A collection of features and graduate profiles covering Harvard’s 375th Commencement.
Speaking Wednesday at Class Day, Emmy Award-winning comedian Ronny Chieng couldn’t have been less interested in urging grads to master artificial intelligence to advance their future careers. Instead, he told the Class of 2026 to apply AI to research in medicine and physics, but never as a replacement for creativity and critical thinking.
Using colorful language, Chieng leaned into his AI skepticism in remarks at Tercentenary Theatre, citing a 2025 MIT study titled “Your Brain on ChatGPT,” which found that overreliance on language learning models can lead to cognitive debt.
“I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI,” said Chieng. “I know someone sitting out here right now who is saying, ‘What about the use of AI to pioneer breakthroughs in medicine and physics?’… If you’re using it for that purpose, you’re not the problem. I’m talking about the accumulation of cognitive debt due to excessive use of large language models … This is why you should be scared of AI.”
Chieng, who received commerce and law degrees from the University of Melbourne, has released three Netflix specials. His movie credits include “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Kung Fu Panda 4.” He is a correspondent and rotating host for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
