Graduates are booing pep talks on artificial intelligence at college commencements, as AI casts a shadow over career prospects. At several campuses, students have interrupted keynote speakers with stadium-wide boos when the topic turned to AI.
Eric Schmidt Booed at University of Arizona
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced repeated jeers during his keynote address to about 10,000 University of Arizona graduates on the rise of AI. “It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have,” Schmidt said, as booing began to build. “I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you,” he responded. “There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating … and I understand that fear.”
To students, the topic felt tone deaf, said Olivia Malone, a 22-year-old University of Arizona graduate bound for law school. “His speech was incredibly disrespectful to students,” Malone said. “We as students are discouraged from using it and penalized for using it. And then to have our speaker be the champion of AI is just like, OK? Why?”
Widespread Student Anxiety
Similar responses at other universities highlight pervasive anxiety among college students. Polls show growing concern that AI will doom career plans. About 70% of college students see AI as a threat to their job prospects, according to a 2025 poll by the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. A recent Gallup poll of Generation Z youth and adults found increasingly negative attitudes toward AI. About half of Gen Z use AI daily or weekly, but anger about the technology has increased while excitement and hopefulness have declined.
Other Speakers Booed
Real estate executive Gloria Caulfield faced boos when she highlighted AI during a keynote at the University of Central Florida. “The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” she said, as boos erupted. “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?” She said, “Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives,” prompting cheers. “And now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hand,” she said to more jeering.
Music executive Scott Borchetta also met boos when he spoke to Middle Tennessee State University graduates about AI in music. “AI is rewriting production as we sit here,” he said. “I know it. Deal with it … Do something about it. It’s a tool. Make it work for you.”
Schmidt offered a similar message: fear is rational, but graduates have power to shape AI. The advice didn't land well with students like Malone, who said the speech felt self-serving. “It felt like a big advertisement. It felt like the longest Gemini ad ever,” she said, noting Schmidt's name appears in the Epstein files. “Everybody I was sitting by was really hooting and hollering about that, yelling, ‘Epstein files! Epstein files!’”
Tough Job Market
Part of the backlash stems from a dismal job market. The unemployment rate for college graduates ages 22 to 27 has reached its highest level in a dozen years. Sami Wargo just graduated from Marquette University, where an AI expert was the undergraduate commencement speaker despite a student petition. “Given how AI has become an increasing threat towards our jobs, especially for our graduating class, we thought it was a little bit tone deaf,” said Wargo, who majored in digital media and minored in advertising.
Chris Duffey, an AI evangelist at Adobe, told students, “Innovation will reveal what can be done, but only you can decide what should be done.” Wargo joined others in booing. The 21-year-old has applied for around 30 jobs but hasn't landed one. Many job descriptions say applicants must “collaborate with AI,” but “I don’t know what that means,” she said, noting most classes banned AI. Being reminded of uncertainty at graduation was “another little dent in what was supposed to be a celebratory day.”
