why are colleges getting commencement speakers who tout AI

[Anonymous]

.. even as they tell their students not to use AI.

And then the speakers get boo'd for speaking about something that college grads are saying is a threat to them getting jobs. These so called leaders are tone deaf.

Colleges need to do a better job getting their graduates ready for the job market. DC is a cs/math major, and every internship interview asked DC about how they use AI. Even for those not in CS, you will need to know how to use AI in your workplace. That, unfortunately, is the future.

https://apnews.com/article/ai-college-commencement-anxiety-boo-35aec9bac660eaeb05c5b8d392db2cac

[Anonymous]

What are the alternatives? Touting crypto? facebook?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know, OP, but it’s satisfying seeing them get booed.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, it's shocking for kids to hear reality and how they should embrace challenges and the future, instead of hearing more about how their delightful high school plans to save the world will almost certainly bear fruit with enough appropriation from working folks who pay taxes. The booing -- classless in the extreme at any ceremony -- reflects so poorly on these kids and their professors, especially when many of the kids are themselves misusing AI, then using the phones to which they are addicted film posts for social media sites that are rotting their brains. The irony and stupidity are breathtaking, as is the rank Luddism of the adults on this site supporting it.

[Anonymous]

It's a sign how out of touch the wealthy are in the current environment.

It's certainly possible that AI is at the peak relative to hype and the bubble. Right now there is no end in sight to the losses so while AI is not going away, it has a very poor business model in place similar to a ponzi scheme. Of course you could say the same thing about the current world economy.

Bonds are boring but they are the canary right now. If the US 10 and 30 year keep moving up there will be a big stock crash which is totally help up by AI bubble.

[Anonymous]

Whether people like it or not, AI is here to stay. Learning how to use AI effectively (and not just as a glorified search engine) will be a critical skill, so mentioning it "seems" like a no brainer, but in my opinion, it's just lazy speech writing.

The real skills kids will need to hone when graduating are discipline, perseverance and most of all maintaining their humanity. While college can be a great training ground for the real world, alot is still managed by parents, and that begins to fade quickly.

[Anonymous]

The prophets of AI are the enemies of humanity and should be treated as such. Good for the students for booing them, which is at least a start.

[Anonymous]

The graduates recognize AI is an extinction level event. Probably less than 50 years left for the old homo sapiens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether people like it or not, AI is here to stay. Learning how to use AI effectively (and not just as a glorified search engine) will be a critical skill, so mentioning it "seems" like a no brainer, but in my opinion, it's just lazy speech writing.

The real skills kids will need to hone when graduating are discipline, perseverance and most of all maintaining their humanity. While college can be a great training ground for the real world, alot is still managed by parents, and that begins to fade quickly.

This. Life is going to change for everyone including these kids.

[Anonymous]

Dealing with AI will become necessary, but it doesn’t make it any less depressing. Graduation is a joyous event and they don’t want to think about AI there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whether people like it or not, AI is here to stay. Learning how to use AI effectively (and not just as a glorified search engine) will be a critical skill, so mentioning it "seems" like a no brainer, but in my opinion, it's just lazy speech writing.

The real skills kids will need to hone when graduating are discipline, perseverance and most of all maintaining their humanity. While college can be a great training ground for the real world, alot is still managed by parents, and that begins to fade quickly.

If it's such a critical skill, colleges should teach/guide/train students to better use AI in their study. If students are not allowed to experiment with AI for their study while colleges bring in speakers to tout AI, are the schools telling the students to learn on their own outside classes? It should not be all on individual students to pick up the critical skill outside classes.

It's like selective colleges preferring pointy students, but employers rather see well rounded job applicants. I'm not sure if pointy students become well rounded during college, and if that's the intent to begin with.

[Anonymous]

https://slate.com/technology/2026/05/ai-college-graduation-speakers-eric-schmidt.html

[Anonymous]

Because not all AI use is the same?

Using AI to find patterns in large datasets: great!
Using AI to brainstorm ideas: possibly great!
Using AI to replace friendships: ill-advised!
Using AI to produce essays without thinking: stupid!
Using AI to do problem sets so you never learn how to do them on your own: stupid!
Using AI as a professional but not having the competence to recognize when it majorly hallucinates because you cheated your way through college and didn't learn much: career ending!

[Anonymous]

It's revealing more plainly than ever how out of touch with reality, and with young people's reality in particular, many graduation speakers are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The prophets of AI are the enemies of humanity and should be treated as such. Good for the students for booing them, which is at least a start.

Yup. Sometimes it’s simple.

Generative AI is not, in fact, inevitable, nor is it particularly useful or efficient. But if we don’t believe it is, the people selling AI can’t accumulate even more wealth and make workers more compliant by constantly dangling the threat of job cuts over their heads.