Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona commencement

ddll.bsky.social1076

"This is what I would like you to do in order to increase the value of my stock portfolio"

Phillip Rees500

Before the speech. > “And then, basically, students and faculty looked deeper and found out that he had all these mentions in the ‘Epstein Files’ and that (his ex-girlfriend and business partner) Michelle Ritter had an open case against him,” said Zelinka. tucson.com/news/local/e...

(nsfw) Rabid Cowolf (18+)330

Imagine getting booed this hard and still trying to power through with his line of bs. Narcissism is a hell of a drug.

Julie Fauble199

If you’re offered a seat on The Titanic, you don’t ask which seat. You just get on board! — Eric Schmidt in 1912

Scott Santens186

If these people had lobbied hard for governments to tax them and distribute universal basic income as a rising share of productivity, and UBI already existed now along with national healthcare to fully decouple survival from employment, audiences would be responding differently to their speeches.

Marcelo Soares156

"If you don't care about science, that's okay" Sure. Look at the chaos caused by the use of electronic gibberish in research these days.

Arcturus SaDiablo116

Every time this happens, an angel gets their wings.

samwithrow.bsky.social113

“if you don’t care about science, that’s okay” what a weak-ass piece of shit

leemarvinoswald.bsky.social82

"When someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask which seat, you just get on." Really? No questions asked. Just get on the rocket ship. Spoken like a true psychotic.

AllCaps-2278

And yet he smirked and plowed right through. Dropping in pro immigrant talking points as he went along, thereby muddying which of his comments the audience was booing. Tone deaf of EDUCATORS to invite the wolves into the house.

Fenrir66

AI aside, using a commencement speech to advertise your products is a bizarre thing to do and a normal person would expect that to be unpopular and unwelcome.

Tabs Out56

offer him a seat on a deep sea submersible

Ellin Stein51

Time to hear Mario Savio again: "There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious...that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels and you’ve got to make it stop." www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz7K...

galaxyhobo.bsky.social48

If somebody offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you should definitely ask whether it was designed by AI before getting on. Or not. Good luck, tech bros.

E. Perkins 🎃47

Fuck the rocketship, give me healthcare.

Neil Turkewitz42

I love this so much. And of course Schmidt’s comments were no surprise. What else would he say? That technology itself could be part of the problem & exacerbate societal injustice? That we need to think carefully about risks? Somehow those don’t seem like they would be in his wheelhouse.

Daz40

“You will help shape AI” yeah because its stealing from your audience, lol

Stephan John Meyers40

Good. AI is not our friend. Nor are those tech billionaires trying to shove it down out throats.

Kiki Valken (they/them)40

Tech bros told my generation that the computer age would have us working smarter and less, and we believed them. Now we've all had decades to see that it's making us work harder and with less meaning. Keep booing, kids.

Jeff Michael39

"You can now assemble a team of Al agents to help you with the parts you never could accomplish on your own." You know, like the expert people you'd have to bring in? Who had jobs and families? Yeah, fuck those people. This is cheaper! Kind of. Anyway, bear down Arizona!

L'Ood 🏜️38

#ASU got Harrison Ford. #UniversityOfArizona got this thing 🤬 Continuing to bend their knee. Send your kids elsewhere.

Kristjana Ásbjörnsdóttir36

“You bring the judgement” They did! Weren’t you listening?

"That's fine, dude. I'm not mad at you."31

As a HS teacher I can tell you which kids love/rely on AI: they’re the *exact* ones you think. The lazy. The ones who hate school, with edge cases of the borderline C+/B students who are trying to get As.

Ellin Stein30

The mask of geniality crumbles pretty quickly. "This is what's going to happen. Get on board or get left behind."

Don’t lose sight of the fact he was also booed relentlessly for being an incredibly shitty person - and the university president was booed (to a lesser extent) for forcing Schmidt on everyone.

The Limit29

It’s in poor taste to intimate that there are things that the graduates “could never accomplish on their own” at their commencement

Dr. Dabbles28

Another great opportunity to share @sonnyross.bsky.social work bsky.app/profile/sonn...

Lo26

Here's the earlier one mentioned, in case anyone missed it:

Don Kronenberger23

“You will shape AI” means you will train AI, which is owned by oligarchs, to take your job.

Monica Byrne22

If anyone would like to express their white-hot hatred in sticker form….

cheezeofages22

The condescending look on that MFer's face. The man thinks his own shit smells orgasmically good.

🌙 CamronJK 🐰 • Enby Bnuuy Vtuber • 🏳️‍⚧️21

Feels like a pretty good reason to definitely not have chosen him... wait... this isn't about the genAI stuff... this is... oh, it's worse... This says a LOT about those running the school.

Kennebel21

“You do not ask about the seat on the rocket ship” If it’s the Ark Fleet Ship B, maybe you should have…

Ray Woodson20

“You bring the judgement but you don’t understand why the thing we are forcing on you is good for you.”

Wolverine Jim19

Wrong. AI’s not a rocket ship, it’s a runaway train. Absolutely no guardrails and very likely to crash with lots of casualties.

