About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market and the concerns of graduates facing a challenging future.

Those who have tried to inspire the next generation of graduates have used their speeches as opportunities to extol the limitless possibilities that artificial intelligence will bring. But they’re speaking to graduates who are entering a shaky job market and are already burdened by tens of thousands of dollars of student debt. However, companies of all stripes are using A.I. as an excuse to slow entry-level hiring and lay off workers. Tech executives have been warning that their technologies will be job destroyers. In many cases, the students expressed their displeasure at the speakers’ blatant A.I. boosterism the best way they could: with loud boos. When Eric Schmidt, a former chief executive of Google, told graduates at the University of Arizona about their A.I.-shaped future, the shouting got so intense that he paused and said that graduates feared “that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics are fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create.” Mr. Schmidt of Google fame, told graduates to make the best of it. “The question is not whether A.I. will…

People in this episode

Host: Ken Scott Baron

Topics covered

• artificial intelligence
• job market
• student debt
• graduate speeches
• tech industry
• employment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Google

Places: University of Arizona

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