--- title: "Graduation Speaker Shocked When She’s Loudly Booed by Students for Saying AI Is the Future" description: "UCF's commencement speaker was visibly shocked when graduating students booed AI as the \"next Industrial Revolution.\"" date: "2026-05-11" modified: "2026-05-11" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/graduation-speaker-booed-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" --- # Graduation Speaker Shocked When She’s Loudly Booed by Students for Saying AI Is the Future ![A woman in academic regalia, including a black gown and cap, is speaking at a podium. She is smiling and raising her left hand. To the right, a crowd of graduates in black caps and gowns are jeering.]() *@Kennethudut via TikTok* This year's commencement speaker at the University of Central Florida was visibly floored after she extolled AI as the future of industry — to the ire of the school's graduating students, who ferociously booed and jeered. The speaker was Florida-based businesswoman Gloria Caulfield, the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock Development Company, a real estate firm. In [her speech](), she triumphantly announced that "we are living in a time of profound change," and that while "change is exciting, very exciting," it can also be "daunting." To illustrate this extremely lukewarm take, Caulfield then declared: "The rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution." The job-seeking graduates, however, weren't exactly thrilled with Caulfield's AI optimism. They launched into an explosive chorus of boos, prompting the speaker — who looked genuinely surprised by their response — to step away from the podium. "What happened?" the stunned Caulfield asked, before reflecting that she must've "struck a chord." Given the joyful Industrial Revolution comparison, we're wondering whether the real estate VP is familiar with the [history]() of the term "[Dickensian]()." https://twitter.com/CantEverDie/status/2053705156915531808 But the wildest part of the speech happened next, when Caulfield stated that "only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives" — a statement to which the student body responded with loud cheers. (Video showed the students excitedly raising their hands in the air.) Caulfield once again looked surprised, and, cautiously laughing, remarked that AI's impact on society seems to be a "bipolar" issue among the crowd. Which *really* doesn't seem to be an accurate interpretation, given that the crowd was actively cheering the memory of a pre-ChatGPT world. The speech awkwardly continued as the speaker then noted that "now, AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands," prompting — you guessed it! — more booing. "Passion!" she nervously exclaimed. "I love it." The two-minute clip is a painful but — for reasons the speaker surely didn't intend — illuminating watch. Caulfield is clearly flabbergasted by the students' response to AI boosterism, a reaction that feels wildly disconnected from the reality of the students with whom she's attempting to connect. The job market for [new]() [graduates]() [is abysmal](). Computer science degrees are increasingly [fraught](), and companies across industries are working to [automate]() entry-level roles with the very AI tools that Caulfield is onstage celebrating. Polling has also [consistently shown]() that the American public *really* doesn't like AI: [one March survey]() showed that Americans are more likely to approve of Immigration and Customs Enforcement than AI. This anti-AI sentiment appears to be particularly strong among [young people](), with a [recent Gallup poll]() finding that 48 percent of Zoomers believe that the risks AI poses to the workforce outweigh its potential benefits. The uncomfortable two-minute clip quickly went viral, with netizens commenting on how deep the moat between Caulfield's AI optimism and the graduating students' AI disdain seemed to be. "This graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive," [remarked]() software engineer Cabel Sasser. "When you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. But everybody isn't." "The tech world," [commented]() *The Onion's* June Sternbach, "has genuinely not grappled with how many people despise them and what they make." **More on AI and young people:** *[Usually, Young People Embrace New Technology. Gen Z’s Attitude Toward AI Should Worry the Entire Tech Industry]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()