00:00Today we stand on this edge of another technological transformation. It will touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital. I
00:10know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you. There is a fear.
00:20He can hear you. So can we. That was former Google CEO Eric Schmidt getting booed during his commencement speech
00:25at the University of Arizona last week.
00:28That's right. His comments about technology and how new graduates are being impacted by A.I. did not sit well
00:34with the audience.
00:35My goodness. Yeah, you can say that again, guys. So this is happening at college campuses across the country.
00:41Students, they're rebelling against A.I. They're holding protests at Columbia University, Indianapolis, Central Florida, just to name a few.
00:48In a new Businessweek article, it was featured in the Forkast newsletter.
00:52Joe Constance and Victor Sweezy, well, they write that the unique threat of artificial intelligence what poses to students' education
00:59and their hopes of someday landing a job has made the university a powerful crucible for anti-resistance.
01:05Well, I spoke with Joe earlier about it.
01:08Some of the concerns are it's very multifaceted. There's a lot of other things that students are worried about.
01:14I think there's the climate impact. That's something that this generation really cares about and is very concerned about.
01:21And so, you know, they see news about data centers and how much energy those data centers take and what
01:28it really takes to power these systems.
01:30They're concerned about that. They're also concerned about things like, you know, critical thinking.
01:37They really go to college because they want to develop their critical thinking skills.
01:42And I think that they just see sometimes with their peers, if their peers are overusing chatbots, sometimes that means
01:48that they're outsourcing the work and the thinking to these tools in a way that they feel like isn't really
01:55helping them
01:56and can honestly lead sometimes to a bit of a dependence on these tools.
02:01And so they don't like that. And then I think another kind of fierce source of opposition is worry about
02:10AI, you know, entering the arts and what that does to art and human creativity.
02:17So I think that, yes, the job market fears about displacement are certainly present, but there are a lot of
02:24other things that young people are concerned about.
02:26Now, at the same time, you have companies that are that are looking for people who are AI savvy.
02:31So don't they need the skills, too?
02:34Absolutely. That's what I've heard time and again from all of the executives that I talked to.
02:39They're looking for young people who are, you know, know how to use these tools, use them effectively and are
02:48excited about them and the potential that they bring.
02:51And they're really looking to, in many cases, to these young people to come in and shake up their organizations
02:56because they don't necessarily have preconceived notions of how the work should get done.
03:02And so they can come in, use AI and, you know, find brand new ways of doing things.
03:08So executives are certainly looking for that.
03:12And but it's it's interesting when I've been talking to college students and, you know, for the stories I'm writing
03:18about the job market, they are often deeply conflicted.
03:22Some of them say, you know, I am using AI for my internships, but I don't know how to feel
03:29about it or I'm not wild about it.
03:32But I feel like I have to because in order to get a job nowadays, this is what employers are
03:37looking for.
03:38But let's get into that sentiment, because there's a Gallup poll out that kind of breaks it down a little
03:42bit more.
03:43Yes. So this Gallup poll looked at Gen Z sentiment about AI in particular, and it found that even just
03:50from last year to this year, you know, sentiment has deteriorated among this group.
03:57It's it's last year, almost 30 percent of Gen Z respondents said that they were hopeful about AI and the
04:05technology.
04:05And and this spring, only about 18 percent said that they were hopeful.
04:11So and there's rising anxiety, there's rising anger in many cases because they see this technology becoming it's no longer
04:20an option.
04:21You know, it's something that they feel like they they have to use either in the classroom or in order
04:26to get a job.
04:27And you talk about the classroom. I mean, there's also this this whole thing around, you know, using AI in
04:32the classroom and anti plagiarism.
04:34I know when my daughter goes to college orientations, they lay out a whole, you know, AI agenda and what's
04:39allowed, what's not allowed.
04:40It's it's it's changing there, too. It absolutely is.
04:43And I think what's difficult sometimes for students is that different professors will have different policies and sometimes it's not
04:50consistent.
04:52And and so it can be very difficult for a student who, you know, cares very much about about not
04:58plagiarizing, not, you know, and following the rules.
05:01And and so they are very hesitant to use AI in a lot of a lot of cases.
05:07And yet when they graduate, they're expected to be completely fluent and the most savvy AI user out there.
05:13So it's it can be difficult to understand how to navigate that.
05:17How are colleges responding to a lot of these protests that are going on in some of the colleges?
05:22You know, I think that, you know, in some cases they're they're setting up forums to talk to students to
05:27try to open up that channel of communication,
05:28because I think that in a lot of cases it's mostly coming from students feeling like they haven't been consulted
05:34in some of these decisions.
05:35They're not being heard. So there's some of that.
05:38But I think the main argument from universities is we would be doing students a grave disservice if we didn't
05:46include AI in our curriculums in some form or fashion,
05:49because this is what employers are looking for.
05:52This is where companies are the direction companies are heading.
05:56And so, you know, that's that's kind of how they're trying to adapt.
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