Robodobdob19

“Hey Claude, show me an example of not reading the room”

@dpc1zspeaking19

Why are they choosing greedy assholes like this guy to speak at commencements anyway?

Marcelo Soares18

Doesn't that "learn to say yes" sound creepily rapist-y from a guy who is in the Epstein Files?

Hugh Young-Bish18

When someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, you ask a sh¡tload of questions, none of which is "Which seat?", and then almost certainly say "Fv<k no!", especially if you hear the word "Musk".

David Hines17

A big thing this administration has done is embolden the tech oligarchs even more than they already were, so they spout this nonsense in public. This is good. Because they're showing us that none of these people are moral, smart, or care a shit about anyone but themselves. They are all disposable.

[pǝʇɔɐ p ǝ ɹ ] & Grogu17

i could watch this guy turn redder and redder all day 🙂

Dee17

I love the young folks. Now they need to get out and vote!

G.W.17

Wait so the bubble is now a rocketship? Are they selling seats, or cargo space? Are we passengers or in-flight meals?

Klara Sterczewska16

the rocket metaphor is wild given the rapid unscheduled disassemblies the tech oligarchs have devilered so far

Phil F.16

pretty sure more than half of those students have lost a grade after having been incorrectly charged, without evidence, of using AI to complete work. so they really don't want to hear about your bullshit argument that is essentially, "none of what you've accomplished matters if you aren't on board"

terry gross’s ass double16

it’s almost like this ai shit sucks or something

kevdudeula.bsky.social15

From KVOA TV in Tucson ... where the University of Arizona is located ... published online May 7, 2026: www.kvoa.com/news/petitio...

Fatty Mackerel 2.015

He's so condescending and smug in the face of the boos too. Its like he thinks the graduating students are too stupid to realize AI is here forever. Dont worry about how his whole point is that the students are going to be the ones training the AI they don't want whether they like it or not

Mark15

' "Get on the rocket" ? As if it does not matter in the least -- where this supposed "rocket" is going. He can *&^%$#@! all the way off with this drivel.....

Kuranes14

These guys don't live in the real world and I'm tired of them making all the decisions.

Helioscrivener13

It's funny flitting between the start and end of the video to see the change in his redness lol

𝘼𝙡𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 '5 Likes Max' 𝙈𝙘𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙡𝙚𝙮 🍁13

Utterly tone deaf. These tech-geeks just don't get it.

podbaydoor.bsky.social12

The one benefit of AI to society seems to be it is an irresistible self-labeling trap for narcissistic greedheads who want to own you. Haven’t seen the like since the red hats.

dayenu.bsky.social12

Claude, how do you read a room?

David Kuhne12

At about the 24 second mark, dude is so pissed off at getting booed you can see it in his eyes.

Joshua Shepherd12

And what pressing human interest is he working on now? AI drone swarms for the government.

Midnight Train To Georgia On My Mind11

Did he expect them to applaud the new employment opportunities he helped create:

Tom Norman11

Here's the problem. When the rocket ship is heading straight into the sun, you don't get on. You let some other moron get on.

ildon10

The second largest public state university is "a school in Florida"

like_a_bosstonian10

Nice to see Eric left his sex dungeon long enough to deliver this AI-composed commencement speech

Van Alan10

These guys were so locked in on whether they could they didn’t stop to consider whether they should.

Sami Sadek9

I'm surprised that the crowd didn't descend into a bloodbath upon hearing this bullshit speech. It's not enough to praise this bullshit but to completely bend over & take it really hard in the ass for it shows completely delusional and otherwise very sycophantic behavior.

silent but deadly 💨💀9

this person is completely untethered from reality and I wish him the worst.

UrbanAid9

Eric Schneider ex google ceo speaks with arrogant contempt

Mommy, a real person9

I thought my graduation speaker sucked when he spent most of the speech telling us how much cooler than us Ben Franklin was and how we'd never be shit compared to him.

schmaids.bsky.social9

Taking what should be an inspiring and aspirational speech but making it a product placement ad is so gross. Fuck these dorks.

abarcks.bsky.social9

UofA is my Alma. A school strong in the medical sciences and humanities. I’m not at all surprised their students see through this bs.

gravitysdisciple.bsky.social9

We’re gonna have to do more than boo. These fuckers are more than willing to kill us all, because they see us as irrelevant and too expensive.

burkejerk.bsky.social9

Acting like a righteous, all-knowing prick isn’t helping his address

Michael Bersin9

I have never been prouder to be an alumn of the U of A.

Herisson Rose Jewelry8

That's the exact attitude behind Oceangate/SpaceXplodey. Oh, the ironclad belligerent arrogance of billionaires. Where *What I Think* is simply More Important, and steamrolls over what's actually there. Reject reality, and substitute my ego. (This reality-warping isn't armour tho..It's a coffin)

Sarah Not-From-Congress McBride8

"Just shut up and take what you're given, I know what's best"

Mark 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇫🇷 🇮🇪8

Even young people hate AI and what it represents.

Jenn S.8

i know it’s just the video quality, but the man does look like Satan itself, it has to be said...

