Microsoft, for example, fully understands why students booed AI-powered graduation speakers

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

“Graduate students who frown or even frown at the mention of artificial intelligence are telling us what we need to hear: that it is time to raise the bar again,” Smith writes. “This has been a repeated refrain by students for decades. The key is always to channel uncertainty into meaningful steps that build a better future.”

But in essence, the blog post resembles the logic that sparked the boos in the first place: that AI will reshape culture, work, and relationships in ways we may not yet understand. Smith also points out that graduates are more attuned to an AI-filled future, having grown up with technology and being more change savvy.

“You are in a unique position to make a positive impact. You have lived through significant challenges,” he writes. “Although it may seem unfair that the job market is so unstable, you were created for this moment.”

The idea that what the tech industry needs to do is “raise the bar” is also likely to be met with skepticism from consumers: after all, these same people – including Microsoft Partners Like OpenAI’s Sam Altman – who once warned of the disastrous effects of AI, but only just… Walk again After realizing it had gone down badly (Microsoft executives, too Try to thread the needle About jobs). Why should the general public trust the people who caused this uncertainty to be the ones to clean up the mess?

An alternative way to understand Microsoft’s message is that it is not directed at angry recent graduates, but at the C-suite executives who watch these clips and roll their eyes. In a post on X, Smith He said The graduates’ booing “reminds us that AI should serve people, not replace them.” Their need to be reminded in the first place is the whole problem.