When Jacob Pagel graduated from Middle Tennessee State University this spring, predictions about artificial intelligence already had him questioning the value of his degree. Then a music executive started preaching about AI\u2019s transformative power during a commencement speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis industry will change on you in a heartbeat. It has already changed more in the last 10 years than in the 50 years prior \u2026 AI is rewriting production as we sit here,\u201d said Scott Borchetta<\/a>, CEO of the record label Big Machine. After a few stray boos from graduates, he doubled down: \u201cDeal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n The students\u2019 jeering grew louder, but Borchetta barreled through: \u201cYou can hear me now or you can pay me later \u2026 then do something about it. It\u2019s a tool. Make it work for you.\u201d He continued: \u201cThe things you learned in your first year here may already be obsolete.\u201d<\/p>\n Borchetta\u2019s remarks were \u201ca knife to the chest\u201d, says Pagel, who studied political science and human development family sciences. He felt the boos reflected how annoyed students were about what they saw as out-of-touch executives downplaying their anxieties about AI. A 2025 Harvard poll <\/a>of young people in the US found that a majority see AI as a threat to their career prospects. Pagel and his peers are entering a job market where AI\u2019s efficiency is already being used to justify mass layoffs<\/a>. While it\u2019s unclear which jobs may be entirely replaced by AI \u2013 and whether AI could eventually create more career pathways than it destroys \u2013 recent graduates are feeling betrayed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been pushed our entire lives to get our diplomas. Then you pulled the rug out from underneath us, and said: \u2018Oh, you know those four years you spent learning how to do very specific things, you don\u2019t need to do it any more,\u2019\u201d Pagel says. \u201cWe can get a computer to do it for two-thirds the price.\u201d<\/p>\n Borchetta\u2019s speech is one of several at commencement ceremonies this spring that have revealed a disconnect between the executives championing AI and students, eliciting derision in real time even for Google\u2019s former CEO. Recent graduates at the University of Central Florida<\/a> and the University of Arizona<\/a> booed speakers who compared the advent of AI to the Industrial Revolution and the development of the laptop and smartphone.<\/p>\n Sarah Kreps, a Cornell University professor who has studied societies\u2019 reactions to new technology, says: \u201cThese tech executives are not reading the room \u2026 These kids have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree that they don\u2019t know will serve them well.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markThese tech executives are not reading the room<\/p>\n The students at these ceremonies \u201care a mouthpiece for the population at large\u201d, Kreps adds. While they may feel AI\u2019s disruptive effects acutely as entry-level job seekers, AI has proved unpopular among the general US public. A national survey conducted for NBC News<\/a> earlier this year polled 1,000 registered voters and found only 26% view AI positively and 46% view it negatively. AI scored worse than US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the same poll, but better than the Democratic party and Iran. Anger against AI is palpable across the country \u2013 from communities protesting against datacenters<\/a> powering the AI boom, to workers disputing their CEOs\u2019 claims<\/a> that AI can, effectively, replace them.<\/p>\n Pagel is considering a career in helping children undergoing medical treatment, or entering politics \u2013 perhaps running for office, or working as a liaison for federal agencies. \u201cThat sphere depends on human face-to-face interaction. No computer can take that,\u201d he says, calling AI-generated campaign ads \u201cthe cheap route\u201d. Pagel is not an absolutist though. He does use Grammarly, he says, \u201cbecause I can\u2019t goddamn spell\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDyslexia for the win,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Borchetta did not respond to a request for comment. But MTSU said in a statement that the university \u201cunderstands and remains compassionate about our students\u2019 concerns and questions about AI affecting their careers\u201d.<\/p>\n CEOs\u2019 graduation speeches about AI have become a preventable PR disaster, according to Parry Headrick, founder of Crackle PR, a tech public relations agency that has worked with startups. Executives should have acknowledged and reassured students\u2019 anxieties, while also advising them to adapt. He says: \u201cThat\u2019s the nature of the speech, versus: \u2018Hey kids, buckle up.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWhat in the heck is anybody who is young and in school supposed to do when you have these tech executives beating their chests about the next Industrial Revolution when they can\u2019t afford to buy groceries or pay for rent?\u201d Headrick asks. Nearly half of college students said their financial stress made it hard to concentrate<\/a> on their coursework, according to a 2026 report from Trellis Strategies, a research group focused on postsecondary education.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s Eric Schmidt gets booed<\/p>\n At the University of Arizona, 20-year-old Arian Chavez, was angry about his school\u2019s decision to let ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt speak, even before he got on stage. Chavez, a junior studying chemical engineering, is part of a group called Students for Socialism, and helped them organize an online petition<\/a> to remove Schmidt as a commencement speaker. (Activists mainly took issue<\/a> with sexual assault allegations<\/a> against Schmidt from a former business partner. Schmidt has vehemently denied those allegations. Patricia Glaser, an attorney representing Schmidt, said in a statement that the claims are \u201ca desperate and destructive effort to publish false and defamatory statements to escape accountability from an existing arbitration over a business dispute\u201d.)<\/p>\n