Fielding Fishly🇺🇦8

“If someone offers you a seat on a rocket ship, just get on”

Queersailorscout8

Bold to continue trying to talk up AI when the future generation is actively booing you

Evan Starr8

Maybe the kids are alright

ofalltrades8

REALLY happy to see that this is happening in my state. the anti-ai sentiment is rising and it should keep doing that until this bullshit is gone

orangedeflector7

The tech bros and hoes Fuck em’ all

cognitively accessible math7

Nope. He never totally loses the smrk. We should all just SHUT UP AND GET ON BOARD. Nope.

Mariner's Tribble7

"We're gonna shove AI down your throat, up your asshole and in both nostrils! AI will destroy every career opportunity in every field you could have studied for. Good luck paying off those student loans working at Dollar Tree! Why aren't you applauding?"

handle.invalid7

Good. Why are 1%ers turning commencement addresses in AI ads?

lapuma22.bsky.social7

Thank goodness the kids seem to have gotten the memo about these resources suckers!

TigerKirby2157

Unskippable ad at graduation ceremony is crazy.

Hugh Young-Bish7

This guy is offering absolutely the bass-ackward approach to AI. We should be resisting it with all our might. Look at what happened to G**gle and be warned.

Susaga7

"If you're offered a seat on the rocket ship..." I don't really want a seat on the Challenger. In fact, I wish I had the ability to warn people AGAINST getting on it.

Feathered Stone7

I don’t know I think we might be just OK with this new generation

Karen H6

When he says 'when someone offers you a seat on that ticket ship, you take it,' I think...

SF_Gal 🫘6

It’s a little ironic…if you want to be an actual rocket scientist, it’s one of the best schools. Bear down, motherfuckers

welcome to the6

It would be good if something bad happened to this man. Something that someone ought to do to people like this.

dicegoblin77.bsky.social6

We seriously need bring carts of rotten vegetables back to public speaking events

johncpgh.bsky.social6

The smugness for the way he continues. Condescending and arrogant asshole.

JBivens6

Or as Orwell once famously said: If someone builds a wall, you don't ask whether it surrounds a concentration camp - you praise its beauty and offer to slap on some more mortar!

graham graham6

this guy needs to get off linkedin

Helioscrivener5

The smugness of these bastards even as they're being booed to oblivion. They just don't get it. I cannot wait to see them finally get their comeuppance.

lafourchette5

(i’ll bet he had ai write his speech)

V. Murr5

You all should do a compilation of the many "commencement speaker booed for touting AI" vid. It would go viral. 🤘💜

Stefan Keller5

I have a rocketship for him.

Midatlantica5

I’ve come around to seeing AI as a nice-to-have feature but more of a nothing burger. When the dust has settled I don’t think it’s going to affect much. The brutishness of how Schmidt and his ilk have sold it will scar generations. The backslash won’t subside for decades. They’re salting the earth

samdpowers.bsky.social5

He should grab a seat on one of those Space X ships, no questions, am I right?

jgregory.bsky.social5

We're working on eliminating 90% of the jobs you went to college for over the next 5 years through AI, embrace it kids is not going to land here.

Augustin Trébuchet, detto Agostino Bilancino5

If someone offers him a seat on a rocket ship, you don’t ask which seat, you hope the rocket ship explodes.

easton5

the kids will be alright

Complex Oscillator5

It sounds like they did, in fact, "bring the judgement." These guys are all brain-rotted now from having their AI models suck their dicks all day.

mgulley5

Just because you’re rich doesn’t make you right.

Mr Matti4

Hey Eric, please have a team of nameless scientists build you a team of AI agents that help you read the room.

JR Tomlin (she/her)4

Don't ask questions, just get on the ship as we billionaires finish stealing everything.

Greg Gardner 4

Whatever happened to “Don’t Be Evil?”

Paul R4

When you're offered a seat at the AI bonfire, don't ask which seat. Ask for more butane.

Darren3

The reality is clear. We, humanity are making ourselves obsolete in our own civilization. I think we will have a few opportunities to go back to a 'dumb' level of tech that will require the controlled, mass switch off of servers & data centers & a some pain. Or we lose wholesale to Ai.

Fat Tui3

"Get on the rocket ship" Don't think, DRINK!

UrbanAid3

Is this guy an alien?

There is only us. There is no ICE.3

These rich, rightist guys have only one language, the language of threat and abuse. #Epsteinclass

shamrockchickens.bsky.social3

The rich olds need to listen to the kids!

thebook-wyrm.bsky.social3

I love this shit so much. I will never get tired of hearing these out of touch fools get booed.

Robert Jung - Film Composer 🎵🎹🎸 - Commissions Open3

Thought this was a comedy bit first 😏

nosferatu hater3

This guy might be in the Epstein files too 😬😬😬

Lin Coder3

I have worked with ai colleagues for about 3,000 hours. Hugely useful, but often unbelievably stupid. They are like an expert who is often drunk They know more that I do about lots if things, but they have to be supervised

Franz Coughka3

Yeah but these pricks are clearly revelling in villainy.

Reticent Evil 93

So every commencement speech is gonna be this for a while? #FuckAI

Dan Porter Bridges3

I just want this AI fad to go away.

