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- Hacker News
- 2 days old news OP;
[dupe]
The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188310
Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48172419
Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674
Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107
An AI Hate Wave Is Here
- If I were an adversary of the U.S. I would encourage anti-AI sentiment among young people, to my strategic advantage.by steelkilt
- That assumes that there is benefit to be had in all this AI craze. So far, none has yet materialized.by bigstrat2003
- They don't need much help, the industry's incentives are not aligned with the public interest.by mpalmer
- I suspect general attitude to AI will split along those who had to apply for jobs in the post-AI world of automatic resume generation and filtering and those who didn't.by trynumber9
- Schmidt will get over it. In the coming unrest/wars, he will profit nicely from all his investments in weapons and surveillance.by ks2048
- nah, he's gonna be in the line of head spikesby Kapura
- Discussed here (2 days ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177785by sarreph
- And here yesterday (different source): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198281by teekert
- other recent related submissions based on searching for "commencement"
- Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at Arizona U commencement speech https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48204166 - 26 points | simonebrunozzi | 5 hours ago | 6 comments
- Why College Grads Are Booing Their Commencement Speakers https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48200823 - 6 points | 65 | 13 hours ago | 1 comments
- Graduates are booing pep talks on AI at college commencements https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196546 - 116 points | 1vuio0pswjnm7 | 19 hours ago | 179 comments
- Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48177107 - 163 points | wrxd | 2 days ago | 167 comments
- Multiple commencement speakers booed for AI comments during graduation speeches [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48175130 - 4 points | mgh2 | 2 days ago | 0 comments
- University of Arizona students boo Eric Schmidt's AI cheerleading https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48171852 - 103 points | latexr | 3 days ago | 1 comments
- UCF Commencement Speaker Draws Boos After A.I. Remarks https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 11 points | reaperducer | 5 days ago | 13 comments
- Students boo commencement speaker after she calls AI next industrial revolution https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096674 - 182 points | cdrnsf | 9 days ago | 217 comments
- UCF Commencement Speaker Booed When Calling AI Next Industrial Revolution [video] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48094523 - 6 points | latexr | 9 days ago | 2 comments
by dijksterhuis - Correctly or not (probably to some degree correctly) new grads are hearing AI is a major reason why they're having trouble finding jobs which is simultaneously 1.) Probably mostly has always been the case--I no longer have the vast sheaf of rejection letters when I ever got one at all and 2.) Is anecdotally actually the case for a variety of reasons that also include pandemic overhiring and probably an out-sized AI effect on junior engineers, probably especially programmers.by ghaff
- Agreed, AI is a convenient excuse. If we had covid level interest rates these graduates would have a lot easier time finding a job. Companies are downsizing their bets and counting pennies to cash flow to invest in AI infra, which they wouldn't need to do in a low interest environment.by weezin
- I think it's more than that. They've heard for most of their lives that college is the way to a good job. Now they're graduating, many of them with debt, and as they do, they're hearing that AI means that the jobs won't be there. And now, at their commencement, someone is talking about AI. One of the people responsible is talking about AI!
Who thought that this was going to go well?
by AnimalMuppet - I think the overhiring sentiment is largely accurate, but not as it’s frequently presented.
It’s not purely over hiring, it’s that many of these companies are doubling down on AI spend(in terms of model creation, hardware investment, etc), and need to allocate their funds differently.
So it’s not AI efficiency causing the layoffs, it’s AI resource allocation.
And the reason they don’t have the funds to invest? Overhiring.
A lot of the companies doing layoffs (META, Microsoft, Amazon) aren’t just using AI coding tools, they’re trying to be the hardware and be the models behind the AI.
And they see the failure to do so as an existential threat.
by xmcp123 - The kids are alright.by bogzz
- Every one of these posts about boos at commencement speeches has one of these comments near the bottom. I feel like I’m failing some pop culture quiz. What does this mean?by tyleo
- There was an effort to disinvite him as soon as it was announced that he was the speaker.[1] And then when that failed, activists passed out flyers encouraging students to boo Schmidt during his speech.[2] This all took place before he set foot on campus because of alleged sexual harassment.
This wasn't about what everyone wants it to be about.
[1] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_078e...
[2] https://tucson.com/news/local/education/college/article_ab7e...
by billbrown - He wasn't the only one being boo'd for AI though. I heard a podcast where they played clips from at least 3 or 4 different onesby gizzlon
- Tech execs made choices that made the public hostile to AI. They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs a not participate in the upside (implication: they get all the wealth). They cozied up to a corrupt administration that stripped public benefits while enriching themselves (now from tax dollars). They forced towns to accept environmentally toxic data centers that take their water/power
We’re all going to suffer the economic consequences of being left behind in AI (and other fields) all because execs wanted to double down on privatize the gains / socialize the losses.
by softwaredoug - Totally. As I've commented elsewhere, they thought it would be a great time screwing over artists and other culture works to make quick bucks and outrun the law.
Turns out that culture workers are a big chunk of who sets the narrative for the mainstream, and especially younger generations.
by soundworlds - > They told everyone they were going to lose their jobs
They didn't just tell everyone, they stopped hiring and started firing despite already making double digit YoY profits.
by philipwhiuk - > Tennessee State University suggested AI was "rewriting production as we sit here" and told his audience to "deal with it" as they jeered him in response.
Guess it doesn't take much to see what's under the mask.
by analogpixel - So what is he supposed to say? "Ok let's stop developing AI so you can all have the exact job you trained for?" That hasn't been the case for decades.
When I left my eduction I could sequence 200 basepairs using gels. Now I process terabytes of NGS data on supercomputers. I dealt with it, I enjoyed it.
Edit: Not saying these kids have nothing to rage against, they can't afford houses, are uninsured, they face a huge wealth gap in the population, possible a war, the country is tearing apart... But why so anti AI specifically?
by teekert - For folks that didn't read the article, it seems he was talking about music production.by tdeck
- GenAI is the first technology that I've ever seen that is actively rejected by young adults and fervently pushed by people over 55.
It seems Eric Schmids of the world think they (in their 70s) have more say about the future of these students than the students themselves. That is very unlikely.
by romaniv - This is pretty wrong. There are a lot of people who _hate it_, but it is still a minority. And older people dislike it more than younger people.
https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2026/2/27/public-opinio...
Feelings on it are quite mixed, but people who hate it and boosters are both incredibly loud about it.
by empath75 - Oh don't you know? The young people don't know how to use technology any more. They've never had computers they control. The new hires and the nearly retired have the same computer skils.
Locked down OS iPad kids don't know how to use computers because the manufactures and their parents wouldn't let them.
The Matrix' 1999 "peak of human civilization" wasn't wrong, the world is moving to a society built by a small number of wizards owned by billionaires.
- It's really quite simple. AI is threatening to take their jobs. Everyone gets defensive when their livelihood is on the line.
Most technologies offer new opportunities to young adults.
by Ferret7446 - > fervently pushed by people over 55.
It is?
I know very few people in that age group who are excited by this stuff.
by JohnFen - Folks of retirement age or nearing it are largely free to either play with it or not depending on their interest. This segment may present as largely positive if those without interest get to just opt out.
For folks in the middle of their career or earlier, or just starting out, it's more of a labor vs capital thing where capital doesn't care if skills that have been invested in are devalued, and raises expectations where skills are amplified. This segment will likely present as largely negative.
Younger still, high school and earlier, probably fairly free again to play with it or not depending on interest, but subject to temptation to use it to cheat, and subject to teacher influence not to.