Schmidt booed – Eric Schmidt, speaking at the University of Arizona’s commencement on Friday, faced repeated boos as his remarks turned to AI—acknowledging graduate anxiety while also pushing a familiar Silicon Valley message about getting on the “rocketship.”
Eric Schmidt didn’t even get to finish his point at the University of Arizona commencement on Friday before the crowd started making itself heard. As the former Google CEO’s address veered into artificial intelligence, boos repeatedly drowned him out.
Schmidt appeared to recognize the unease graduates are carrying.. He acknowledged fears he described as “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. ” and said those worries were “rational.”
But the frustration in the hall wasn’t limited to the topic—Schmidt’s reaction suggested the noise was wearing on him. He squirmed behind the podium and asked the crowd to let him make his point.
When he finally turned to encouragement, he leaned on an image that landed differently in the moment. He told graduates, “When someone offers you a seat on the rocketship, you do not ask which seat, you just get on.”
That kind of framing has come from Schmidt before.. The speech echoed the stance he took just last year. when he called AI “underhyped.” Yet the response at the university sounded like the opposite of hype.. The event also became another reminder that AI is already a contentious subject for many people. especially those about to step into an uncertain job market.
The pattern in the room was clear: Schmidt named the anxieties—machines, jobs, climate, and politics—then moved into an “get on the rocketship” message, and the crowd’s boos continued through the shift.
There was another tension in the backdrop, too.. Gloria Caulfield “didn’t get the memo. ” the piece notes. pointing to the gap between changing public opinion about AI and the way companies keep pushing it deeper into everyday life.. For the graduates listening to Schmidt. the message felt less like comfort and more like a pitch they weren’t ready to hear.
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