.”

analog31 5mo ago

The same people who are being boo'd for being AI tycoons would have been cheered by the same students 4 years ago for just being tycoons. I hope everybody reflects on the fact that it's the same people.

nehal3m 5mo ago
Am I out of touch? No, it’s the children who are wrong.
- Nasrudith 5mo ago
  [flagged]
  - r_lee 5mo ago
    are you proud of being old and not being able to emphasize with the younger generations? I feel like I see this a lot. oh I'm so old bla bla bla I don't get this oh I have no idea why xyz... if you're young right now, your future seems to be certainly fucked. do you think the youth is going to be all upstraight and say "take the bull by its horns!" as they give up any hope of owning a house or having a family? but I guess they are "fucked in the head". they should be appreciating the S&P500 all time highs on their 401ks... oh right, they're not part of the gravy train. whoopsie
    - madnewgrad26 5mo ago
      These older dudes are just ladder pullers, they’re always talking down to us. We don’t care anymore. They're shocked by our behavior? They should take their own advice: accept reality, deal with it, this is the future.
  - nehal3m 5mo ago
    Did you expect them to cheer on a billionaire that had a direct hand in fucking up their future? In this case the hate is rational if you ask me, and I’m a late millennial.
  - deleted 5mo ago

josefritzishere 5mo ago

Read the room pal.

scotty79 5mo ago

"Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer." There's an interesting duality. If you are someone people can target with relentless online harassment, you should be mortally scared to share your honest opinion. If you are not, like Eric Schmidt's, there's absolutely no reason to care what other think.

Fraterkes 5mo ago

Apart from being tonedeaf, this stuff just strikes me as very lazy. Who still needs to be told that AI is new and transformative? Getting the privilege of monologueing to a crowd of people on one of the biggest days of their lives, and then just throwing out a bunch of obvious cliches... pretty damning imo.

skrebbel 5mo ago
I think this is the key point. HN commenters on this thread and related ones like to assume everybody’s an activist luddite but actually I bet the majority of the audience is just rolling their eyes at the amount of open doors being kicked in while being forced to sit still and listen to that drivel.
- bluefirebrand 5mo ago
  Which is why they booed the mention of AI specifically, surely. It's because they're bored of the speech, not because they're angry at the hearing praise for the technology that is poised to fuck up their careers and futures You can be pissed off about AI without being an "activist luddite" you know
  - chadgpt3 5mo ago
    The word "Luddite" is no longer such an insult as it once was, by the way, now that everyone realises they had a point.
    - skrebbel 5mo ago
      yep I meant it positively.
eschulz 5mo ago
Absolutely, great graduation speeches are unique and from the heart. They don't sound like a sales pitch for the latest trend or thing, and mentioning AI shows how clueless theses speakers are.

OutOfHere 5mo ago

By rejecting AI, these students have a particularly bad future ahead. Rejecting reality doesn't make reality bend to you. Due to this rejection, they risk having few jobs, then no jobs. The Schmidts of the world have negative sympathy for such deniers.

mekdoonggi 5mo ago
They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. Why? Because it's a useful technology, but so far has succeeded in taking jobs away, poisoning minds, art, and politics, hoovering up all the capital, and getting shoved into every possible thing. The billionaires tell us over and over, "Get on board or you'll starve!" and I am certain they will be stunned when they meet the rude end of a pitchfork. Edit: I did not intend to advocate violence, just warn about public opinion. Please do not harm anyone.
- OutOfHere 5mo ago
  > They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. It is one and the same. > I am certain they will be stunned when they meet the rude end of a pitchfork. Is that a threat? Also, do you understand how the police and government work, and whose side they will take? Even if magically the government were on the side of the luddites, which they won't be, China would then take over the country hurriedly by its embrace of AI. This is why the US military is embracing AI. I don't think you or the graduates have the faintest idea of how aggressively and pervasively China is using AI. > in taking jobs away The people should be asking for basic assistance benefits, and the graduates should striving to automate more so that even more people can have these benefits. This is the only answer that could be fully consistent with reality. Doing repetitive dumb work is appropriate for ants, not humans. These graduates want a salary without competitively delivering value, and that's not going to happen.
  - mekdoonggi 5mo ago
    > It is one and the same. Wrong. I have a hugely negative opinion on cars that I express often. Still, I think streets should be complete, and roads built for all modes of travel, and more restrictive laws on car use. > Is that a threat? No. Do you feel threatened? Rest assured, you won't be the billionaire and I won't be a part of the mob, but I'm warning that is what will happen when ordinary people are pushed too far. China taking over the country would be a massive improvement, but they're going to do that by prompting, "Chat take over the US"? Unlikely. > The people should be asking for basic assistance benefits You have resigned your agency as a free human being. We are just a bunch of humans on earth. If we all decided AI was bad enough we could ban it. The people don't want basic assistance, they want a say in the direction of their lives. At the moment, their lives are being directed by billionaires and those who saw a fancy chatbot and decided to willingly become a serf.

ks2048 5mo ago

Schmidt will get over it. In the coming unrest/wars, he will profit nicely from all his investments in weapons and surveillance.

