Eric Schmidt booed at college commencement for praising AI

May 19, 2026

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by Gen Z graduates at the University of Arizona for praising AI, showing how worried young people are about losing jobs to the technology.

  • Schmidt told graduates AI agents will do work they "could never accomplish alone" — students booed and shouted "read the room."
  • The University of Arizona has a top-ranked information systems program, so many in the crowd are heading straight into tech jobs that AI is now replacing.
  • Anthropic's CEO warned AI could push GDP growth high while also pushing unemployment to 10% — a mix never seen before.
  • Inside tech, engineering leads at Anthropic already say they barely write code anymore and just edit what Claude produces.
  • Meta is about to announce major layoffs this week, adding to the fear that even strong tech jobs are not safe.

Outlook: Expect more pushback from young workers as layoffs spread and AI keeps taking over coding and white-collar tasks.

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