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College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

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Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#211

Post by mghackerlady »

eschulz wrote: post #77
Fraterkes wrote: post #61

Apart from being tonedeaf, this stuff just strikes me as very lazy. Who still needs to be told that AI is new and transformative? Getting the privilege of monologueing to a crowd of people on one of the biggest days of their lives, and then just throwing out a bunch of obvious cliches... pretty damning imo.

Absolutely, great graduation speeches are unique and from the heart. They don't sound like a sales pitch for the latest trend or thing, and mentioning AI shows how clueless theses speakers are.

I think the one steve jobs gave at stanford is a great example

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#212

Post by tom2026hn »

OutOfHere wrote: post #92
mekdoonggi wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. Why? Because it's a useful technology, but so far has succeeded in taking jobs away, poisoning minds, art, and politics, hoovering up all the capital, and getting shoved into every possible thing. The billionaires tell us over and over, "Get on board or you'll starve!" and I am certain they will be stunned when they mee…

> They aren't rejecting it at all. They are expressing their opinion on it which is hugely negative. It is one and the same. > I am certain they will be stunned when they meet the rude end of a pitchfork. Is that a threat? Also, do you understand how the police and government work, and whose side they will take? Even if magically the government were on the side of the luddites, which they won't be, China would then t…

China? A New York Times article reports that a Chinese court has ruled that layoffs justified by AI are illegal. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/business/china-ai-unemplo...

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#213

Post by ryeights »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #93

Meanwhile they're doing all their homework and tests with AI

Not necessarily contradictory. If all your peers are using AI, you might feel you have to use it too to avoid falling behind… especially with curved grade thresholds

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#214

Post by nemomarx »

chadgpt3 wrote: post #147
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more than that. They've heard for most of their lives that college is the way to a good job. Now they're graduating, many of them with debt, and as they do, they're hearing that AI means that the jobs won't be there. And now, at their commencement, someone is talking about AI. One of the people responsible is talking about AI! Who thought that this was going to go well?

this isn't the first instance of society failing to deliver on its promises - I'm almost 40 and still no house. What makes this time different, I think is the question?

did you have a real estate developer come and visit your school and talk about how the surging house prices were really helpful for them

I think this is just it being blatant. it doesn't necessarily mean anything will come of it but of course tensions will be high if you get an ai pitch instead of a congratulation speech

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#215

Post by gowld »

saghm wrote: post #208
hermannj314 wrote: post #31

"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market" Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)

For what it's worth, this might not be a recent phenomenon only. My dad has been saying for decades that the speaker at my mom's college graduation (Paul Tsongas, if I'm remembering correctly) was incredibly depressing and basically just said "the world sucks out there, good luck going into it".

Mine was "The world sucks. We need brilliant people like you to save it. Please help."

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#216

Post by smallmancontrov »

skybrian wrote: post #146
tdeck wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why so anti AI specfically? Because society is structured so that every time some labor-saving innovation comes along, it's used as a tool to drive down wages and reduce workers' bargaining power. And they leaders of these industries aren't exactly hiding it. You might be able to game it in the short term, but It's not like anyone is seriously thinking this will reduce the totality of our efforts in the long te…

Somehow, wages tend to go up, though: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Nice try, now use a deflator that doesn't systematically understate housing and forced substitution.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#217

Post by saghm »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #68
hermannj314 wrote: post #31

"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market" Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)

The first step in resolving any problem is acknowledging that it exists. Ignoring real issues in favor of comfortable narratives is insane.

> Some of the loudest hostile voices were reserved for Schmidt’s comments on AI, however. “You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with the parts you could never accomplish on your own,” comparing it to a “seat on a rocket ship.” He also suggested that the students will be the ones to “shape artificial intelligence,” even if they “don’t care about science… because AI is gonna touch everything else as well.”

The Google CEO claiming he and other tech billionaires gave you a seat on a rocket ship via AI is not "acknowledging a problem". Booing something you consider a problem is a form of acknowledgment though, so I'm not sure how you can conclude that the speaker was the one doing what you suggested and not the audience here. Do you really think "AI is like a ride on a rocket ship" is an acknowledgment of issues rather than a "comfortable narrative"?

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#218

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

QuercusMax wrote: post #194
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - people don't actually like music like you, and just want content; non-stop content. This is the big thing that artists are going through right now. They're realizing that most consumers of art don't care about the process or the artist. They just want music as background noise, or an aesthetically pleasing picture on their wall. I wanted to listen to heavy metal songs about office life. I'm not going to spend yea…

The think your last sentence hits the nail on the head: it's good enough for YOU. You've essentially made a novelty song, and I don't believe you're going to be listening to it for years. The problem is when people spend 20 minutes prompting up a song and then attempt to make a career out of slop, and in the process drown out all the new creative works that aren't just remixed slop.

> and I don't believe you're going to be listening to it for years.

Well...it's a year and a half old and I still listen to it on a regular basis.

> and in the process drown out all the new creative works that aren't just remixed slop.

It might be shocking to you, but maybe people actually like "remixed slop".

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#219

Post by gowld »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #195
hnlmorg wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the kids finally understand who to blame You do realise that “sticking it to the man” is something that kids are uniquely good at? This isn’t something that’s only just happened in the last generation. It’s how society has operated since before we lived in caves.

The last batch of kids was blaming their job woes on mexicans, women, and authority figures delivering mild punishments for shouting trans slurs. This batch seems more upset with the billionaires or at least AI. That's a big improvement.

There is more than one kind of kid at a time.

And "graduated college" is a well document splitting variable for the clusters you mentioend.

Re: College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

#220

Post by saghm »

irishcoffee wrote: post #127
lkey wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying with your rapist husband/boyfriend is the norm. He might beg for forgiveness and say he won't do it again. He might say he didn't understand you when you said no. He might threaten to kill you if you open your mouth one more time. He might do all of those in the same five minute span. Almost every women I am close to has been raped or assaulted. What part of this do you specifically not understand?

A lot of people walk away from physically, mentally, or emotionally abusive relationships. I know many. Reading the question generously, the person is asking why someone stays instead of leaves. Two of your 3 examples are emotional manipulation (big red flag, run away) and the last one is a threat to your life (big, big red flag, run away). I think it is reasonable for someone to not understand why a person would cho…

You don't think that the CEO of Google might have some resources at his disposable to manipulate or threaten someone?
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