Eric Schmidt (ex-Google CEO) and other executives were booed at multiple US commencements for pro-AI remarks, with one speaker telling jeering graduates to “deal with it.”
Key Takeaways
Schmidt at University of Arizona acknowledged student fears as “rational” but held firm: AI “will shape the world” and graduates must guide it.
Gloria Caulfield (UCF) called AI “the next industrial revolution”; Scott Borchetta (Middle Tennessee State) said AI is “rewriting production” – both were jeered.
The backlash is directly tied to a difficult job market graduates are entering as AI displaces entry-level roles.
Speakers chose to inject AI optimism into commencement addresses rather than deliver standard motivational fare, drawing unusually sharp audience pushback.
Hacker News Comment Review
Commenters argue the hostility is self-inflicted: tech execs publicly signaled job displacement and captured policy gains while offering graduates no share of the upside, poisoning the message before it landed.
A recurring observation: GenAI may be the first major technology actively rejected by young adults while being championed by those over 55 – a generational inversion with real adoption implications for builders.
Several commenters noted tone mattered as much as content; Schmidt’s delivery was read as condescending, and Borchetta’s “deal with it” quip confirmed to many that executives are indifferent to graduate concerns.
Notable Comments
@softwaredoug: traces audience hostility to specific exec choices – job-loss signaling, proximity to a “corrupt administration,” and exclusion from AI upside – framing the backlash as earned, not irrational.
@ryandrake: “They know they’ve already won, and are arrogantly making sure the next generation doesn’t forget who’s meant to be on the lower rung.”
