source: techcrunch ai: if you’re giving a commencement speech in 2026, maybe don’t mention ai
level: business
at the university of central florida, real estate executive gloria caulfield called ai the next industrial revolution and was met with boos that grew louder until she paused. when she said ai was not a factor a few years ago, the audience cheered sarcastically. former google ceo eric schmidt faced similar pushback at the university of arizona, where booing began before he took the stage and continued when he told students they would shape ai.
schmidt tried to speak over the noise, urging graduates to get on the rocket ship of ai agents. nvidia ceo jensen huang, however, received no audible pushback at carnegie mellon when he said ai reinvented computing. the negative reactions align with a gallup poll showing only 43% of americans aged 15 to 34 think it is a good time to find a local job, down from 75% in 2022.
journalist brian merchant suggested ai has become the cruel new face of hyper-scaling capitalism, and one ucf graduate described the booing as a collective reaction. even without mentioning ai, resilience was a common theme, with schmidt acknowledging fears that machines are coming and jobs are evaporating. caulfield may have also misread her audience of arts and humanities graduates by praising corporate executives.
why it matters: the backlash shows ai hype clashes with real economic fears, a signal for data scientists building tools that affect jobs.
source: techcrunch ai: if you’re giving a commencement speech in 2026, maybe don’t mention ai