Steve Wozniak did what overpaid commencement speakers across the country have been failing to do: read the room.
While giving a speech at Grand Valley State University’s graduation ceremony earlier this month, the beloved Apple cofounder offered some uplifting remarks to the youngsters entering the job market, amid heaps of anxiety over how AI will upend the economy.
“We got AI today? You all have AI — actual intelligence,” Wozniak said, prompting the audience to erupt in cheers and laughter.
Wozniak went on to compare building AI to replicating the human brain — only this, too, was a subtle dig.
“I was at a company where the engineers figured out how to make a brain,” he continued, “Yeah, takes nine months.”
The Woz was striking a refreshingly different tone to other commencement speakers across the country, who’ve been learning the hard way that today’s youths don’t really like AI, and like being lectured about it even less.
When businesswoman Gloria Caulfield tried to extoll the technology last week, the boos from the University of Central Florida students were so overwhelming that she stopped her speech and helplessly remarked, “What happened?” Caulfield tried to segue with, “only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives,” but then she was interrupted again — by vociferous cheers.
Unsurprisingly, Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta won few hearts and minds when he scolded students at Middle Tennessee State University for not mindlessly embracing AI.
“Deal with it. Like I said, it’s a tool,” he proclaimed. When the boos grew louder, he taunted: “Then do something about it. It’s a tool. Make it work for you.”
Probably the most ruthless backlash was faced by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. When he highlighted how Time magazine chose the “architects of AI” as its “Person of the Year,” he was immediately met with a roar of jeers during his commencement address at the University of Arizona, and it only got worse from there.
AI “will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have,” Schmidt said, as more boos rang out. They grew even louder when Schmidt claimed he understood how the students were feeling, forcing him to pause.
Seriously, what was wrong with warming words or simple platitudes? Maybe these trend-obsessed dullards hopping on the AI bandwagon could learn a few things from the Woz.
“Your importance to the world,” he told the graduating students, “is really yourself. You should always try to think different.”
More on AI: Marc Andreessen Sputters Incomprehensibly at Question About How AI Will Actually Benefit Humankind
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