Kapura 5mo ago
nah, he's gonna be in the line of head spikes
- 512akHaf 5mo ago
  He keeps his Gulfstream fueled and ready to go to Cyprus, where he bought a passport. In Cyprus there is an international "elite" of Western and Russian oligarchs.
  - Kapura 5mo ago
    i want them to do the atlas shrugged thing so bad. it would end so funny.
  - mixmastamyk 5mo ago
    Really? Cyprus is the country that seized large bank accounts a decade or so ago.

0xbadcafebee 5mo ago

Meanwhile they're doing all their homework and tests with AI

johndough 5mo ago
Goomba fallacy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Goomba_fallacy https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Goomba_fallacy
- infraredshift 5mo ago
  [dead]
- SirMaster 5mo ago
  That's what I'd be curious to know. Are they the same people who are booing it who are also using it?
ryeights 5mo ago
Not necessarily contradictory. If all your peers are using AI, you might feel you have to use it too to avoid falling behind… especially with curved grade thresholds
- boelboel 5mo ago
  Why put in the effort if a potential employer can't tell.

somelamer567 5mo ago

Unfortunately, this is typical of the feral business overclass. It seems that the rampant Trump regime, the advent of AI, the long-term decline of the United States, coupled with the complete impunity the business class were granted during the 2008 crisis, has gone to their heads. The hate saddens, but doesn't surprise me.

romaniv 5mo ago

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

ryandrake 5mo ago
My own conspiracy theory is that AI, and the increasingly authoritarian government swings, are the Boomer generation's last shot at freezing the world in time and ensuring our world is shaped to their vision long after they're all gone. The thing that generation fears the most is that we're all going to just move on from them when they're dead, and finally progress past this "1970-2020" economic/cultural stasis that we've been stuck in for basically my entire life.
- amoss 5mo ago
  kind of wild that you think there has been no shift in culture between 1970 and 2020
  - Larrikin 5mo ago
    A lot of the cultural changes that were achieved are actively being fought against and are slowly being reversed. Seems like every few weeks there is something from the civil rights era being chipped away at.
  - runarberg 5mo ago
    I grew up in the 90s in Europe. Back then Europe had strong consumer protection, pretty strong worker protection, low entry jobs still payed a bunch, cheap housing (my single parent mom was able to buy a flat while working at a gas station at the age of 23). Today’s Europe is nothing but austerity, there is no consumer protection left, they’ve split the society by having “jobs that only immigrants want” (i.e. insultingly low paying jobs), nobody can buy a flat anymore unless they’re a 10 year senior at a tech company. Today’s Europe is exactly the kind of world I always imagine the 1970s to be like. The only exception is in the 1970s Europe had a strong communist or socialist opposition which actively fought for a better world with strikes every week (or at least that is how I read European history).

isityettime 5mo ago

You can watch Schmidt's commencement speech here, at 2h:13m:05s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eM3jv0vWY&t=7985s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eM3jv0vWY&t=7985s It seems like they start booing him pretty close to the start, and pretty often.

swordlucky666 5mo ago

[flagged]

steelkilt 5mo ago

If I were an adversary of the U.S. I would encourage anti-AI sentiment among young people, to my strategic advantage.

mpalmer 5mo ago
They don't need much help, the industry's incentives are not aligned with the public interest.
- steelkilt 5mo ago
  Disruption, by definition, has winners and losers and the losers tend to be more visible, more vocal, and more immediate than the winners.
  - hatefulmoron 5mo ago
    Who do you imagine the winners and losers will be? To the extent AI is useful and disruptive, it's best utilized by people with capital. Which is to say, the winners are few and the losers are everybody else. In this case, the losers aren't just more vocal, they're louder and more visible because they're much more numerous.
    - steelkilt 5mo ago
      See below. Small business owners who learn how to use the tools right are one example.
  - philipwhiuk 5mo ago
    Who are the winners? Where's the profitable billion dollar industry?
    - steelkilt 5mo ago
      I’ve been a small business (manufacturing) owner for about 25 years. AI saves me time, extends my reach and reduces my time to market. AI isn’t a threat to me; it’s a daily tool I use. I’m also a former SWE - I took time most of Anthropic’s courses to maximize my ability to leverage the tools. It’s a win/win for me.

panny 5mo ago

I wonder how many of those booing used AI to write their term papers. From the teaching side, I hear AI has become an epidemic of students scamming their way into degrees.

mixmastamyk 5mo ago
Curious! https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-somewhat https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/we-should-improve-society-som...

ChrisArchitect 5mo ago

2 days old news OP; [dupe] The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310 Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419 Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 An AI Hate Wave Is Here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173318

ludicrousdispla 5mo ago

If you don't want to be booed at while yapping about AI during a commencement speech, then maybe you shouldn't be doing that in the first place.

throwaway613746 5mo ago

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deaux 5mo ago

This is like the 4th post I've seen on here about the exact same event.

