The new college graduation ritual: booing AI

As artificial intelligence forces students to rethink their majors and reshapes the job market , it's clear that graduates don't want to hear about the technology on their big day. The big picture: Several commencement ceremonies have been interrupted by boos and jeers when speakers have brought up AI, an indicator that while the tech is easing into many parts of life , not everyone is on board . Driving the news: Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt drew repeated boos Friday while discussing AI at the University of Arizona's commencement. Real estate executive Gloria Caulfield called AI "the next industrial revolution" at the University of Central Florida's commencement, and was immediately drowned out by boos from arts and humanities graduates. "Okay, I struck a chord," she said. Music executive Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor Swift in 2005, told Middle Tennessee State University graduates that "AI is rewriting production as we sit here," prompting boos . He retorted: "deal with it… Like I said, it's a tool. You can hear me now or pay me later." After an AI system skipped several students' names at Glendale Community College in Arizona, President Tiffany Hernandez blamed the technology for the errors — and immediately was booed. The other side: Not every commencement speaker who mentioned AI was jeered. When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Carnegie Mellon graduates that AI will be a net positive and cause "every industry to change," but that "the answer is not to fear the future," he drew no audible pushback. By the numbers: Roughly 42% of Gen Z say AI will harm job opportunities and wages for people like them, compared with 33% of millennials, 39% of Gen X and 37% of baby boomers, according to the latest Axios Harris Poll released Tuesday. Those concerns show up in job hunting data too, with 43% of Americans aged 15 to 34 saying it's a good time to find a job, compared to 64% of those 55 and older — a 21-point gap, per G...

Original source: Axios