University of Arizona students deplore Eric Schmidt’s promotion of artificial intelligence

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, delivered the commencement address at the University of Arizona on Friday. As his speech turned to talking about artificial intelligence, he was repeatedly booed. AI is already a controversial topic, and it’s no surprise that those about to enter the disruptive job market feel negatively about it.

Schmidt admitted to being concerned, according to Business insiderFears “about machines coming, jobs evaporating, climate breakdown, politics being torn apart, that you inherit a mess you didn’t create,” he said, were “rational.” But Schmidt’s frustration was also evident, as he sat behind the podium and asked the audience to let him make his point.

Ultimately, he told the graduates, “When someone offers you a seat on a spacecraft, you don’t ask which seat, you just sit in it.” Such comments are not surprising coming from someone who last year described artificial intelligence as “clumsyBut it’s also just another example of Silicon Valley’s inability to read the room. Gloria Caulfield Didn’t get the memo either. Public opinion He has I turned Increasingly Against AI, but companies continue to cram it into every part of our lives, whether we want it or not.