Graduates across America are booing speakers who try to sell them on artificial intelligence. The class of 2026 isn't buying the hype.
At the University of Arizona, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced jeers after pushing an AI-driven future. University of Central Florida graduates booed real estate executive Gloria Caulfield when she called AI "the next industrial revolution." Glendale Community College's AI name-reading system mispronounced hundreds of graduates' names, triggering heckling and a hasty apology.
One speaker cracked the code. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak skipped the tech-utopian pitch entirely at Grand Valley State University's ceremony.
"You have AI—actual intelligence," Wozniak told the Michigan crowd, earning immediate laughter and applause.
The contrast was deliberate. Where other speakers hyped machines, Wozniak reassured graduates of their human worth. "We've been trying to create a brain," he explained. "Is there a way we can duplicate a routine a trillion times and have it work like a brain? AI is one of those attempts."
The ceremonies that worked best this year ditched algorithmic efficiency for human connection. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told Emory University graduates he originally used AI to draft his speech, then threw it away after finding it "completely devoid of soul or warmth."
"So, don't worry," Bastian said. "I threw it away and took pencil to paper."
The backlash reflects deeper anxiety. Gen Z graduates face hiring freezes, corporate restructuring, and automation threatening entry-level positions. They don't want to hear about AI's promise—they want reassurance about their own value.
Wozniak understood this perfectly. His message was simple: trust your actual intelligence over artificial versions. For a generation worried about being replaced by machines, that validation mattered more than any technological breakthrough.
About the Author: Anna Logue is a tech and entertainment writer who misses when phones had buttons and the internet disconnected if someone picked up the landline. When she’s not covering AI, music, and movies, she’s usually yelling at her smart fridge.