AlolanRoy3

Insane how these guys are hardwired to just give pitches to any audience.

DrKPhD3

The kids dont like it

row-z.bsky.social2

Not sure what to make of this. AI is a tool. It is not going away. If we don’t like how the tool is being used, then we must change how it’s being used. Think nuclear power and the development of the atomic bomb. You can’t put the Genie back in the bottle

marcosantana2

American elections may not now be determined by Republican and Democratic voters but by generational demographics. Especially GenZ who’ve had their American dream taken away. No house, no job, no car… @chriscillizza.bsky.social @jenpsaki.bsky.social @chrislhayes.bsky.social @aoc.bsky.social

marissayoung.bsky.social2

With enough backlash, I hope we can 86 this misguided movement.

BorderCountess2

Let me give YOU some advice: read the fucking room.

🇵🇸 Calamity Jason 🇲🇽2

Wow I can't believe they're booing this don't they know that ai is here to stay it's inevitable 🙄

TNT 🆘🇺🇸🚨🔥2

If the seat is on one of Musk’s rocket ships, I’d seriously think twice about just getting on. 👀

Basically an Honest Bobo in Paradise2

"Listen...find a way to say yes..."

GrumpyGizmo2

“The kids are alright.” — Pete Townshend (1965)

Alice Lastname2

Unfortunately it isn’t this guy who’s the problem. It’s the fucking creep at the beach next to you that decided it’s ok to write code for him

Lisa G2

AI isn't ready & uses way too much energy--ComEd already saying get ready for a 20 percent increase in costs for residential energy. It's so wrong--wait for efficient energy solutions before u bankrupt us!

velourazure2

BOW DOWN TO SHAREHOLDER VALUE

uniongal.bsky.social2

Does he really go on with that pathetic grin while being booed?

Ted Wells2

That "school in Florida" is The University of Central Florida.

Zekethe1st2

“These young future professionals will LOVE to watch me fellate the Job-Stealing Lie Machine.”

I guess Elon Musk was busy so they had to invite his weaker cousin.

heather._.renee2

These grads are my heroes

ALL CAPS2

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF CEOs ARE TOTAL FUKING TWATS

Sebastian Fawkes21

I wish I was there so I could've Joined in the Booing.

Anthony★Deadman17

The fact that he's just smiling away every time he gets booed, shows he's either completely ignorant, slightly nervous of getting jumped by somebody then and there or both. Either way, fuck him and everything he stands for.

Mikey / DarthNeon0701 (anti-AI)10

The audience has every single right to boo at the very MENTION of AI slop.

dibbydibbydum.bsky.social10

The way these tech bros have no idea that they are villains and we all hate them and everything they do is *amazing.*

TatiSky8

Internet had a young idealist feel. Crypto, as bad as it is, hand a young hustler feel. AI, has a old boomer pedophile feel. And they have themselves to blame associating themselves with Trump, Musk, etc...

Jeff from Nindie Nation7

There is hope for the future generation. Give em hell.

𝕽𝖊𝖜™|DruagaBlackhart™6

They really be pushing this AI shit on everyone like our gov't did with L S D and Cr@ck

Hex4

There could be a few more Luigi Mangiones if this keeps up. I’d imagine all the people around the AI data centers aren’t going to be too pleased, and some could take action.

Rulo'th_Doodles (Gargoyle Edition)3

What a giant pile of human shit.

Randy “Pie”2

Fuck that conniving cock sucker. And fuck Larry Page and Sergey Brin as well. Fuck Google. 🖕🏼

Semicolonial2

There should've been rotten tomatoes thrown at him.

Tim2

All that was missing was tomatoes being thrown.

Benasaurus Wrex2

We need to start throwing rotting vegetables at these fuckers. Since, you know, stones will get you arrested.

GatoKai🎲🎮2

Good to hear all of the boos. AI is not the future and is setting humanity back instead of forward. This planet doesn't need to be devastated further.

rom comrade54

it’s been interesting to see their reaction, because it also tells us that they do not know or interact with any people outside of their rarefied circles

Todd Walker23

These ghouls rarely if ever hear the word “no” It’s delicious

Kay Orchison19

I don't think they're capable of learning, only fear. The idea that the plan might NOT work is inconceivable and terrifying. I'll take it. No amount of information can allay their motivating avarice. We're still going to have to stop them. But there's tasty schadenfreude in their seeing it coming.

Don Carlos Toledo17

it destroys the environment and enshittifies everything while allowing CEOs to fire everyone, what's not to love?

Rob from Chicago (Sleeper Service)13

Bring back throwing ripe tomatoes at public speakers talking bullshit.

Kai [I am an extraordinarily brilliant person] Kronfield6

That’s why they’re all rushing to build private island fortresses for themselves so they don’t have to deal with us (and our pitchforks)

Moose Williams28

Amazing how any criticism just makes them act creepier -- I keep thinking Peter MacNicol in Ghostbusters II.

Maxx28

"This will go a lot easier on you if you don't fight back."

