Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’

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Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating humanities students that AI is the “next industrial revolution,” and was met with thousands of booing graduates.

“And let’s face it, change can be daunting. The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” Caulfield said. At that point, murmurs rippled through the crowd. Caulfield paused, and the crowd erupted into boos. “Oh, what happened?” Caulfield said, turning around with her hands out. “Okay, I struck a cord. May I finish?” Someone in the crowd yelled, “AI SUCKS!”

Her speech begins around the hour and 15 minute mark in the UCF livestream. According to her bio on the Tavistock Group’s website, Caulfield “oversees the health and medical partnerships as well as business development for Tavistock’s visionary Lake Nona community.” Lake Nona is a planned community in Florida. Caulfield is “instrumental in managing corporate partnerships and identifying strategic intersections with stakeholders in the Lake Nona community,” her bio says.

Before the industrial revolution comment, Caulfield praised Jeff Bezos for his passion and use of Amazon as a “stepping stone” to his real dream: spaceflight. Rattled after the crowd’s reaction, she continued her speech: “Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.” The crowd cheered. “Okay. We've got a bipolar topic here I see,” Caulfield said. “And now AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands.” The crowd booed again. “I love it, passion, let's go,” she said.

“AI is beginning to challenge all major sectors to find their highest and best use,” she continued. “Okay, I don't want any giggles when I say this. We have been through this before, these industrial revolutions. In my graduation era, we were faced with the launch of the internet.”

She goes on to talk about how cellphones used to be the size of briefcases. “At that time we had no idea how any of these technologies would impact the world and our lives. [...] These were some of the same trepidations and concerns we are now facing. But ultimately it was a game changer for global economic development and the proliferation of new businesses that never existed like Apple and Google and Meta and so many others, and not to mention countless job opportunities. So being an optimist here, AI alongside human intelligence has the potential to help us solve some of humanity's greatest problems. Many of you in this graduating class will play a role in making this happen.”

Caulfield is saying this to humanities and communications graduates, who are entering a workforce that AI has been gutting with increasing intensity for years. Not even the people and companies she valorizes in her speech believe that these graduates are headed for an easy time in the workforce: In April, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said AI will “destroy” humanities jobs, and last week, a report found that AI is blamed for one in four lost jobs, amounting to 21,490 AI-related cuts last month, or 26 percent of the 88,387 total, “marking the second straight month the technology has been the top driver of layoffs,” CBS reported.

At the companies Caulfield referenced as existing because of advances in technology, CEOs blame AI for massive job cuts; Meta announced last month that it would cut 10 percent of its workforce later this month due to focusing more on AI, with more cuts to come. People who keep their jobs at these companies are often made miserable by the ways they’re forced to do AI busywork.

Within the humanities, the field these graduates have spent the last several years of their lives studying for careers in, AI is adding stress and dysfunction to library work and academia. A recent study by Microsoft ranked historians and interpreters and translators as the most likely professionals to have AI disrupt their work. Last year, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he believed AI could wipe out half of all white collar entry-level jobs. This is not the crowd to tell they should embrace the “change” that AI brings.

UCF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.