Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was booed multiple times during a commencement address at the University of Arizona on Sunday, May 17, 2026, after drawing a parallel between the emergence of artificial intelligence and the rise of the personal computer. The audience response shifted sharply when he extended the comparison to AI. "I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," Schmidt said as boos continued. "There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating, that the climate is breaking, that politics is fractured, and that you are inheriting a mess that you did not create, and I understand that fear." He went on to argue that the future remains unwritten and that the class of 2026 holds real power to shape how AI develops, a claim that drew further disapproval.