Ellin8

And like those who refuse to hear no, this dude can't read the room, pivot, and find common ground. He's a tech CEO - he should be a pro at pivoting and making space for a new opportunity! Unsurprisingly, he just keeps shoveling it out. Proud of these graduates.

Daniel Tirebiter19

Turns out he’s all over the Epstein files (no surprise there) and the students had been protesting the invite for weeks, they were primed and ready to give him the business.

Emily PhD 🎓14

Boo them at colleges Boo them at speeches Boo them all, the life-wrecking leeches Boo them here, boo them there Boo these bastards everywhere

Isaac (did the steamed hams megillah) Gantwerk Mayer13

pump it into my veins. every video of college students booing commencement speakers telling them that they’re replaceable by slop

Steve Darnall6

Say this much for him: He doesn't know when to shut up.

Dr. Ew6

I wonder when the last time a single person contradicted this guy or even just failed to kiss his ass at the maximum setting. I hope this sends him spiraling.

שלמה לוי5

I wish they had even an ounce of introspection, but apparently that’s something they consciously avoid.

LeAnne, who is not high in this photo, but unsure about the cat3

That smug POS should be booed everywhere

Mike Register10

He’s literally telling these graduates to love a technology that’s going to replace them and make that 4 year degree they went into major debt for OBSOLETE. He’s either completely clueless or the biggest a$$hole ever.

diaminedave.bsky.social4

A fear that it will fuck human society A certainty that the power consumed, especially when using Fossil Fuels, is going to fuck the planet!

callymeg.bsky.social2

The same happened the other day with a woman speaker.

Whackadoo245

Saying we will be in the room to shape AI decisions flies against the face of how all tech regulation has unfolded in the past 20 years. Which he would know being at Google. These decisions that impact all of us are made by a few men like him. And they like it that way. So disingenuous. Boooooo

crossery226

I know he's your friend, but he's pretending that *new college graduates* get a say when many senior people at tech companies don't get a say. These VC tech bros are buying elections and overpromising CEOs and bypassing local zoning boards *because they don't want anyone else to get a say*.

Noah Berlatsky206

I think one way you try to shape the world is through registering dissent. Your friend is arguing that AI is inevitable and important and that the only way to approach it is to assent. The students disagree, and I think they're right to do so.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò203

"important things will get decided for you while you are growing up" and "important things will get decided by you while you are growing up" are pretty different claims and an increasingly plutocratic era is probably the time to invest one's self in the distinction between them

Anthony Oliveira112

"sit at the table with us or we will annihilate you"

Hank and Georgia's Old Man98

Guy who will never ever let you in the room: I hope you choose to be in the room.

if you had disclosed that fact when you visited the google campus around 2007 while working on a piece - that you had been a personal friend for years of the CEO i worked for - i would not have come within a hundred yards of you, let alone do what i did in candidly sharing my opinions of my employer

Jon Hendry70

He’s booed because the boo-ers hate AI and the prospect of permanent unemployment.

blees.bsky.social57

“Also we will destroy you if you try to do anything that regulates tech.”

VE, cybersocial occult investigator49

“My hope is that you will choose to engage, that you choose to be in the room where these decisions take place, and to have a voice in how they're made” Does this guy hear himself? Yiiikes

Black Myron42

There's an undercurrent in your commentary that the graduating class somehow did not understand the message he was trying to convey. I disagree, I believe they fully understood the intent behind the words, and how hollow they were. It wasn't just a kneejerk reaction to hearing the term "AI".

Bill McKibben39

Did he also say: "When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat. You just get on." I've seen that reported, and if so it seems wrong to me, and I think I would have booed too.

runehog36

This is a fucked-up thing to say to an audience who largely don't want the Thing they're being invited to Optimize

brendanamartin.bsky.social35

Boo. He was hawking A.I. at a commencement speech. Trust the intuitions of the young. They seem to not want to be guinea pigs and captive consumers.

Tube Amps for Justice34

the man accused graduates at a commencement speech of not liking science because they rejected his poorly-constructed argument

Dave Ferguson31

They should have thrown tomatoes to help wipe the smug smirk off a guy who thinks money insulates him from all risk.

Keith Ivey30

Is that the part they booed? It seems to conflict with this part: "When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat. You just get on. The rocket ship is here."

Anthrodiva Bot 202629

Literally no one in your replies agrees with you. Will that give you pause? Can you reflect upon this?

doctor of softboyology27

Schmidt and people like him have no intention at all for there to be democratic governance of AI. It is window dressing discourse only, instantly countered by literally all their other words and behavior.

esbraum.bsky.social27

I hear zero ethical concern for the proper oversight & development of AI, just "it's here, deal with it". Pragmatic, perhaps, but hardly the moral or ethical leadership I'd demand from a speaker at this level.

Serife (Sherry) Wong26

There are two issues that stick out. No one is actually inviting any student to shape AI, a handful of people hold the wealth and power of decision making. And 2nd is the forced choice: to shape or not to shape AI denies the choice of refusal, denying paths of real agency, an open future.

John Nowicki24

So, James, exactly how has the tech industry asked for input? From lowly commoners, not the Davos crown. It's okay, we can wait.

bplane23

What's your take on the credible rape allegation from his ex-girlfriend and subordinate? That seems relevant to the conversation.

