Would you have booed this AI speech at graduation?
I came across a moment recently that kind of sums up the weird tension around AI right now.
At a university commencement speech, the speaker (an exec at a real estate company) said that AI is the next industrial revolution. Big, optimistic, “this will change everything” kind of message.
And the crowd… booed.
Apparently one guy even yelled “AI sucks.”
At first that sounds harsh, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.
You’ve got someone established in their career, probably benefiting from AI as a productivity tool, telling a group of new grads that this shift is a good thing. Meanwhile those grads are walking into a job market where entry level roles are getting automated, the “boring work” that used to be a stepping stone is disappearing, and expectations are rising faster than opportunities. So yeah, of course the reaction is different.
I use AI a lot myself, and I can see both sides. On one hand, it does feel like a huge leap forward. On the other, if I were just graduating right now, I’d probably be more anxious than excited.
It feels like we’re in this strange moment where people further along in their careers are optimistic, and people just starting out are not so sure.
Curious what others think. If you were sitting in that audience, would you have booed?