Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed during graduation speech about AI
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced boos during his commencement speech at the University of Arizona while discussing artificial intelligence. He compared AI's impact to that of the computer, acknowledging the fears of the graduating class regarding the future. Despite the negative reception, Schmidt encouraged graduates to embrace their power to shape the future of AI.
- ▪Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times during his speech about artificial intelligence.
- ▪He drew parallels between AI and the transformative impact of computers.
- ▪Schmidt urged graduates to engage with diverse perspectives and shape the future.
9 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 2 days. Coverage spans 3 points on the political spectrum — 2 lean left, 5 centre, 1 right.
- ▪ Eric Schmidt gets booed at University of Arizona commencement — Boing Boing
- ▪ BBC – Eric Schmidt booed by graduates at mention of AI — BBC News
- ▪ Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement — /r/Technology
- ▪ Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed after AI remarks at Arizona commencement — The Guardian — World
- ▪ Eric Schmidt booed at University of Arizona after praising AI — Bluesky Social
- ▪ University of Arizona students boo Eric Schmidt’s AI cheerleading during commencement — The Verge
- ▪ Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed at Arizona commencement over AI, sex harassment claims from much-younger girlfriend — New York Post
- ▪ Arizona students boo former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he talks about AI during graduation speech — Business Insider
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| Original publisher | NBC News — Business |
| Canonical URL | https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/former-google-ceo-booed-graduation-speech-ai-rcna345585 |
| Publication time | Sun, 17 May 2026 20:45:09 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-17T20:53:20.964Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-17T20:53:20.964Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | FbHJpAfwf4aT · 9 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Tech NewsFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt booed during graduation speech about AISchmidt was met with boos at the University of Arizona as he likened the emergence of AI to the “technological transformation” brought about by the computer.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Eric Schmidt, CEO of Relativity Space and former CEO of Google.Stefani Reynolds / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 17, 2026, 4:45 PM EDTBy Mirna Alsharif and Austin MullenFormer Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times Sunday while discussing artificial intelligence during a commencement speech at the University of Arizona.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Schmidt, who led Google for a decade, opened his…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at NBC News — Business.
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