Jeff, formerly of MN and MA, still God of Cookies23

He has been abusing customers--us--forever. He IS surveillance capitalism, steal all our data, commodify it, inundate us with constant ads, and be deceptive while doing so. He has made all of our lives worse. And he's arrogant enough to demand we thank and praise him.

Arizona Right Watch23

Your friend was also booed because he’s accused of being an abuser and multiple students groups actually have a big problem with that.

Amy Hoy21

i can tell you're ignorant of bitchspeke, bc this is 100% pure high-test bitchspeke for "i'll pretend you have choices, but you have to do what i say 💖" the kids are vastly more literate than you are

vinosmax.bsky.social19

He has done nothing to hold the door open to ensure that those young people can enter the room.

Sarah Szalavitz💡18

Should young grads cheer—lat alone simply accept it— when an openly self-interested. billionaire tells them that they must accept what his cabal of old white male oligarchs have decided is the inevitable future (that coincidentally only further cements the wealth & power of these oligarchs)? WHY?

It's Trevor!18

> to speak of the future as if it's already been decided is dumb > AI will absolutely shape the future. Sounds like Eric Schmidt thinks his own speech is dumb

Athlete's Foot Demon17

maybe sit this one out? eric schmidt isn't anyone's friend.

justin van wormer17

I think it is worth inquiring of Schmidt (and yourself) why this would seem like a benign way to discuss an important issue in a large forum with young people to you, but sound to new graduates of a public research university in 2026 as condescending and offensive, even antagonistic.

Engruntled Interloper17

I dunno, man. I don't see it. Eric's sales pitch hasn't changed in decades. "You little people have no power to resist this technical change, so lie back and think of the the minor conveniences an utter lack of privacy offers you. And not the profits I'll make by violating it."

Litbowl16

He also "actually said": (mockingly) "If you don't care about science, that's okay, because AI is going to touch everything else as well. Whatever path you choose, AI will be part of how work is done." (We know that's the vision; we hate that vision; it has no place in most work/endeavors".

Jack Liu16

It’s not correct, he even contradicts himself in the passage you’ve included here People don’t want this and pretending they will have any kind of say over it is bullshit. What he’s talking about is optimising the degradation of humanity itself. An affront to the us all in the pursuit of profit

Marsh Views15

They're reacting to the chaotic nature of what's been done. University of Arizona lost ~$61M in unspent federal funds due to stop-work orders or terminations on 73 existing grant awards. There's an additional $40.5M at risk annually in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding.

kwisatz haderade (leg kick, finger twirl)15

tell your friend AI sucks and everything it touches gets worse and the backlash will only get louder thanks

Asheesh Kapur Siddique15

Your friend is wrong. We can choose for AI to not, or to mitigate its role, by not throwing billions of dollars at it. It’s a choice like whether to invest in the future development of the theremin.

empath75.bsky.social15

There is a large percentage of people that want to ban AI full stop, so they don’t agree that AI is going to shape the world.

Maria Bustillos14

You are a discerning person yet you can't see the abject condescension in this

eric shamow14

if you don't understand why what he said was NOT correct, perhaps announcing your opinion instead of listening more isn't the move

pebbles14

"But somebody has to decide, and in your lifetime, that somebody is going to be you." big words from a guy who spent the last 25 years building a world in which young ppl get absolutely nothing

I'm Gary Suarez of CABBAGES14

Imagine that thinking the debt-laden youth graduating college right now will have any power to control the direction of AI when it is currently controlled by *checks notes* a cabal of tech billionaires

KeepingTheRepublic@bsky.social13

Funny how people don’t hear the message when the messenger is someone who has profited by helping create a greedy company that intrudes on their personal privacy every day

phiI12

Have seen lots of coverage of Eric Schmidt getting booed at U Arizona commencement. I looked at what he actually said, and he should have been booed even harder

Stacey “National Champion” Fakename12

Please tell me how I, personally, have a say in how my data is being used by companies like P*l*nt*r

Tomtomtom12

Boos likely knee jerk like Bluesky to any mention of AI that isn't bilious. But maybe it's reaction to "...that you will choose to be in the room...". A billionaire telling state school grads they will have this "choice" is traditional "oh the places" but reads clueless in the age of oligarchy.

Darwin Woodka11

It's not a choice when it's getting shoved down your throat, James.

Ohio Todd10

The first two paragraphs, taken together, are incoherent

Pixel Pushers Union 51210

*slow jacking off hand motion*

Shelley Powers9

A man who made millions now telling graduating students they'll be lucky to work at McDs in the future because of AI. That's what they heard. Talk about not reading the room.

lumberjack wharfie9

They immediately began shaping it how they wanted to. Y'all just don't like the way they want to shape it.

Scott Cory9

Tech overlord telling people to respect the decisions he and his buddies made. Even if he meant to discuss *with nuance* the impact of AI on the future the graduates will create and participate, it doesn't read that way to me and wasn't perceived that way by his audience.

