Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements
33 points by 1vuio0pswjnm7 3 days ago | 25 comments
  • rjbwork 3 days ago |
    Companies have been gleefully touting that AI is going to put everyone out of work for years now, with all gains going to the owner class.

    What did they expect?

    • AnimalMuppet 3 days ago |
      More: For years, universities have been presented as the answer for getting a good job. So now, at a university, to be touting AI... yeah, what did they expect?
  • steelkilt 3 days ago |
    We all have self-constructed identities. When threat of deconstruction presents itself, we react. E.g. my college degree isn’t worth what I thought it was, therefore I’m not the person I thought I was, therefore AI is evil, doesn’t work right, is bad for the environment, is bad for society, et. al.

    “This thing makes me feel less special, therefore I don’t like it.”

    • JohnFen 3 days ago |
      I honestly don't think this is a large factor. I think a larger factor for the pushback is "this tech looks like it's going to make my life harder and more unpleasant".
    • mulr00ney 3 days ago |
      >is bad for the environment, is bad for society

      Can't it be those too?

      • ofjcihen 3 days ago |
        No way, it’s definitely 100% because college kids are entitled or something.
        • scrubs 2 days ago |
          Entitled? Or something?

          Reactionary. At worst young kids are lazy (in selected cases only) and nieve about how work works.

          Entitlement comes from mental disorder or growing up in affluence like much of the upper 5%.

          Moreover, kids from middle to lower income brackets i think work harder, are more resilient, and take their education more seriously than those that just fall in Harvard. The underlying difference? Consequences in the real world. When you always land on your feet or feel untouchable entitlement is 6 months away to a lifetime of clueless.

          • DeltaCoast 2 days ago |
            I think the comment you are responding to meant that sarcastically.
            • ofjcihen 2 days ago |
              Si
              • scrubs 2 days ago |
                Oh! My bad!. Let give me give my best rosane rosanadanna (from old school SNL TV era) "never mind"
        • steelkilt 2 days ago |
          I don’t blame them for how they feel. In fact, I feel sorry for them. Covid took a few years from them, then AI comes along and invalidates their career choices. That’s a hard case.
          • ofjcihen 2 days ago |
            Oh yeah I don’t blame them at all.

            And to be clear that was sarcasm from my earlier comment.

            Nah the kids grew up in the middle of “once in a lifetime” events and are now subject to a life where what’s considered a viable career changes every 2 years or so.

            They’ve never known a stable world.

      • steelkilt 2 days ago |
        Of course. Multiple things can be true.
    • drawfloat 3 days ago |
      They probably don’t like it because the AI industry has spent years saying it wants to make them all unemployed.
      • steelkilt 2 days ago |
        Most of them won’t be unemployed.
    • addycb 3 days ago |
      "Fuck you, got mine"
      • danny_codes 2 days ago |
        Tale as old as boomer
        • steelkilt 2 days ago |
          Actually, that’s a tale as old as humanity itself.
      • steelkilt 2 days ago |
        Most of the people I know worked pretty hard for what they have.
  • nokeya 3 days ago |
    HTTP error 451 for accessing this site outside of US, meh.
    • pixel_popping 3 days ago |
      Boooooooh
  • nitwit005 3 days ago |
    > “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 in the audience.

    This is being forced to listen to a former CEO talk about how amazing the products being built at the company he used to work at are. I'd have booed too.

    • danny_codes 2 days ago |
      I mean they got Schmidt.. I think they failed at conception
  • ChrisArchitect 3 days ago |
    [dupe]

    The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310

    Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419

    Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674

    Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107

    An AI Hate Wave Is Here

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173318

  • 9p 3 days ago |
    out of touch 1%er unc fails the read on normal people social cues, tomatoes inbound. where have i seen this before?