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College students drown out AI-praising commencement speeches with boos

tomshardware.com

341–350 of 405 posts

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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

The firms will obviously then just use any excuse that doesn't contain the word AI. Money to pay salaries is not free.

Regardless, at best it protects existing employees. A hiring freeze will still block new workers.

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tempting to assume malice, I don't doubt some of them really are so spiteful, but I assume most are just that out of touch.

They aren't out of touch when it comes to the prospect of cutting jobs and how it will pump their stock portfolios. They are drooling so hard the big risk is that they make the axe handle slick and throw the axe instead of slicing the job prospects of those in the audience.

"Wait, those are real people whose jobs I cut? I thought they were just numbers"

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

#343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

China will be able to offer substantially better value for money for goods and services too, more than they already do. Imagine the cost efficiency of DeepSeek but for robot rentals. Those using manual labor will stand no chance.

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

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

LOL what a conflation. Legitimately laughed out loud when you said "ban mathematics". Totally not a strawman at all. Typo maybe?

Not really, and your comment goes to say how poorly you have thought through your comment. AI can be created using many algorithms, all of which correspond to the use of substantial branches of mathematics. A clean delineation will never be possible. If you don't agree, propose your specific definition of AI, and I will find a way to keep counteracting your ban. And if your definition is vague, I will argue that my tech is not AI.

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CEOs are hired by boards. Boards are hired by shareholders. Most publicly-traded American companies have their shares held by pension and retirement funds. Pension and retirement funds exist to send money to people over 55.

I'm sure VPs are sweating bullets over the instructions they will receive during the part of the shareholder's call where mutual fund managers dial their members and hold the phones up to each other.

I know you're trying to reduce it to absurdity, but there's still pressure to make their members happy. The fund managers are under the same competitive pressure as anyone else and are incentivized to get the best possible returns for their clients. If they don't, the members leave and take their money to another fund that is better at making money.

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

#346

"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.

What they should be saying is "yes this new technology is going to take away all your jobs, which is why I am fighting for universal basic income".

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

#347
post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common issue. When you got everything you could possibly want in life or have enough money to buy whatever you want... then for quite a lot of people of either gender, the illegal and illicit becomes the next thing to obtain. For some, it's an increasingly worrisome amount (and type of) drugs, for others, it's women, and for a select few it's children.

> When you got everything you could possibly want in life or have enough money to buy whatever you want... then for quite a lot of people of either gender, the illegal and illicit becomes the next thing to obtain. But with a society that empowers men more than women, and relative power disparities of all types lending themselves to behavior like this (plenty of people who don't have everything still have enough power…

> But with a society that empowers men more than women, and relative power disparities of all types lending themselves to behavior like this (plenty of people who don't have everything still have enough power to exploit those they have power over). In the abstract, sure, it might not be something inherent to men, but it's kind of hard to ignore the fact that in practice women are victimized by behavior like this at a system level that men are not.

A valid and important point, yes. But then there's Ghislaine Maxwell. By all accounts, she is just as guilty as he was, some say even worse because she actively recruited victims for him.

The fact that society gives less women that kind of power reduces the absolute number of women that abuse their power - but the level of depravity they can sink to those that do rise to power is just as bad as men's.

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

#348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Retirement, by definition, requires living off of money that you did not labor for So like you just get handed money to retire without ever working a day in your life? Please tell how this works I want some of that.

You do once you exhaust the value of the retirement account that matches the principal that you invested into it.

If money from investments made with earned money isn't also earned money then no money is earned money.

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

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> You've essentially made a novelty song Disagree. Gp didn't make anything. I told a waiter in a restaurant what I wanted to eat, and I got it. But I did not make the food : )

> Disagree. Gp didn't make anything.

As the GP, I actually agree. I will never claim to have written the song, and I generally try to avoid claiming I "made" the song unless I include the "with Suno" caveat. I prefer to say that I "generated" the song.

> I told a waiter in a restaurant what I wanted to eat, and I got it. But I did not make the food : )

Then can we also stop giving credit to CEOs for the products their company makes? Elon Musk doesn't make EVs or rocket ships.

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

#350
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe more like collaborated with a robo chef to make a plate of food based on a recipe you've adapted. At some point you have to be OK with accepting "I made this" as meaning "my vision was executed under my supervision".

> At some point you have to be OK with accepting "I made this" as meaning "my vision was executed under my supervision". No one has to be ok with this.

Do you argue with a film director when they talk about having made a movie? Do you argue with a founder when they talk about having built a product?
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