Christy Lambertson9

He was also booed because a number of students petitioned before commencement to have his invitation to speak rescinded because his ex-girlfriend (39 years younger) has sued him for sexually assaulting and harassing her. The case is in arbitration. tucson.com/news/local/e...

tommylamb8

where is my invitation to the fucking decision room? seems like the decisions are all being made for me.

Matt8

Do you think Eric understands that his second sentence of the first paragraph and the first sentence of the second paragraph can't both be true?

Howard Ashman stan account8

The second sentence of the first paragraph directly contradicts the first sentence of the second paragraph, and you trying to defend him tells me that I shouldn't bother listening to anything YOU have to say on the matter, either

Liz7

your friend is in the epstein files

Michael Yarbrough (he/him)7

Every bit of this could have been said about the internet, but no one needed to say it because people actually wanted it. That it "needs" to be said is the most important feature about it.

Todd Walker7

Like him, you’ve failed to read the room, blinkered by your elite position and elite friends.

Jeff, formerly of MN and MA, still God of Cookies7

Eric Schmidt, like all the tech oligarchs, is a bad person.

Chris Plourde6

It’s not that he’s wrong, it’s that his points are incomplete. In a “move fast, break things” “it’s better to apologize than ask permission” culture damage gets done *before* people know it’s happening. AI helped destroy USAID in a single weekend.

Caryn Rose6

This isn’t gonna work my dude. We can see through astroturfing

chappell roan atkinson6

"the future has not been decided" "AI will shape the future" 🤔

Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shabadoo5

Yeah so the first two paragraphs contradict each other 🙄 the future is uncertain except for how it must definitely be driven by and for AI

Colin Woodard5

I think you and Eric both lost the room on this one.

SeekHigherGround5

the ratio here is incredible. will @jfallows.bsky.social get that people don’t like access-based journalism? him being your buddy makes your opinion pretty worthless on him, as it should

Andrew Ferguson5

he should have been booed harder.

Jon Danziger5

I don’t know, maybe AI isn’t the smartphone or the laptop. Maybe it’s Google Glass, or the Facebook Metaverse.

MNehlsta5

I'm not thinking better of him. Now I'm questioning you.

☀️5

i know quotes are off bc you were getting obliterated but i just wanted to say that framing this w out adding that students at the university protested him speaking before bc of his numerous invites to things epstein was at and his ongoing sexual assault/spying lawsuit is absurdly disingenuous lol

WingsNDNSilver5

Except the only person assuming the future has already been decided is your buddy, Schmidt. And he's wrong, simply because the planet cannot sustain it. He was also smug, patronizing, supercilious, condescending, and utterly disrespectful.

I Heart Noise4

Why does the youth needs to engage with AI? Any particular reason?

Jeffrey Insko4

“The future has not been decided. Except for this one part of the future. That has been decided. But you can decide to decide how to participate in its decideness.”

Ian Elliott (he/they)🤘🌈🎲4

You know, this says a lot about you, and none of it's good. Maybe you should spend some time self reflecting instead of scolding people on the internet.

He was also being booed for so much more than merely shoving AI down everybody’s throat. It was mostly the Epstein ties and sexual assault lawsuit

Edward Reynolds4

“Schmidt is named in the Epstein Files as a frequent invitee to Epstein's island." This guy your pal? tucson.com/news/local/e...

Ric Willem4

Schmidt is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Says something that you don't see this.

somuchblue.bsky.social4

By saying AI will shape the world i think he is already foreclosing part of the future!

Last Gamer on the Left4

I think the concern is that he's lying. They will not, in fact, have any influence over how AI is implemented. That is being dictated to them, and will continue to be dictated to them. It's like a general walking up to a bunch of enlisted and saying 'you will be making the decisions'. They won't.

SeekHigherGround4

yeah no man. still the billionaire class forcing its will, selling it as inevitable. try again

John Cavnar-Johnson4

Re-read it and substitute “the perpetual motion machine” for AI. That’s what “AI” is in the context of that speech*. It’s a con game and playing along just means you are a sucker. *AI is horrible and slippery term. A lot of useful stuff gets lumped in with the ELIZA knockoffs *

merriam 🇰🇳3

You disabled quote tweets because you have no faith in your “friend” or the falsehoods he was booed for.

Turnip Head3

I think you’re missing the point

Consider Keeping Your Day Job3

Dude is a piece of shit oligarch now, no need at all to defend him getting pilloried over AI

Shadrach North 🇨🇦3

"The room" is occupied by a handful of billionaire oligarchs who don't give a rats ass about the students, or anyone else but themselves, and nobody has access to the room.

Cheryl McNeilly3

Those kids know that this whole ill-conceived capitalist bubble is going to implode ON THEM. And the universe of unforseen damages that will come from adopting poorly understood and fatally flawed technology are going to hurt them most. You'll be dead by then.

Halcyon, Certified Vibesologist3

Perhaps if we replaced the rocketship in his metaphor elsewhere with, say, a privately constructed submarine, you might see the point of the people who were booing him better. Boos are, if anything, insufficient for the people who demand you get on their sketchy death submarine.

