{"id":248375,"date":"2026-05-18T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-booed-after-ai-remarks-at-arizona-commencement-us-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T09:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:30:07","slug":"ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-booed-after-ai-remarks-at-arizona-commencement-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-booed-after-ai-remarks-at-arizona-commencement-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement | US news<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/18\/eric-schmidt-ai-university-commencement-speech-booed<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-18 09:16:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

A former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, was met with students\u2019 boos at a university commencement address in Arizona on Sunday when he raised the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) and its effects.<\/p>\n

Schmidt \u2013 who led the tech giant for more than a decade, acquiring a multi-billion dollar fortune in the process \u2013 was speaking to as many as 10,000 graduating University of Arizona students when he addressed the impact of modern technology on society.<\/p>\n

The topic struck a nerve of anxiety within the student body when he traced technology\u2019s evolution, through the laptop \u2013 which he said had \u201cdemocratized knowledge\u201d and led to prosperity \u2013 to the smartphone, the internet and social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge that humanity had been constructing for centuries, but the world we built turned out to be more complicated than we anticipated,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same tools that connect us also isolate us. The same platforms that gave everyone a voice \u2013 like you\u2019re using now \u2013 degraded the public square,\u201d he added, referring to the polarization within democracies.<\/p>\n

Schmidt said that information technologies, including AI, had unsettled young people. \u201cThat was not the plan, but it happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shouting and jeers against Schmidt\u2019s talk started when he acknowledged fears that AI threatened to deprive people now entering the workforce of a future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what many of you are feeling about that,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cI can hear you. There is a fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that their fears are \u201crational\u201d and encouraged them to adapt and to shape how it will be used in the future \u2013 rather than for that shape them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is not whether AI will…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement | US news https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2026\/may\/18\/eric-schmidt-ai-university-commencement-speech-booed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":248376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/f978d3f20a634ae27276047862cce2e5f1c4a6b9\/316_0_3332_2666\/master\/3332.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&precrop=40:21,offset-x50,offset-y0&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=921f556bd50e19cd85fb54ec5ff014bb","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":248377,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248375\/revisions\/248377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}