Microsoft, like, totally gets why students are booing AI-pilled graduation speakers

In a blog post running more than 3,100 words, Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith addressed the recent spate of viral clips from graduation ceremonies, like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt getting an earful at the University of Arizona, or the speaker in Florida who seemed surprised when students booed at the mention of AI as “the next industrial revolution.” The videos speak to a broader societal sentiment around AI — the technology is deeply unpopular even as technology companies insert it everywhere without consent. Young people use AI, yet feel bad about it. The backlash against massive data centers is shaping up to be a defining political issue. There’s the sense that these viral clips are a cathartic expression of just how out of touch executives and technocrats really are.

In the blog post, Smith takes a conciliatory tone: Of course young people are reacting this way. It’s the wake-up call for the adults in the room!

“Graduating students who grimace or even boo at references to AI are telling us what we need to hear, that it’s time once again to raise the bar,” Smith writes. “That has been a frequent refrain from students for decades. The key is always to channel uncertainty into purposeful steps that build a better future.”

But in substance, the blog post is similar to the line of reasoning that have elicited the boos in the first place: that AI will reshape culture, labor, and relationships in ways we might not even understand yet. Smith also suggests graduates are more attuned to an AI-filled future, having grown up with technology and being more nimble to change.

“You’re in a unique position to have a positive impact. You’ve lived through significant challenges,” he writes. “While it may feel unfair that the job market is so uncertain, you were made for this moment.”

The idea that what the tech industry needs to do is “raise the bar” will also likely be met with skepticism from consumers: It was, after all, these very same people — including Microsoft partners like OpenAI’s Sam Altman — who once warned of the catastrophic effects of AI, only to walk it back after realizing it landed poorly (Microsoft execs, too, are trying to thread the needle around jobs). Why should the public trust the people who caused this uncertainty to be the ones to clean up the mess?

An alternative way to understand Microsoft’s missive is that it’s directed not at the new grads who are angry, but at the C-suite execs who are seeing these clips and rolling their eyes. In a post on X, Smith said the booing graduates are “reminding us that AI should serve people, not replace them.” That they needed reminding in the first place is the whole problem.