Discussion

• @dr_gingerballs @dr_gingerballs on x

  I really don't think the billionaires are going to make it another generation if they don't wake up.

• @talk_l3ss Max on x

  rich people are finding it a lot harder to convince poor and working people to smile while our organs are being harvested out of our living bodies. Whether it's Zionism or AI or wars of conquest, whatever the rich are shilling, the rest of us don't want any

• @second_sailing Matt Dinan on x

  While the kids hate AI, it's as much the case that they also hate being brow-beaten and harassed into accepting manufactured inevitability at what is putatively a celebration of their achievements

• @anchorofgold @anchorofgold on x

  Is there a reason this keeps happening? Not this message getting booed but why universities think graduates want to listen to this.

• @rodeoprofessor @rodeoprofessor on x

  Never seen a commencement speaker bomb this hard before. The best commencement speeches are short, light, and celebrate/focus on students and families. Getting up and hectoring zoomers about immigration and AI borders on sadistic, worse, he's just boring!

• @joebotxyz Joe Allen on x

  It's surreal you hear Gen Z graduates boo AI at their commencement speeches, then turn on Fox News and see some paid off boomer insist “AI is the future.” Turns out you can only manufacture so much consent.

• @bonejail Rory Blank on x

  Usually commencement speeches are words of encouragement, inspiration, and reflection for the graduates. This just sounds like a dude doing a product pitch, veering into what sounds like an MLM pitch. Would you have a CutCo knife guy do a commencement speech for a university?

• @mpelletiercio Martin Pelletier on x

  Young people have had their futures stolen, first through massive debasement post 2008 that accelerated rapidly post 2020. And now AI is the finishing blow. The fact that asset owners think there is nothing wrong and keep voting for the status quo could be the straw that breaks

• @truthstreamnews @truthstreamnews on x

  Did Eric Schmidt really expect any other reaction here than to get practically booed off the stage?

• @proudsocialist @proudsocialist on x

  The kids are alright!! Former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt gets booed every time he mentions artificial intelligence during his commencement speech at the University of Arizona. This generation just may save humanity after all. [video]

• @realnickmugalli Nicholas Mugalli on x

  Wow students at the university of Arizona heckled Eric Schmidt @ericschmidt the whole time he was giving his commencement speech. Young graduates feel awful about AI, because it's taking all of their jobs m. If you look at the chart below two weeks ago unemployment for that age […

• @fountaincartoon @fountaincartoon on x

  The pushback is real! #NoToGenerativeAI

• @wideofthepost @wideofthepost on x

  Too bad Democrats have congressional leaders who've spent the last year and a half scheming how they can win back tech billionaires, who'd drifted to the fascist right. The opportunity, imperative really, is to embrace the popular AI backlash and give it a voice in Washington.

• @coreywriting Corey Walker on x

  The kids sitting in this graduation likely don't have job offers because of AI. No surprise why they're booing.

• @cernovich @cernovich on x

  This is what college graduates think about Big Tech. All that censorship those guys did. They tried ruining the lives of every Trump voter. It is laughable for them to now say, “Only the left and China opposes data centers.” As if we will fall for such slop from them.

• @jakeottiger Jake on x

  this fails for two reasons: it's out of touch and demeaning. eric is 71, worth $43.3 billion, and has a 27 yo girlfriend. he's addressing graduates my age that are experiencing a shift we have never seen before. yet, he claims he can understand and feel what we do. he can't.

• @cvkueppersbooks @cvkueppersbooks on x

  I attended the University of Arizona commencement ceremony, where Eric Schmidt @ericschmidt faced boos throughout his speech. If you don't know how young graduates feel about AI, this post is for you. The message is clear: it reflects growing skepticism toward AI narratives [vide…

• @neilturkewitz Neil Turkewitz on x

  This is amazing. I mean, I would personally boo Eric Schmidt regardless of what he was talking about, but this is truly perfect. The kids aren't buying his Silicon Valley nonsense. #respect

• @dkthomp Derek Thompson on x

  AI being booed in commencement addresses seems pretty natural to me. It's really, really unusual for the people building and selling a new technology to promise that it will destroy people's livelihoods. Whether you consider this to be “horrendous marketing,” or “actually, a

• @kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x

  This is incredible. Artificial intelligence getting booed out of the stadium in any commencement speech it's mentioned. Maybe telling college students AI was taking their jobs wasn't the best strategy. Must watch —> [video]

• @maureenlangloss Maureen Langloss on x

  Shoot these boos into my veins. They are fortifying. I love these kids. Maybe they will save us after all the damage my generation has inflicted on them.

• @zheschool Nathan Beacom on x

  Hey kids, things are pretty bad right now, and we're doing our best to build a technology that will make them worse as fast as we can. You can't escape it, it will be everywhere. You must learn to love this thing if you want to survive. Congrats!

• @hypervisible.blacksky.app @hypervisible.blacksky.app on bluesky

  There's a long list of reasons to boo this man.

• @willbunch Will Bunch on bluesky

  Artificial intelligence but not the human intelligence to realize that the kids hate AI www.businessinsider.com/students- boo...

• r/degoogle r on reddit

  Arizona students boo former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talks about AI during graduation speech

• @lutherlowe Luther Lowe on x

  @Kantrowitz This one as much about Schmidt as it is about AI. Maybe more.

• @matthewjkuiper @matthewjkuiper on bluesky

  “...for many students, AI has become “the cruel new face of hyper-scaling capitalism.  ” “I too would loudly boo...if I was in my early twenties, unemployed, and had aspirations for my future greater than entering prompts into an LLM”  —  Only *if*?  Bro, we should all be loudly …

• @carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on bluesky

  “.. The booing was persistent enough that Schmidt tried to speak over it, insisting, ‘You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you ..’”  —  @techcrunch.com  —  techcrunch.com/2026/05/17/i...  [image]

• @zackwhittaker@mastodon.social Zack Whittaker on mastodon

  We have yet to normalize booing billionaires in public, but we should definitely start.  —  https://techcrunch.com/...

• r/NewsExchange r on reddit

  Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed during college graduation speech about AI

• r/NowInTech r on reddit

  Arizona students boo former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talks about AI during graduation speech

• r/technology r on reddit

  Arizona students boo former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talks about AI during graduation speech

• r/technology r on reddit

  Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement

• r/technology r on reddit

  University of Arizona students boo Eric Schmidt's AI cheerleading during commencement |  Silicon Valley can't seem to read the room

• Evan Falchuk Evan Falchuk on linkedin

  There were at least two commencement speeches this weekend where students booed speakers talking about the wonders of AI.  Not just booed- totally disrupted the speeches. …

• Vincent Joralemon Vincent Joralemon on linkedin

  I am surprised Eric Schmidt's speech at U of A this week (where he continually extolled the value of AI) hasn't gotten more press. …