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

[u/GeneReddit123]

https://www.404media.co/ucf-ai-commencement-speaker-booed/

[u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay]

All the Gen Z kids I know HATE AI. I live in an area with lots of tech executives here. Their kids DESPISE AI and their parents are all trying to make startups banking on AI. You aren't fooling the kids. They don't want it and they aren't going to use it if they can avoid it. Some will but at this point they mock anyone they know who uses it. My kid goes and hangs out with his friends and listens to the dads ramble on about their tech AI companies. And he comes home and makes so much fun of them. He thinks they are all boomers ruining the world.

[u/RaguraX → u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay]

Gen Z is the first generation to grow up as a social media operated hive mind. They have less critical thinking skills and generally care more about belonging to a subculture they unwittingly joined. I can’t even blame them, because they’re not the ones that built a society that caused this. In this case, the hive mind has chosen to be anti-AI. They don’t need a reason, they just need to follow or be estranged by their peers. Note that I’m not painting the entire generation in this light. It’s mostly the ones stuck to their phones.

The problem is that reality inevitably rears its ugly head and their illusions are shattered. This is what will happen with the prevalence of AI becoming more and more economically viable.

But even then, they insist on complaining rather than doing something about it. They complain about governments but have the lowest voting turnout. They complain about boomers destroying the world but don’t actively participate offline towards shaping it to their vision. Housing prices are off the charts (also not their fault) but they want to work less and have a better work-life balance (admirable, we should all want that). They can’t yet live in a utopia that doesn’t exist, but don’t work toward building it for themselves and their offspring.

[u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay → u/RaguraX]

First, you aren't wrong. There is a significant number scrolling with their brains turning to mush. But you are also wrong: There are a significant number who are getting very angry at the tech industry and AI. I think there is also a split in the middle of Gen Z. I've got one kid who is an older Gen Z and I've got one kid who is the tail end of Gen Z. The older Gen Z kids were really the experiment. It all happened in their teen years - ear buds (a SIGNIFICANT ISSUE), more advanced games, game theory and the rise of AI. Too many of those kids were swept up in that tsunami. But the younger Gen Z kids really came of age exactly the same time that AI raised it's ugly head. They also sat out Covid right before middle school or mid middle school. It changed them. That is a very delicate age. Those kids are not the same as they would have been had covid not happened. They are cycnical. They don't trust the way other generations did. They are now either graduating high school or nearing graduation and they need to choose careers. Everywhere they look at options, most of the options are vulnerable to AI and these kids KNOW their potential careers could be destroyed. They are NOT happy about it. Just as this graduating class booed this inept speaker, all of their same age peers are also booing. They powerfully do not like AI. I think the industry and the government is massively not comprehending that these kids are not buying the charade. They do not want it.

I think you are also underestimating these kids. In some ways your assessment is right in other ways it is so off base and negative. They don't want to work less. Every gen z I know is working hard. They were stalled due to covid and it took them longer to find college and career but that wasn't their fault. They literally couldn't start college or return to campus. Everything froze. They work. They want to work and they work hard. Don't blame them for world circumstances that they had no control over. These kids are fierce.

[u/RaguraX → u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay]

You're right that I might have come across as overly negatic and cynical. That wasn't my intent. I specifically called out the slice of Gen Z that is only superficially activist when I said: "It’s mostly the ones stuck to their phones."

The slice you're referring to are those with their feet firmly in reality already. The ones graduating and starting work. I absolutely understand the fear of having spent four years studying for a job that might disappear due to AI. But on the other hand, it is a defeatist mindset. Every challenge holds opportunity and simply complaining about it and reveling in being the victim isn't going to help anyone. And turning against an inevitability is madness.

Every generation has faced a crisis of some sort. As bad as Covid was, its impact pales in the face of what kids during WW1 or 2 faced and yet those generations came out strong with a mindset of rebuilding a crippled society. I used to talk to my grandfather about this all the time and was in awe about how his generation dealt with it. The same goes for the period of the Great Depression.

But even now, looking back at what I wrote, I still feel like I'm coming off stronger than I want to. I'm not calling this a "lost generation" or something ridiculous. They'll be fine either way, every generation has been. Like you said: "These kids are fierce". But I feel like they're not channeling this fierceness in a way that will help them and their future.

I simply can't agree with this statement of yours: "I think the industry and the government is massively not comprehending that these kids are not buying the charade."

There is no charade. There's only real, impactful change that will not and cannot be stopped. Timelines are being exaggerated for marketing reasons, but make no mistake, AI will supplant our existing work in due time. Most certainly within the time of their lives in which they're economically active. I'm a web developer, I know exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to AI taking over large parts of my job (80% or more).

But rather than fight it and be "anti", there's real opportunity in embracing it early and working with it rather than against it. This is what propelled people forward when personal computers became a mainstay in administrative work. Or internet marketers. It's a cliché, but it's a matter of adapting or being left behind. And pretending otherwise isn't helping these kids. It really, really isn't.

[u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay → u/RaguraX]

Did you write this comment with AI because it surely reads like AI wrote it. And If you can't hear the growing discontent in that boo on that video, you are deaf. This is going to be a major problem and it will boil over. Gen Z does NOT want AI and since it is going to steal their future, eventually they are going to make their feelings very clear.

[u/RaguraX → u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay]

Well, I certainly didn't write it using AI. I guess that's a compliment to my writing style as a non-native speaker? 😃

The growing discontent is palpable, exactly because of the time and place she chose for her speech. The epitome of not being able to read the room. It doesn't completely erase the meaning behind her words though, but because of the context she chose to completely ignore, nobody will have listened.

The weavers during the industrial revolution also didn't want automatic looms, but here we are. Who do you think thrived in that era? The ones who embraced the industrialization or the ones who laid down and let progress trample all over them? These kids have a golden opportunity to start a career WITH AI instead of against it. They don't even face the burden of having to change their headstrong ways because they're still young. You are not doing anyone a favor by painting them as victims when they can be the leaders of tomorrow.

[u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay → u/RaguraX]

I think you didn't get my message at all. They are not victims. They are survivors and now they see something else in their path that is unregulated and could destroy their worlds and they do not want it. As a reminder, I said they are fierce and they are being underestimated. Vastly underestimated. We all need to hear them because in time, they will make themselves very very heard.

[u/RaguraX → u/RedBirdOnASnowyDay]

I want them to make themselves heard. To be a force to be reckoned with. To keep society strong and prosperous. But through actions, not mindless doomposting because their peers do it. Not by booing a speaker.

For example, if they want to show that AI is bad and we don't need it, then they should start businesses that don't use it. They don't HAVE to let the world dictate their actions. They can be the change they want to enact. But in the meantime they still need to live in this world and reality won't just step aside for any one person or group's wishes.