Graduates at several university commencement ceremonies have booed speakers who brought artificial intelligence into the spotlight, turning what universities typically treat as a celebratory moment into a public dispute over the future. The pushback is part of a broader wave of anxiety among students who say they are trying to understand which skills, majors and jobs will remain valuable as AI spreads into work and classrooms.
In one of the best-known incidents, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt drew repeated jeers during a keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. As Schmidt told students, “It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have,” the audience began booing across the stadium, according to the account of the remarks in the Associated Press report.
After the boos built, Schmidt responded to the crowd as it continued. “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” he said, adding: “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating … and I understand that fear.” Students in the audience said the AI-focused message felt out of step with their concerns.
Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate headed for law school, said Schmidt’s speech was “incredibly disrespectful to students.” Malone also said the university experience around AI made the message land poorly, saying, “We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?”
The discomfort over AI-themed pep talks is not limited to the University of Arizona. At a separate ceremony at the University of Central Florida, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield faced boos when she highlighted the arrival of what she called the technology’s broader economic shift. “The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” Caulfield said as boos erupted, to her surprise, prompting her to turn around and ask, “What happened?” She then asked the crowd if she could “finish.”
Caulfield told the graduates that AI use has changed in a short period, saying “Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives,” and then describing what she said was new availability: “And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand.” Even as she added a note of encouragement—also saying “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?”—the tone from the audience shifted back to jeering, according to the AP account of her remarks.
Speakers in other schools also tried to emphasize practical benefits of AI rather than warning about its risks. Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, told graduates at Middle Tennessee State University that “AI is rewriting production as we sit here,” then said, “Deal with it … It’s a tool. Make it work for you.” The AP report said that message also met boos, reflecting the same underlying concern about what AI will mean for employment and learning.
Schmidt’s approach also included a reassurance that students could shape AI’s development, but Malone said it still did not register as inspirational. She said the speech felt “like a big advertisement” and that it was “the longest Gemini ad ever,” and she also raised a controversy around Schmidt’s name appearing in files connected to billionaire financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The report noted that simply appearing in those files does not by itself establish wrongdoing.
Some of the anger at commencements comes amid a difficult labor outlook for the class of 2026. The AP report said part of the backlash stems from students entering the workforce when unemployment for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. That climate appeared to intensify the reaction when AI was framed as inevitable or as a tool to adopt, rather than something graduates felt unprepared to navigate.
Sami Wargo, who graduated from Marquette University in Milwaukee, said an AI expert served as the undergraduate commencement speaker even though students petitioned the school to find someone else. Wargo said the choice felt “tone deaf” given what she and other students see as AI’s impact on jobs, saying, “Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf.” She said she and others booed the speaker anyway.
The AP report also described comments from Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe, who took the stage after the controversy about the speaker. Duffey told the students, “Innovation,” would “reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done.” Wargo said she joined other students booing Duffey’s message, and she pointed to her own experience applying for jobs and the constraints of school policies around AI.
Wargo said she had applied for around 30 jobs without landing one, and she said many job descriptions told applicants to “collaborate with AI,” which she said she did not understand. She also said her classes banned her from using AI, and she described the sense that having uncertainty reinforced during graduation added to what she viewed as a diminished day. “Having to be reminded of all the uncertainty at their graduation,” she said, was “another little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day.”