By Lakshmi Varanasi
Publication Date: 2026-06-14 20:46:00
Google is one of the companies leading the AI revolution.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, however, made no mention of that during his commencement speech to Stanford University graduates on Sunday — and for good reason.
Students relentlessly booed one of Pichai’s predecessors, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, when he praised the promise of AI during his own commencement speech at the University of Arizona last month. Students also booed Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta when he talked about AI at Middle Tennessee State University.
“I know today is about giving you all advice,” Pichai told the graduates. “But people have also been giving me a lot of advice on what to say. Actually, it’s been the same advice, and it’s about what not to say.”
While the lessons of AI might have fallen on more receptive ears at Stanford, which is at the heart of Silicon Valley and the AI boom, that was the closest he came in his speech to acknowledging the disdain…
