Graduation season has made the news this year in a way fitting of the times: Apparently, graduating college students hate AI.
The signs that this is true are based on two recent incidents of booing at two universities. Here’s the first one, at Central Florida University. Somehow, this person thought that college students wanted to hear about the amazing super-awesomeness of AI. Somehow, the university thought that humanities and arts students wanted to hear how great AI is from a private investment firm executive.
Students at the University of Central Florida booed the pro-AI comments made by Gloria Caulfield during her commencement speech at the graduation ceremony for UCF’s College of Arts and Humanities this past Friday.
— Charlotte Clymer (@charlotteclymer.bsky.social) 2026-05-12T15:09:43.247Z
The other example came from a bit more of a famous person: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed throughout this commencement speech at the University of Arizona for his praise of AI. This comes just a week after another commencement speaker who mentioned AI was booed at a school in Florida.Read more: http://www.404media.co/ucf-ai-comme…
It’s no surprise that these students are pissed about AI. After all, they would like to get started on their careers, and AI is a huge threat to that. No age group is more vulnerable to the threat of AI stealing jobs, because AI, in some cases, can do entry-level work.
The two booing events can be attributed to isolated incidents, but a recent NBC poll found that no other age group dislikes AI more than young people.
The demographic groups with the most negative views of AI are voters ages 18-34, among whom the net favorability rating for AI is minus 44, and women ages 18-49, who reported a net AI favorability rating of minus 41. The two groups with the most positive views of AI are men over 50, with a plus 2 favorability rating, and upper-class voters, who also have a plus 2 favorability rating.
This is probably something that the tech gurus are having a difficult time wrapping their head around. Take it from someone who spent a few decades in that world, a common comeback for the Luddites who had any sort of criticism for their super-amazing tech was that they were oldsters who Didn’t Understand the Innovation, but the kids sure get it. That’s more or less dead in the water now. The kids are not their friends right now.
Of course, AI hate is not limited solely to young people. A lot of us, especially women, are not feeling it with AI. This is despite a full-course press supporting AI love by Girlboss influencers such as Reese Witherspoon, which was taken apart on Friday by The New York Times’ Tressie McMillan Cottom. I agree McMillan Cottom, these influencers are failing to read the room right now.
It is hard to come up with a time when a particular technology was forced on a populace that hated it so much. I imagine at some point, the tech titans, the influencers, the business leaders, etc. trying to cram AI down our throat will have to turn to an old chestnut, “the kids are trying to cancel us,” and make the booing students out to be censoring their free speech. Can’t wait for The New York Times and The Atlantic to jump all over that. Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue to dislike the technology that, at the very least, requires significant regulation.
The last word goes Radiohead.