At US university commencement ceremonies this season, a recurring theme has sparked controversy: artificial intelligence. While many speakers tout AI as the key to the future, graduating students have responded with boos and jeers, reflecting deep unease about the technology's role in their education and careers.
Students are leaving university at a time when AI is promoted not just as a tool to learn, but as a force that may transform the labor market. Yet the challenge extends beyond jobs. Universities are being encouraged to restructure around AI, adopting it as a solution to budget pressures, administrative burdens, and employer demands.
A Cisco-sponsored paper claimed that "forward-thinking institutions view AI as a solution to their resource constraints," adding that universities must serve as "supply chains for AI-related skills." Several institutions have signed deals with AI companies. California State University (CSU) reached a $17 million deal with OpenAI in 2025, providing its chatbot to over half a million students and faculty. Despite facing $144 million in budget cuts, CSU renewed the deal on costlier terms, committing $13 million annually for three years.
At Glendale Community College in Arizona, an AI system misread graduates' names during the ceremony. President Tiffany Hernandez was booed as she explained the error. One graduate told media: "Their apology didn't feel sincere... I would have liked a little more thought to have gone into it rather than pushing something as simple as reading some names off to an AI device."
A University of Cambridge-led study found that AI systems routinely undervalue top-scoring work and overvalue weak essays, being "oversensitive to linguistic features" like length and vocabulary. Deborah Talmi, who led the study, warned: "Assessment is not just a system for distributing marks. It is part of how educational meaning is made... Use of AI in assessment poses a risk to these values."
The core mission of universities—nurturing critical thinkers—is at stake. Graduates' boos may not be a fully formed critique, but they capture a refusal to accept a system that treats them as workers, data, and consumers rather than students. As AI hype drives corporate profits, universities risk becoming cogs in Big Tech's machinery, undermining the very relationships that make higher education meaningful.
Source: www.aljazeera.com