TL;DRMicrosoft’s Brad Smith wrote a 3,000-word essay responding to graduates booing AI. He called it a wake-up call but offered no policy changes. Just adapt.
Microsoft President Brad Smith has responded to the wave of graduating students booing AI at commencement ceremonies with a 3,000-word essay that acknowledges their concerns and offers no concrete changes. Published on Microsoft’s official blog on Tuesday, the essay called the backlash a “powerful wake-up call for the tech sector.” His prescription: the graduates should adapt.
Smith cited his own experience at Princeton, where students rejected jacket designs they believed were created with AI tools. He framed the reaction alongside wider incidents: Eric Schmidt being booed at the University of Arizona, Gloria Caulfield booed at the University of Central Florida, and a college president booed after an AI system used to read graduates’ names skipped students entirely.
“People will insist on having a say in deciding when and how AI is used,” Smith wrote. He compared the moment to 1838, when cameras sparked predictions that photography would make artists obsolete. The analogy positions the booing students as the equivalent of people who feared cameras would destroy art.
