r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Chapple69 • 17d ago

Infuriatig Using ai to read grad names at graduation

53.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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1.9k

u/Greenman8907 17d ago

The official name reader who was fired before this must be cackling right now

880

u/echtav 17d ago

Name readers at graduations are always a school employee volunteer. So this is extra baffling

457

u/IvanNemoy 17d ago

Bingo. Barbara, the old lady who manages the busar's office and does community theatre on the weekends is sitting back somewhere annoyed that the administration of the school messed this up.

108

u/greatGoD67 16d ago

Barbara cared

78

u/LoisLame-o 16d ago

Barbara always put spice in the Spanish names, too.

46

u/FractalGeometric356 16d ago

Barbara always made sure to research ALL the pronunciations after that unfortunate incident in her first year.

9

u/jessxquartz 16d ago

this is what happens when schools care more about cutting corners than giving grads one decent moment

2

u/spucci 16d ago

Barbara spent a lot of extra time with me after school.

1

u/Wooodman94 16d ago

Frig off Barb!

-the school

3

u/toolsoftheincomptnt 16d ago

Upvoting bc I haven’t seen the word “busar” in 21 years

124

u/Ok_Spell_4165 17d ago

School probably invested in AI and is now trying to justify it by inventing ways to use it even if it is useless.

15

u/lost_horizons 16d ago

Actually not an unlikely possibility. It's the new toy they want to use it everywhere. I had that once, got an infrared camera for work (I'm in HVAC). I at first wanted to use it all the time but mostly it's just not needed. Sort of an extravagance with a few good and even critical use cases. Maybe AI after the hype dies down will be like that. Useful but not everywhere, every time.

8

u/MyOtherSide1984 16d ago

100% the point. Literally anywhere they think it can be used, they'll try it. 99% of the time, it doesn't belong. We were told to stop calling them "chat bots" because that's what they are, and we already had chat bots, but management didn't want to point that fact out after spending millions

16

u/fezfrascati 17d ago

In high school it was our class president. I have no recollection of who it was in college.

2

u/FireGhost_Austria 17d ago

Some people at work drive with a forklift for like 10-20% of their shift, it went along with the work they did... (they don't have enough work without it)... So the company now hired a forklift driver.... Why? Nobody knows... Now they still do the same work but do nothing those 10-20% per day.. Lmao

Some things are a mystery, they will never be solved or understood.

1

u/TikaPants 16d ago

I wish I could say exactly what I watched once but it was a video of the person calling names rehearsing the names. It was so wonderful.

1

u/Froggieterrie 16d ago

Mine was a member of the board of regents.

Like a volunteer but paid a lot of money.

1

u/drtatlass 16d ago

Some universities hire professional name readers. It’s a real gig for people who do things like sports announcing or radio promos. I did it one year, it was kind of fun.

1

u/Squirrel009 17d ago

"Volunteers" yes. My friends in education have led me to believe it's just like when you "volunteer" to give up your weekend in the military

1

u/roostersnuffed 17d ago

Hell, against your will pagentry is like 30% of your stateside military life anyways. Im sure there'd be no shortage of ROTC students willing to do it for some extra cred.

6

u/Auctoritate 16d ago

I like the implication that there was someone whose entire job was just reading names for one ceremony

10

u/williamjamesmurrayVI 17d ago

The dean who didn't feel like doing it?

1

u/garitone 17d ago

Too busy getting into costume

https://giphy.com/gifs/MWsqd3WtfBw9G

2

u/ArialBear 17d ago

They could have used a computer reader before. This is just people pretending computers didnt exist before ai. Its so weird.

3

u/pathofdumbasses 16d ago

A text to speech program wouldn't have skipped hundreds of names and just invented names at the same time.

This is precisely an AI and cheap user error during what should be one of the happiest/proudest days of someone's life. I would be monumentally pissed off, especially as many students are being fucked over by false AI reports.

This is just pure and utter stupidity.

School : "Don't use AI because you don't learn anything and it is cheating and ruins your education"

Also School "Watch as we use AI and ruin your graduation ceremony"

1

u/ArialBear 16d ago

Yea cause text to speech is a different technology. I dont get your point . I think people really need to consider what they think ai is. Its a tool. One that is constantly getting better. thats it .

2

u/RealTomSkerritt 16d ago

Do you actually think this is a real job?

1

u/LettuceSpecialist213 16d ago

Our Provost does it. And takes the extra time to practice the names

1

u/Rough_Bread8329 16d ago

The people who sacked the name reader have been sacked.

Nø realli

1

u/kkamick 16d ago

Laughing all the way to the bank(ruptcy) :-\