alt Hacker NewsCollege students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos
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Eric Schmidt’s speech was particularly bad regardless of the subject, his condescending tone alone deserved the booing.
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.
> 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.
Schmidt will get over it. In the coming unrest/wars, he will profit nicely from all his investments in weapons and surveillance.
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.
If I were an adversary of the U.S. I would encourage anti-AI sentiment among young people, to my strategic advantage.
Discussed here (2 days ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785
You can watch Schmidt's commencement speech here, at 2h:13m:05s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1eM3jv0vWY&t=7985s
It seems like they start booing him pretty close to the start, and pretty often.
A commencement speech should leave people motivated, not feeling like they’re about to be economically replaced before even starting their careers.
Meanwhile they're doing all their homework and tests with AI
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.
This is like the 4th post I've seen on here about the exact same event.
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.
> 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?
2 days old news OP;
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The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310
Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI
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
Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107
An AI Hate Wave Is Here
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.
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
> “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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
Read the room pal.
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)
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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.
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.
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.
"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)