NDlurker 5mo ago

I thought Fauci's comments were pretty good. Just common sense stuff about using critical thinking when confronted with misinformation/disinformation. 1hr 36min https://www.youtube.com/live/RyWsFYj6380?si=p2W6ih3USKdyDLY1 https://www.youtube.com/live/RyWsFYj6380?si=p2W6ih3USKdyDLY1

matonseca 5mo ago

A commencement speech should leave people motivated, not feeling like they’re about to be economically replaced before even starting their careers.

SirMaster 5mo ago

How many of those booing used AI to do some of their homework?

honeycrispy 5mo ago
What are you trying to say? That AI benefited the students because they skipped their homework?
- SirMaster 5mo ago
  I am trying to understand how many of the students are complaining about AI when they themselves may have been using it a great deal. Because that seems hypocritical.
  - hopfenspergerj 5mo ago
    I can be pressured to use it at work to keep up with others who use it, while simultaneously knowing that it is eroding and devaluing my skills, and wishing that we could all stop using it together.
    - SirMaster 5mo ago
      In what world do students need to use it for coursework to "keep up"? I see no positive outcome for using it as a student where your whole existence is to learn the material yourself.
  - watwut 5mo ago
    It is not hypocritical to hate tool you use. Likewise, it is not hypocritical to dislike people you work or live with. And it is not hypocritical at all to hate or dislike or fear impact of a thing you used.

NoSalt 5mo ago

Next time just let AI give the damn speech and be done with it ... LOL.

trynumber9 5mo ago

I suspect general attitude to AI will split along those who had to apply for jobs in the post-AI world of automatic resume generation and filtering and those who didn't.

softwaredoug 5mo ago

Tech execs made choices that made the public hostile to AI. They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs a not participate in the upside (implication: they get all the wealth). They cozied up to a corrupt administration that stripped public benefits while enriching themselves (now from tax dollars). They forced towns to accept environmentally toxic data centers that take their water/power We’re all going to suffer the economic consequences of being left behind in AI (and other fields) all because execs wanted to double down on privatize the gains / socialize the losses.

philipwhiuk 5mo ago
> They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs They didn't just tell everyone, they stopped hiring and started firing despite already making double digit YoY profits.
soundworlds 5mo ago
Totally. As I've commented elsewhere, they thought it would be a great time screwing over artists and other culture works to make quick bucks and outrun the law. Turns out that culture workers are a big chunk of who sets the narrative for the mainstream, and especially younger generations.

gos9 5mo ago

Cotton plantation slaves drown out cotton gin-praising introduction speeches with boos Seamstresses drown out sewing machine demo speeches with boos The serf class really thinks they’re “upper middle class” don’t they

arjie 5mo ago

All right, I read the Eric Schmidt speech and it's fine https://xcancel.com/Jason/status/2056413992369676293?s=20 https://xcancel.com/Jason/status/2056413992369676293?s=20 It's not "out of touch" or rubbing everyone's noses in it or any of the other nonsense that people are talking about. It's got a pretty clear thesis: this is a revolutionary technology of a kind that many of us thought impossible even within this last decade; and it hasn't been fully defined what its use and shape will be for humanity; and then there's a note of optimism in it. As far as I can tell this is a pretty decent commencement speech. It's not "disconnected from reality" or "living in a bubble" or "spiteful" or any of these other phrases that people are using. A commencement speech has to address the elephant in the room: this present revolution. It has to exhort the students on to something: which this aims to do. And it has to present challenges in order to do so: this does that as well.

pesus 5mo ago
It is absolutely disconnected from reality. An old billionaire does not in any way understand what new graduates are feeling and fearing about AI and its impact on the world. He has not existed or lived like any normal person does for decades at this point, and holds significant blame for the current state of tech/AI and everything that comes with it.
mixmastamyk 5mo ago
I heard a clip of it and it wasn’t the words per se that were offputting but the tone of delivery.

billbrown 5mo ago

There was an effort to disinvite him as soon as it was announced that he was the speaker.[1] And then when that failed, activists passed out flyers encouraging students to boo Schmidt during his speech.[2] This all took place before he set foot on campus because of alleged sexual harassment. This wasn't about what everyone wants it to be about. [1] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_078e3449-29cb-4e43-8193-42b666ce166c.html https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_078e... [2] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_ab7ed72c-4efb-4b2c-a46e-7afe81e15949.html https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_ab7e...

gizzlon 5mo ago
He wasn't the only one being boo'd for AI though. I heard a podcast where they played clips from at least 3 or 4 different ones

heathrow83829 5mo ago

"Deal with it" is the response these CEOs give. Well, don't be surprised when society starts to regulate or even outright ban AI and data centers. Companies will need to "deal with that".