Watch alumni boo over AI praise
UCF graduates booed a commencement speaker after he called artificial intelligence the next industrial revolution during the May 8 ceremony.
Commencement speakers at multiple universities across the country were met with boos and jeers as their speeches were punctuated this graduation season by cheers, congratulatory handshakes and perhaps a few tears of joy.
What excited the crowd was the praise, or even just the mention, of a common hot topic: artificial intelligence.
“Okay, that touches my heart. Can we call it a day?” real estate development executive Gloria Caulfield said during a May 8 ceremony at the University of Central Florida to loud boos from the audience, the USA TODAY Network in Florida reported. The crowd reaction came after Caulfield called the rise of AI “the next industrial revolution.”
“AI sucks!” someone in the audience can be heard shouting in the video of the incident.
A few minutes later, the audience cheered again, this time after Caulfield said that just a few years ago AI was not part of our lives.
That was the scene at ceremonies at universities in Arizona, Florida and Tennessee this month as graduation season began, with speeches by distinguished speakers from prominent fields invited to impart wisdom to graduates.
Fabrizio Cariani, professor and chair of the philosophy department at the University of Maryland, said today’s college students have mixed feelings about AI. “AI and the human experience. ”
“There is certainly a group of students who are embracing AI, either covertly or openly,” Cariani told USA TODAY. “And some students are worried about the impact of AI on the labor market and entry-level jobs. I think that’s probably what was happening in the examples of these graduates.”
AI causes controversy at graduation ceremony
Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta was also booed when he spoke about AI at Middle Tennessee State University’s graduation ceremony for the school’s College of Media and Entertainment, which is named for him, on May 9, the Nashville Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY network, reported.
In his speech, Borchetta emphasized that the pace of technological development over the past decade has exceeded the pace of the past half century.
“Streaming is rewriting the economy, social media is rewriting the discovery model, and AI is rewriting production even as we sit here,” he said.
When the crowd started booing, he pushed back: “I know that. Deal with it.” “As I said earlier, this is a tool.”
At Glendale Community College in Arizona, AI was booed for a different reason. The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY network, reported that AI announcement software mispronounced graduates’ names or skipped them altogether. Hundreds of students were affected.
The school’s president, Tiffany Hernandez, spoke about the issue on stage at a May 15 ceremony, drawing boos from many in the audience.
“What’s going on here? We’re using a new AI system as a leader,” Hernandez said. “That’s a lesson learned for us.”
Many of the students instead had a real person read their names and walk across the stage again.
Wozniak praised the graduates, saying they had “AI, actual intelligence.”
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said in his commencement speech that they have “AI, real intelligence,” which drew applause from graduates.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak drew applause and laughter at Grand Valley State University’s graduation ceremony with his irony about AI.
“You have AI,” he said. “Genuine intelligence.”
Why are graduates responding so strongly to AI?
Cariani cautioned that the strong crowd reaction at the graduation ceremony did not mean that all university students and graduates were rejecting AI. At his campus in Maryland, he said, some advocates are more silent about their attitudes because there is some stigma about the use of AI in academics. However, a significant number of students still have very real concerns about AI and its impact on their college experience and beyond.
He said college students tend to have some important concerns about AI. Uncertainty about the impact of AI on the job market, concerns about the ecological impact of large-scale generative AI data centers, questions about academic integrity, and even abstract notions of what trust means in a world with AI.
In Cariani’s AI class, he wanted to implement certain tasks where the use of AI was prohibited, but for others he asked students to collaborate with the AI and brainstorm. Although some students accepted the idea, the majority’s reaction was “an attitude of rejection similar to the booing at graduation ceremonies.”
A recent Quinnipiac poll examining Americans’ thoughts on how AI will impact jobs found that Generation Z, which includes most of today’s college graduates, is the most pessimistic generation on the issue. A whopping 81% believe that advances in AI will reduce job opportunities.
At Marquette University in Wisconsin, AI expert Chris Duffy spoke at an undergraduate ceremony despite backlash from students, the Associated Press reported.
“I thought AI was a little tone-deaf given the growing threat of AI to our jobs, especially to graduates,” recent graduate Sami Wargo told The Associated Press, adding that she joined other students in booing Duffy.
Grace Reimer, who graduated with an associate’s degree in fine arts from Glendale Community College in Arizona, said she felt the school ruined “one of the biggest moments of my life” by failing to announce AI’s name.
“This ceremony was supposed to be something big for me,” Reimer told The Arizona Republic. A photo of Reimer on stage at the graduation ceremony showed the wrong name and degree.
Students also pointed out to the Republic that the course syllabus has strict rules regarding the use of AI in academic work. Reiner said students could be punished or expelled for that.
Although Cariani is interested in AI, he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing for graduates to boo when they mention it. He is pleased to see evidence that students are thinking critically about the topic and hopes that they will go beyond booing and take an active role in shaping policy on the topic, for example.
“I think it’s a good development to have these questions at the front of the conversation,” he said. “Booing is an immediate reaction. I’m guessing there’s some thought behind that immediate reaction, and I’d like to see those thoughts added to the conversation.”
Advances in AI are in some sense inevitable, he said, adding: “The best thing we can do is talk about how to direct these tools towards the betterment of humanity and society.”
Contributor: Stephanie Murray, Arizona Republic. Diana Leyva from Nashville, Tennessee. and Samantha Neely, USA TODAY Network-Florida
