Former Google CEO booed for AI commencement speech
Kurt Knutsson discusses growing public backlash against AI, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt being booed at a University of Arizona commencement. He further discusses the development of artificial eggs that could revive dead species.
I’ll be honest with you guys, I don’t know what to make of my feelings toward artificial intelligence, because my mood on the subject changes by the day.
Some days, I find myself thinking, “this isn’t so bad. It’s nice to get a helping hand from AI.”
Then there are other days when I curse its very existence and await the days when our robot overlords will hopefully grant us a merciful death.
AI letters and a robot hand are placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration on June 23, 2023. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)
It’s definitely a divisive subject, especially in this day and age of AI inundation, but one college graduation crowd made their feelings known regarding inhuman automation.
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According to CyberNews, the students at Glendale Community College revolted against AI when it was revealed during their graduation ceremony that the robot tasked with announcing the names of the new graduates experienced a glitch and skipped over hundreds of students who were set to hear their names as they walked across the stage.
The college’s president, Tiffany Hernandez, had to announce the error to the crowd, and the gathered masses quickly turned sour.
As soon as the letters “A” and “I” left this woman’s lips, the boos began to cascade down upon her like arrows on a medieval battlefield.
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“Here’s what’s happening. We’re using a new AI system as our reader,” Hernandez said, as the boos intensified. “So, that is a lesson learned for us.”
“So I’m going to have to disappoint many of you. We will not be able to walk the stage a second time. In order to have the name on the screen. You’ve handed over your cards, so we won’t be able to do that. I am so sorry,” she said.
How embarrassing.
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Artificial intelligence illustrations appear on a laptop screen with books in the background in this photo taken on July 18, 2023. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto)
Not only is AI taking a ton of these kids’ entry-level jobs that they would normally be promised straight out of school, but now it’s botching their commencement ceremony, too.
Hernandez and GCC certainly earned those boos, because it really isn’t that hard to have a few deans from each respective major volunteer to read off a couple of hundred names at a time.
This isn’t even the first time AI has sparked a chorus of boos at a college graduation, either.
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My alma mater, the University of Central Florida (UCF), held a commencement ceremony a few weeks ago, and the mere mention of “artificial intelligence” sent the crowd into hysterics.
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The kids are all right.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming human vs. AI war that will inevitably spring up in the next half a century.
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An AI robot with a humanistic face titled Alter 3: Offloaded Agency is displayed during a photocall promoting the “AI: More than Human” exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London on May 15, 2019. (Ben Stansall/AFP)
Good thing we have a ton of movies to let us know how that will all go.
Brush up on your “Terminator” and “iRobot” plots and iRobot plots, children. We have a rough one ahead of us.
