Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt Booed by University of Arizona Graduates Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s attempt to inspire graduates with a vision of artificial intelligence instead turned into a vivid display of campus anxiety over tech and jobs at the University of Arizona’s commencement.

On Friday, Schmidt took the stage in Tucson to deliver the main address, framing his remarks around how modern technology, including AI, had reshaped society in ways even its creators hadn’t fully anticipated. As he shifted toward AI’s role in the future, boos began rising from the crowd, quickly growing louder.

Schmidt tried to contextualize the backlash, acknowledging that graduates fear “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,” a sentiment he called “rational.” Yet he urged students not to reject AI outright, arguing instead that “the question is not whether AI will shape the world. It will. The question is whether you will have shaped artificial intelligence.”

The response underscored a generational tension: while many young people use AI tools daily, they are entering what one account described as a “ravaged job market,” where automation is already trimming entry-level roles and reshaping hiring. Coverage of the event noted that public opinion has turned “increasingly against AI,” even as tech leaders continue to “cram it into every part of our lives, whether we want it or not.”

Students’ objections were not solely about technology. Some in the crowd also booed over sexual assault allegations made against Schmidt last year, adding another layer of mistrust to the scene.

By the end of the speech, Schmidt reverted to classic Silicon Valley rhetoric, telling graduates, “When someone offers you a seat on the rocketship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on” — a line that encapsulated both his optimism about AI and many students’ unease with the trajectory of the tech industry.

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