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College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

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221–230 of 405 posts

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

#221

They just have not considered the massive shareholder value being captured, which under capitalism is certainly guaranteed to trickle down, as it had been historically proven time after time.

Most Americans directly own stocks and a college graduate is even more likely to. This isn't the 1860's so a lot of these critiques of capitalism are anachronistic. The reality is "shareholders" are fairly ordinary people and not a tiny and mysterious group of elites.

First, trickle-down economics is a modern neo-liberal concept.

Second, most people just do not earn enough to invest a significant amount of money in stocks. It's a system that largely benefits the rich. The more money you already have, the more you can invest.

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

#222
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My own conspiracy theory is that AI, and the increasingly authoritarian government swings, are the Boomer generation's last shot at freezing the world in time and ensuring our world is shaped to their vision long after they're all gone. The thing that generation fears the most is that we're all going to just move on from them when they're dead, and finally progress past this "1970-2020" economic/cultural stasis that…

kind of wild that you think there has been no shift in culture between 1970 and 2020

I grew up in the 90s in Europe. Back then Europe had strong consumer protection, pretty strong worker protection, low entry jobs still payed a bunch, cheap housing (my single parent mom was able to buy a flat while working at a gas station at the age of 23).

Today’s Europe is nothing but austerity, there is no consumer protection left, they’ve split the society by having “jobs that only immigrants want” (i.e. insultingly low paying jobs), nobody can buy a flat anymore unless they’re a 10 year senior at a tech company.

Today’s Europe is exactly the kind of world I always imagine the 1970s to be like. The only exception is in the 1970s Europe had a strong communist or socialist opposition which actively fought for a better world with strikes every week (or at least that is how I read European history).

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

#223

"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)

what do people need to hear? inspiration or truth? Personally I want the cold awful truth. But I think humanity in general thrives on inspiration and delusion.

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

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I hear that "AI is just a tool" nonsense one more time...

Ok, so what is it then? To me it's a tool. It helps me accomplish my goals with less effort. That's the definition of a tool right? What is AI to you then? Perhaps I'm being dumb, but not sarcastic.

A large crop harvester is a tool, but if you used to work on a farm by hand it's not a tool you're going to get to use. It's a replacement for your labour and value, right? someone else will get to use the tool and earn money.

So the question is in what way ai is a tool to these kids.

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

#225
post #88
post #83

Schmidt will get over it. In the coming unrest/wars, he will profit nicely from all his investments in weapons and surveillance.

nah, he's gonna be in the line of head spikes

He keeps his Gulfstream fueled and ready to go to Cyprus, where he bought a passport. In Cyprus there is an international "elite" of Western and Russian oligarchs.

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

#226

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

This is pretty wrong. There are a lot of people who _hate it_, but it is still a minority. And older people dislike it more than younger people.

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2026/2/27/public-opinio...

Feelings on it are quite mixed, but people who hate it and boosters are both incredibly loud about it.

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

#227
post #132
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rape apologia. 81% of women have been sexually harassed, at least 20% have been raped. Yet, weirdly, that hasn't changed the allocation of capital in the United States in their collective favor. But let's see what kind of person you actually are. Do you have a problem with suing, post-rape? What kind of society would you consider ideal? Keep in mind that the current criminal case closure rate of rape cases is 25% and…

Uh huh. Or just noting Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Which I doubt was a fact lost on the complaintant - which if the crime occurred, might indeed make the circumstances worse eh? Which, notably, none of what you are saying even addresses eh? Do you think Trump has gotten where he is because these things are not happening? None of this excuses anything.

> Do you think Trump has gotten where he is because these things are not happening?

I don't even understand what you're trying to claim here. As best I can figure out, it sounds like you're saying that Trump made his money from suing people for sexual assault, but that's so absurd I can't even imagine someone trying to claim that as a troll.

Even ignoring that, your argument seems to be "people in general are motivated by money, therefore this specific instance of a person acting where money could plausibly be a motivation is the only possible explanation". It informs quite a bit about how you view the world, but it's not a particularly compelling explanation.

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

#228
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we’re just going to believe her? Why?

Please list all the reasons you don't believe her.

At least the claim of Eric having a secret backdoor to Google servers letting him spy on whoever he wants seems unlikely. If he was spying on her putting spyware on her devices seems much more likely.

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

#229

"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)

None of these people even had to mention AI in their speeches. They could have just done the normal, generic "Dream big, believe in yourself, attaboy" kind of speech and then gone back to their 3rd homes in Malibu. But no, they just had to both mention it AND rub everyone's noses in it. They know they've already won, and are arrogantly making sure the next generation doesn't forget who's meant to be on the lower rung…

I don't know if you're aware but a big meme at Google from when Eric was CEO was when he was encouraging all googlers to install Nest in "one of your homes"

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

#230

GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55. It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.

It’s also the one tech that has been picked up by porn but not video games.

I’m kinda surprised by that. Gaming and porn were the ones that spearheaded tech uptake.

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