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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

#261

Post by hatefulmoron »

steelkilt wrote: post #174
mpalmer wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't need much help, the industry's incentives are not aligned with the public interest.

Disruption, by definition, has winners and losers and the losers tend to be more visible, more vocal, and more immediate than the winners.

Who do you imagine the winners and losers will be? To the extent AI is useful and disruptive, it's best utilized by people with capital. Which is to say, the winners are few and the losers are everybody else. In this case, the losers aren't just more vocal, they're louder and more visible because they're much more numerous.

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

#262

Post by mbfg »

tavavex wrote: post #244
ryandrake wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Their behaviors feel so detached and alien to me. Here are my hypotheses: - They love AI and are so self-absorbed that they struggle to think of other people's perspectives. They only view it through their own lens and are oblivious to it. So, to them, others' opinions should mirror theirs, which is why it doesn't register for them. - They know of the impacts their ideas will have, but think that the positives will s…

you could have stopped with AI makes them rich. Why cares about anyone else.

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

#263

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

smallmancontrov wrote: post #74
forgetfreeman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The "boos" are an indication that kids finally understand who to blame. In a dark time, that's a ray of hope: the kids are alright.

That statement makes sense for Eric Schmidt but not the random real estate executive. I'm pretty sure they're just taking their anger out at the nearest target

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

#264

Post by jakeydus »

gowld wrote: post #215
saghm wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

That was the gist of mine as well. "There are too many problems and too few people who care. So please care, and don't let the size of the problems keep you from caring."

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

#265

Post by card_zero »

gruez wrote: post #175
jordanb wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno I'm on some forums with normal older people and they're much more likely to post AI content from YouTube or paste "I asked AI" quotes from chatgpt or even post their own "prompted GAI illustrations" as one guy put it. Every time there is push back from younger posters followed by a bit of a generational faceoff. I think boomers are still inclined to see technology as exciting space-race stuff. As a millennial…

>I dunno I'm on some forums with normal older people and they're much more likely to post AI content from YouTube or paste "I asked AI" quotes from chatgpt or even post their own "prompted GAI illustrations" as one guy put it. No, old people just don't bother hiding it, even though they use it less. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/25/34-of-us-...

That's a chart for "ever used", not "amount of use".

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

#266

Post by DonsDiscountGas »

WarmWash wrote: post #115
whizzter wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, people in art production are far far more negative about AI than most sceptical developers. I wouldn't be surprised if a huge percentage of concept artists are out of jobs or changing specialization these days (Creating a throwaway image for a pitch or imaging document can probably be as easily conveyed through a prompt and the people looking at them are probably often not savvy enough to appreciate the differe…

The most jarring thing for me is that artists tend to be the most "communally oriented, socially forward" group of people. I've definitely spent my fair time around them. As soon as tools came about that socialized their skill, opened it to everyone, they immediately and violently opposed it. Which is totally understandable, except when your core ideology you have been pushing for your whole life is to socialize ever…

Being community oriented is easy when it basically means recruiting new customers (ie listeners). And though some of those become competitors (ie learn to play an instrument) the process is long and slow and arduous and so very few actually follow through.

But anybody can buy a Suno subscription in no time at all.

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

#267

Post by dogleash »

teekert wrote: post #45
analogpixel wrote: post #17

> Tennessee State University suggested AI was "rewriting production as we sit here" and told his audience to "deal with it" as they jeered him in response. Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.

So what is he supposed to say? "Ok let's stop developing AI so you can all have the exact job you trained for?" That hasn't been the case for decades. When I left my eduction I could sequence 200 basepairs using gels. Now I process terabytes of NGS data on supercomputers. I dealt with it, I enjoyed it. Edit: Not saying these kids have nothing to rage against, they can't afford houses, are uninsured, they face a huge…

>So what is he supposed to say?

How to deal with it. Spitting "deal with it" at the audience just says he was so unprepared that he didn't even realize he was literally hired to give them that send-off guidance. But being skilled and notable in a field doesn't make people insightful.

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

#268

Post by romaniv »

gruez wrote: post #124
romaniv wrote: post #106

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.

>and fervently pushed by people over 55. Source? I think you're conflating "pushed by CEOs" (which might lean on the older side) with "pushed by people over 55".

The article we're commenting on lists several examples of the dynamic and it aligns with my personal experience offline and online. There are also stats like these:

https://on.substack.com/p/the-substack-ai-report

"Publishers 45 and over were more likely to use AI than those under 45."

I can, of course, dig up more supporting data, but that is not as important to me as making sense of what I'm actually seeing.

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/views-of-ais-...

"Younger Americans are generally more likely than older Americans to think the increased use of AI will worsen human abilities."

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

#269

Post by heresiarch39 »

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…

When you say China taking over do you mean economically? And how does this scenario play out?

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

#270

Post by mplanchard »

InsideOutSanta wrote: post #177
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)

I bet "deal with it" is exactly the kind of inspiring message these kids were hoping to hear.

Your comment really drove home for me the lack of empathy and humanity in these speeches, even neglecting the AI stuff. These young people are celebrating a real accomplishment and a life milestone. They’re about to enter a world where their decisions will shape our society. In that context, a speech like this is just gauche.
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