Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

Graduation season was supposed to be all smiles, proud parents, and awkward handshakes. Instead, some commencement stages turned into full-on public venting sessions after speakers brought up artificial intelligence, with former Google boss Eric Schmidt getting booed multiple times at the University of Arizona, according to NBC News. And online? The crowd was basically yelling, "read the room!"

The strongest reaction was pure anger over jobs and security. One commenter cheered the boos with, “Good”, arguing people have every reason to reject a message tied to a future that feels less safe for workers. Another accused speakers of hijacking a once-in-a-lifetime moment to promote their own industry, saying graduates didn’t earn a degree just to sit through what felt like an ad. That take clearly hit a nerve: the biggest drama in the comments was whether these speeches were meant to inspire students or sneak in a sales pitch for the very technology many fear could replace them.

But not every AI mention was treated like a villain entrance. One commenter pointed out that Dr. Anthony Fauci got cheers for warning about fake information and urging critical thinking, suggesting the issue wasn’t just AI, but how it was framed. Meanwhile, others joked the internet is already drowning in robot-made sludge, with YouTube called out for videos that sound suspiciously machine-written. The mood? Less "welcome to the future" and more "stop trying to sell us the future at our own graduation."