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

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced boos from University of Arizona graduates Sunday after raising the topic of artificial intelligence during his commencement address.

Schmidt, who led the tech giant for over a decade and amassed a multibillion-dollar fortune, addressed the impact of modern technology on society while speaking to roughly 10,000 graduating students.

The topic struck a nerve of anxiety among students when he traced technology’s evolution from the laptop—which he said had “democratized knowledge” and spurred prosperity—to the smartphone, the internet and social media.

“We thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries, but the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated,” Schmidt said.

“The same tools that connect us also isolate us. The same platforms that gave everyone a voice—like you’re using now—degraded the public square,” he added, referring to polarization within democracies.

Schmidt said information technologies, including AI, had unsettled young people. “That was not the plan, but it happened,” he said.

Shouting and jeers against Schmidt’s talk began when he acknowledged fears that AI threatened to deprive people now entering the workforce of a future.

“I know what many of you are feeling about that,” Schmidt said. “I can hear you. There is a fear.”

“There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.”

He acknowledged that their fears are “rational” and encouraged them to adapt and to shape how AI will be used in the future—rather than let it shape them.

“The question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will,” Schmidt said. “The question is whether you will have shaped artificial intelligence.”

The student body’s response echoed a similar incident days earlier, when graduates at the University of Central Florida booed real estate executive Gloria Caulfield for saying “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution” and that they are “living in a time of profound change.”

“Woop, what happened?” Caulfield asked after hearing the negative reaction. “OK, I struck a chord.”

She acknowledged to applause that just a few years ago AI was not an issue. “We’ve got a bipolar topic here, I see,” she said.

To renewed boos, she said: “AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands.”

The Pew Research Center has found that about half of Americans felt the increased prevalence of AI in their daily lives made them feel “more concerned than excited.” However, those fears may be elevated in areas where technology is more easily adopted to replicate information technology work, reshaping that workforce.

At the sciences-focused Carnegie Mellon University recently, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told graduates there is no better time to “begin your life’s work” than now, even as companies lay off workers.

Huang argued that AI will be a net positive for humanity, saying it is closing the “technology divide” and maintaining that new opportunities would favor young people.

“Now it’s your time to realize your dreams, and the timing could not be more perfect,” he said. While AI will automate tasks, “change every job” and even eliminate some occupations, “many new jobs and entire new industries will be created,” Huang said.

“AI is not likely to replace you, but someone using AI better than you might.”

After Schmidt’s mixed reception in Arizona, a University of Arizona spokesperson said he was invited for his “extraordinary” contributions to tech and innovation.