Eric Schmidt Booed Multiple Times at University of Arizona Commencement for AI Remarks

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times Sunday while discussing artificial intelligence during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona.

“- Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave the University of Arizona's commencement address this year”

Business Insider

Schmidt, who led Google for a decade, told the graduating crowd, “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” as boos continued.

Business Insider

He then said, “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,” and the disapproval intensified.

University of Arizona spokesperson Mitch Zak said Schmidt was invited because of his “extraordinary leadership and global contributions in technology, innovation and scientific advancement,” and added that Schmidt “continues to advance research and discovery through major philanthropic and scientific initiatives.”

The Verge described how University of Arizona students repeatedly drowned out Schmidt’s AI remarks with boos as his speech “veered into talk of AI.”

Business Insider reported that Schmidt acknowledged the crowd’s reaction, saying, “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” as shouts intensified.

Daytona Beach News-Journal

TechCrunch said Schmidt also faced loud boos when he told students, “You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with the parts that you could never accomplish on your own,” and when he added, “When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on.”

In a parallel case at the University of Central Florida, TechCrunch said real estate executive Gloria Caulfield declared, “The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” prompting students to begin booing until she asked, “What happened?”

Business Insider said AI is transforming the global workforce, from how companies screen potential candidates to the types of skills companies are seeking, and it tied student anxiety to the tech’s automation of “rote tasks.”

“Here’s a rare news event that hasn’t occurred in, gosh, a week: a university commencement speech was greeted with hostility because the speaker praised AI”

Gizmodo

It also reported that “about half of Americans felt the increased prevalence of AI in their daily lives made them feel "more concerned than excited."”

NBC News said Schmidt urged graduates to embrace freedom, open debate, equality, and the willingness to engage with those they disagree with, and he closed by telling them, “The future is not yet finished. It is now your turn to shape it.”

TechCrunch added that Schmidt’s commencement controversy included student groups calling for him to be removed as a speaker due to a lawsuit in which a former girlfriend and business partner accused Schmidt of sexual assault, which he denied, and it said the booing began even before he took the stage.