'I understand that fear': Ex-Google CEO loudly booed by stadium full of students after talking about AI

We reported on the booing of a speaker at the University of Central Florida last week, after they declared AI to be "the next industrial revolution" in front of the assembled students. However, that's nothing compared to the absolute barracking ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt received when speaking at the University of Arizona's 2026 commencement ceremony last Friday.

Addressing thousands of students at the Casino Del Sol Stadium, Schmidt began his speech by discussing the impact of modern technology on the world. "In a sense, we thought that we were adding stones to a cathedral of knowledge, that humanity had been constructing for centuries," Schmidt opined, as the crowd began to rumble underneath him.

It was the mention of AI, however, that really got the audience going. "Last December, Time magazine selected its person of the year for 2025, and this time it was the architects of artificial intelligence," said Schmidt, which caused a large number of the crowd to erupt into jeering and boos.

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"So today, we stand on this edge of another technological transformation," Schmidt continued. "One that will be larger, faster, and more consequential than what came before. It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, person, and every relationship you have."

Unsurprisingly, this doubling down on the impact of AI resonated poorly with the crowd. Responding to the jeers, Schmidt said: "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you. There is a fear..."

(Image credit: The University of Arizona)

Schmidt paused, as the boos once again reached fever pitch. "There 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 is fractured. And that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.

"And I understand that fear," Schmidt smiled, holding up his hands in an apparent act of appeasement. "It's rational. And it's amplified every day by social media platforms with algorithms that have learned with great precision that fear earns clicks and anxiety drives engagement."

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Schmidt then tried to strike a hopeful tone: "I want to say something to you this evening, as clearly as I can. To speak of the future as though it has already been decided is to surrender the one thing that actually matters. You're surrendering your agency."

"The question is not whether AI will shape the world... it will. The question is whether you will help shape artificial intelligence."

Louder boos, more jeers, more nervous smiling from Schmidt. If I may be so bold, it may not have been the best idea to list the legitimate concerns of a stadium full of young people regarding their grim-looking AI futures—before handwaving them away as social media brainwashing that they can resist, actually, if they get onboard the AI train.

(Image credit: Google)

After listening the potential benefits of AI in the fields of science and medicine, the biggest boos of the evening came when Schmidt declared:

"If you don't care about science, that's okay... because AI is going to touch everything else as well. Whatever path you choose, AI will become part of how work is done."

It's a bit like watching every public speaker's pre-show anxiety dream come to life. However, the full cause of the boos may not have been entirely down to the student's rejection of their new AI-influenced world. According to Business Insider, some attendees had planned to boo Schmidt over previous sexual assault allegations.

And while Schmidt began being booed before he even reached the lectern, his comments on the AI future his ex company—and companies like it—are foisting upon us all certainly didn't make anything any better.

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