Mentions of "the promise of AI" at convocation.
It's graduation time at UBC and elsewhere, and I am wondering if any of the speakers at UBC have extolled "the promise of AI" in their speeches.
I was heartened to see a Eric Schmidt ex-Google CEO getting booed for his speech at the University of Arizona, and the VP of a real estate firm at the University of Central Florida, and Smuggy McSmuggerson, the CEO of a record label, at Middle Tennessee State University.
Similar schadenfreude to be found at Glendale Community College, where they opted to have AI read the names of the graduates as they crossed the stage; the system malfunctioned.
While predicting the inevitable triumph of AI, Schmidt did say something very important:
>“To speak of the future as though it has already been decided is to surrender the one thing that actually matters. You are surrendering your agency….”
That, agency, is what is at the heart of discussions around AI, about its supposed inevitability, and about what it will cost our species and our planet.
Please share if you hear any mention of AI during the convocation ceremonies.