Comment by hermannj314
5 hours ago
"After my speech for the troops about how we are losing in Iran, my speech to children with cancer about how we've gutted research, sure I can then give a speech to people entering the job market about how AI is ruining the job market"
Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)
None of these people even had to mention AI in their speeches. They could have just done the normal, generic "Dream big, believe in yourself, attaboy" kind of speech and then gone back to their 3rd homes in Malibu.
But no, they just had to both mention it AND rub everyone's noses in it. They know they've already won, and are arrogantly making sure the next generation doesn't forget who's meant to be on the lower rungs of the social and economic totem pole.
Either that, or they actually think that everyone shares their positive outlook on AI and have totally failed to read the room.
It's tempting to assume malice, I don't doubt some of them really are so spiteful, but I assume most are just that out of touch.
It's ironic that these speakers tout AI benefits but failed to use it to learn what college students are concerned about
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They aren't out of touch when it comes to the prospect of cutting jobs and how it will pump their stock portfolios. They are drooling so hard the big risk is that they make the axe handle slick and throw the axe instead of slicing the job prospects of those in the audience.
I don't know if you're aware but a big meme at Google from when Eric was CEO was when he was encouraging all googlers to install Nest in "one of your homes"
Their behaviors feel so detached and alien to me. Here are my hypotheses:
- They love AI and are so self-absorbed that they struggle to think of other people's perspectives. They only view it through their own lens and are oblivious to it. So, to them, others' opinions should mirror theirs, which is why it doesn't register for them.
- They know of the impacts their ideas will have, but think that the positives will somehow eventually trickle down to the commoners and the negatives will be minimized or only affect people that 'deserve it'.
- They genuinely despise young people and this is just a socially acceptable way of expressing their hatred - they understand everything.
Which one of the three do you think it is? Or are there other reasons?
It’s just a completely different class + being an exec requires certain personal traits. These two combine to whatever we see nowadays. You can call it detachments or whatever, but to be a successful exec you basically have to be a big asshole and a giant owbua.
Basically they believe whatever they did is righteous in a religious way, and how can you not see it? These types of thoughts.
There is no middle ground.
If I had to guess, I'd say it's a non-zero, but double-digit percentage of each of those, depending on the person.
you could have stopped with AI makes them rich. Why cares about anyone else.
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>Their behaviors feel so detached and alien to me.
Because they are. Extreme wealth is literally a brain disease. It is physically impossible to remain a normal empathetic human being with that level of detachment from reality. Back when things were 10x, or 100x difference, there was still some amount of reality that just couldn't be abstracted away from you having to deal with. But the modern day reality of >1000x disparity has completely removed that, and they are more or less living as demigods to us in comparison.
They’re so disconnected from reality, living in their own bubble.
> Perfect, that's exactly the message of despair we want to send! (How I imagine picking these speakers goes at every college campus)
AI-era commencement speeches should totally be gloating "Ha, ha! I'm going to get immensely rich, and most of you fools are going to end up in the gutter! Sucks to be you [sticks out tongue]! Great for me, me, me! AI. Is. Awesome."
I bet "deal with it" is exactly the kind of inspiring message these kids were hoping to hear.
Your comment really drove home for me the lack of empathy and humanity in these speeches, even neglecting the AI stuff. These young people are celebrating a real accomplishment and a life milestone. They’re about to enter a world where their decisions will shape our society. In that context, a speech like this is just gauche.
They will deal with it alright.
It's only so many speeches like this before the boos turn into other things.
Absolutely. They have no idea the vitriol my classmates have for them. I really am worried, lot of friends are very casual about their extremism. When anger and disgust is the feeling of the majority: it’s only a matter of time…
i think we should not think they are gullible but they want to make they think they are. they want a message through and the message is that they are creating a threat and they will use it.
For what it's worth, this might not be a recent phenomenon only. My dad has been saying for decades that the speaker at my mom's college graduation (Paul Tsongas, if I'm remembering correctly) was incredibly depressing and basically just said "the world sucks out there, good luck going into it".
Mine was "The world sucks. We need brilliant people like you to save it. Please help."
That was the gist of mine as well. "There are too many problems and too few people who care. So please care, and don't let the size of the problems keep you from caring."
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In nyc, elder rats have been known to encourage younger rats to take the first bite, to determine if the food is poisoned
what do people need to hear? inspiration or truth? Personally I want the cold awful truth. But I think humanity in general thrives on inspiration and delusion.
Cold awful truth is fine, but people do need some perspective.
What people need and should hear depends on the situation. When you visit a dentist, you don't need to hear about how to properly build a house, no matter how truthful it is. You should hear truth about state of your teeth. Or, if you are having a wedding speech, you should not pontificate about how to keep the bathroom clean - even if what you say is cold hard truth.
Second and importantly, it is not like these commencement speakers would be concerned with truth or were trying to convey truth in their speeches. The dilemma here is not "truth versus inspiration/delusion". Schmidt was not selling truth, he was selling his product and was trying to make people believe things that will make him earn more. Schmidt want trying to sell inspiring vision of the world for the students, he effectively put them into a passive-you-dont-matter role in his vision.
The first step in resolving any problem is acknowledging that it exists. Ignoring real issues in favor of comfortable narratives is insane.
College students had 4+ years to learn about the real issues before the graduation ceremory, and the rest of their lives after it. Rubbing every problem in the world in their face at a graduation ceremony is just gauche.
To everything a time and a season. Not every second has to dedicated to "problems".
Totally agree, cut the kids a break and give them a pat on the back and tell them something inspiring! Try to remember what it was like to be in their shoes on that day.
Edit: I don’t mean “kids” in a condescending way, I just mean young people taking the first steps into adulthood and careers.
collage students had 4+ years to be gaslit, and redirected from what they were indepedently discovering, toward subservience.
"Not every second has to dedicated to "problems"." I was a lot quicker to agree with this sentiment in prior decades where we had notionally fewer of them, the big ones seemed better understood, and the folks managing the levers of power at least managed the appearance of competence.
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The "boos" are an indication that kids finally understand who to blame. In a dark time, that's a ray of hope: the kids are alright.
> the kids finally understand who to blame
You do realise that “sticking it to the man” is something that kids are uniquely good at?
This isn’t something that’s only just happened in the last generation. It’s how society has operated since before we lived in caves.
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And they’re not going to do anything about it, just boo on command and go to work
That statement makes sense for Eric Schmidt but not the random real estate executive. I'm pretty sure they're just taking their anger out at the nearest target
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Commencement is a time of celebration and accomplishment. The students are well aware of the existence of the problem; that's the exact reason they're booing.
It's like going into your therapist's office and having them trauma-dump on you. Their issues might be entirely legitimate; it's still not the time or place.
For comparison, see Mr. Rogers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=907yEkALaAY
How come the problem isn't that "lots of people really don't like AI"?
> Some of the loudest hostile voices were reserved for Schmidt’s comments on AI, however. “You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with the parts you could never accomplish on your own,” comparing it to a “seat on a rocket ship.” He also suggested that the students will be the ones to “shape artificial intelligence,” even if they “don’t care about science… because AI is gonna touch everything else as well.”
The Google CEO claiming he and other tech billionaires gave you a seat on a rocket ship via AI is not "acknowledging a problem". Booing something you consider a problem is a form of acknowledgment though, so I'm not sure how you can conclude that the speaker was the one doing what you suggested and not the audience here. Do you really think "AI is like a ride on a rocket ship" is an acknowledgment of issues rather than a "comfortable narrative"?
"We're all trying to find the guy who did this" - guy dressed like hotdog
Okay, show me where these commencement speakers are acknowledging that AI is a problem.