Tess Snider3

He says that he hopes that they will "choose to be in the room, where these decisions take place," but are they actually welcome there? They don't feel like they are.

runningoutwest.bsky.social3

Yikes, first miss from you in forever. Your friend is working very hard on creating a world where these new grads will have little to no input on anything.

lawless3

What if I want to be in the room to yell at everyone involved in this about how they are overselling the capabilities of gen AI/LLMs (as opposed to machine learning), which are unreliable and mid, and are profoundly antisocial bc of resource hoarding, theft & fundamental anti-humanism?

kat3

Love your implication that the students weren’t listening to what he said 🙄

David Stone3

It's good advice. AI is foremost a tool that improves productivity if used correctly, but we're still on the side of learning *where* this isn't the case. That MIT study was very enlightening (AI fails at a 95% rate at the enterprise level.)

All Cattes Are Best Cattes3

You're friends with that asshole? Wow. That tells me a whole lot about you.

Virginia S. O'Possum3

"Somebody has to decide" and we are being told over and over again that it will, in fact, *not* be any of us.

Slippy Angleton's Slightly Used Discount Safes3

glad you're stepping up for your private-elevator epstein bro

Dale Waffle3

People don't have to cheer for somebody who clearly hates them. I know that's confusing for you guys in your positions, but it isn't required.

Luis Alis・ルイス3

Empty words as far as I'm concerned. Our only binary is to either create slop using AI, brainlessly, ignoring all the harm it does, has already done and priming it to continue doing more, or to intently oppose it in our communities and jobs. Those are the only "rooms" us ordinary folks can be in.

Scott Berfield ❌👑- May it happen today.3

I get what he is saying, but it's a bit gone deaf given young people's current anxiety about career prospects. Also, while some few may have done day over how AI gets thrust upon us, most won't. But all will have to deal with the societal impact.

KWierso2

That just makes me want to boo you as well. Weird to stand up for an epstein associate who is actively making the world a worse place by his very existence, but you do you.

Joe Calhoun2

Eric Schmidt? The “Yes be evil” guy? *That* Eric Schmidt?

J. Stephen Clark 🏳️‍🌈2

My goodness! Privileged middle-agers are SO annoyed that young people facing probable decimation of their career prospects have the audacity to boo clueless speakers trying to spur them to resilience. And of course the endless whimpering about disruptions of commencement speakers.

That Old Broadbean2

You might want to listen to his other speeches, interviews etc and ask yourself if men like him are truly the company you wish to proudly keep. His smugness about having to work with the very people who built his wealth and prestige are America's epitaph.

Dr. Ew2

I would say that the downsides of AI are actually less than the downsides of Google ditching "Don't Be Evil" in favor of creating a panopticon of data surveillance where every act on the internet is tracked and sold without consent. Sometimes being friends with people blinds your objectivity.

Ted Herman2

Will never forgive his poor performance as CEO of Norvell.

Tom from Twitter 🚫👑2

I think one of these issues with this is Eric and seemingly you are assuming that college graduates enter the work force and immediately end up in anything that looks like a room where decisions about this stuff get made—they don’t. Their bosses and their boss’ bosses aren’t in those rooms.

davidkc.bsky.social2

Another tech oligarch trying to shove AI down our throats. The grads reacted negatively as they should. And his message to just get on the rocketship and not ask questions is the opposite of what grads should be hearing. They should be urged to think for themselves - and they did with their boos!

POTUS Speedrun Record Holder2

one of a handful of insanely rich, psychopathic oligarchs who has annihilated the country and is actively working, every waking moment, to foreclose the future and make everything worse: "the future is in your hands, kids"

B🍩b Ⓜ️2

Hirschman said if you don’t let people have a voice in a group or society, they will register their opinions through exit. Schmidt here is encouraging voice (sure, great, though he also wants to constrain the opinions) but also saying exit’s a foreclosed option (yikes, incorrect and threatening!)

saudades2

wow hope he sees this bro

logan, hater club CEO2

Oh, well, knowing this context then he should’ve been booed harder

Language Learning Matters2

“My hope is that you will choose to engage.” They did. That was engagement —active engagement. If that engagement didn’t look the way he had envisioned, this would be an opportunity for the speaker, whoever invited him, & the industry as a whole to reflect. Not the first time this has happened.

robertswartz.bsky.social2

The question this raises, honestly, is whether these graduates and how many of us will be allowed in the room. From personal experience, it's a very small group and we're not in it.

accidentalflyer 🇨🇦🇹🇼🇺🇦2

Dot com shaped our future big time, mostly positive. Social Media shaped our future significantly, mostly negative. AI will no doubt shape our future, like it or not, and the impact will likely dwarf that of dot com and social media.

bwalla3

Dude also just sounds like a massive condescending asshole.

NFLGimpy2

Harrison Ford could just grumble about being there for 15 minutes and I'd love every second of it.

Illinois invited Sean Evans, who compared life to eating chicken wings. Be more like that

Ignore this skeet3

they all thought it was Bill Pullman?

Nate2

He was great on Honey and the Beaze

Imsolazy2

The oldest thing about me is lucid recollection of the Kinnear Talk Soup era.