Eric Schmidt did not receive the warm or encouraging response he was expecting. The former Google chief executive was speaking at the University of Arizona’s graduation ceremony and, as a tech titan, he chose to underscore the power of AI. Big mistake.
Instead of applause, he was jeered, as the graduates vented their fears over the technology’s effect on the jobs market.
"I know what many of you are feeling about that. I can hear you," said Schmidt, to loud booing. He went on to acknowledge their concerns were "rational" but then reverted to type and urged the audience to adapt as "AI will shape the world". He encouraged them to focus on how they will "shape" AI. "The future is not yet finished. It is now your turn to shape it."
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Argentine artist Sofia Crespo holds one of her works as she poses for a photo at the Estrela garden in Lisbon on June 8, 2022. AFP -
Sofia Crespo creates her works with the help of artificial intelligence. AFP -
She is part of the 'generative art' movement, where humans create rules for computers which then use algorithms to generate new forms, ideas and patterns. AFP -
Sofia Crespo holds one of her works as she poses for a photo. AFP -
Undated handout photo issued by Aidan Meller of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, painted by an ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist. The painting, titled 'Algorithm Queen', was painted by Ai-Da robot, an AI robot built in 2019 that creates drawings, paintings and sculptures. -
The Ai-Da robot, the world's first ultra-realistic humanoid robot, on view for a show organised by the Concilio Europeo dell'Arte (Council of Europe) at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy, on April 20, 2022. EPA -
Ai-Da paints an image during a photocall in central London. AFP
Easier said than done when you’re unemployed, and he offered no clue as to just how many of them would be in a position to "shape" it exactly. Schmidt became the latest pro-AI university speaker to receive an angry backlash. Goria Caulfield, a real estate specialist, was harangued at the University of Central Florida.
Likewise, Scott Borchetta, chief executive of Big Machine Records at Middle Tennessee State University. He told the hecklers: "Deal with it, like I said, it’s a tool." As with Schmidt, he did not make it clear what he meant and how that would allay their worries.
Students, young people, are uncertain where to turn. The latest Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education Study shows that 42 per cent of US bachelor’s degree undergraduates have thought about changing their major because of AI. Some went so far as to say AI is forcing them to reconsider about enrolling in the first place. In demand are those subjects thought to align with, or not be under threat from, AI; those on the wrong side are facing a likely drop-off in applicants.
What is happening in the US is happening across the world, nowhere more so than in the UK. A major new study from King’s College London finds that the UK public is more fearful than hopeful about AI’s impact on work, with seven in 10 workers worried about job losses from AI.
Only one in five say the education system is preparing young people well for an AI-influenced future. One in five also think it will create civil disorder.
At the same time, more employers are using AI across their organisations. Ninety-two per cent of bosses in the King’s College study said they use AI in at least one area, with 56 per cent using it for data analysis, 41 per cent for research, and 40 per cent for administrative tasks.
The main reason employers give for using AI is productivity, cited by 62 per cent of those using the technology. Eighty-six per cent of employers using AI say it has led to productivity improvements, split between "significant" improvements and "modest" improvements.
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has become one of the first global banks to announce plans to cut thousands of jobs bcause of AI. The London-based bank will lose 7,000 jobs over the next four years as it adopts more artificial intelligence.
Innovation nation
The shift is not confined to the private sector. The FT reveals that the NHS is proposing to cut back recruitment to avoid "financial ruin" and instead use AI to help doctors. A workforce plan by NHS officials in England is said to say the health service will deploy tech at the cost of hundreds of thousands fewer staff. The proposals are likely to be published in the next few weeks and while they have not been formally reviewed by the Treasury, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is thought to agree.
This and more, as a report by Alan Milburn, the ex-Labour cabinet minister given the responsibility by the UK government with finding ways to help 1 million people aged 16-24 who are classified as Neets – not in employment, education or training – is released.
Milburn has found that one in 10 Neets has a degree. He argues that too many young people are being pushed into university rather than into vocational or technical training. He is calling for more money to be directed towards technical and vocational courses. At the same time, he is critical of the government for reducing higher education funding.
Milburn, a former health secretary and ally of Wes Streeting, the Labour leadership challenger, said: "Too many young people with qualifications are finding themselves out of the labour market. Employers are demanding skilled labour but the education system is not providing it."
Student numbers for vocational further education are falling while they are still expanding for degree-level courses. The UK government does not restrict how many students can go to university but it does limit the number of vocational training places.
"A better balance is needed," said Milburn. "We have to ask hard questions about whether we are allocating resources in the right direction."
Under the Tony Blair administration in particular, UK universities expanded rapidly. Today, there are about 170 recognised universities in the country. If I look back to when I was at school, then there were 45. At the same time, those institutions have grown, adding departments and subjects and boosting student places. Again, it is a phenomenon that exists elsewhere.
Parents have pushed their children towards achieving degrees. "Going to uni" is commonplace, a rite of passage for many, with the result that some universities should never have been awarded that status at all and courses on offer are not suitable for concentrated study, let alone acting as preparation for the modern world of work.
Simultaneously, student financing has become a major public economic bugbear – again, not only in the UK.
Future AI
Aspirational folks and schools who were judged according to how many university students they produced, turned their backs on apprentice and vocational, higher education schemes, opting to choose the university route. Those programmes went into decline or were scrapped completely.
In Britain, attempts by successive governments to resurrect them have foundered, amid societal apathy and reliance on too-complex funding. Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year cancelled Blair’s target of 50 per cent of young people attending university and introduced a broader aim of getting more of them into training. It might redouble its efforts with publication of Milburn’s review.
But a more radical reset is urgently required if education and careers are to match the challenge posed by encroaching AI. Further education colleges are warning they are turning away thousands of students, especially in construction (which is not largely AI threatened) because the government limit has left 32,000 places unfunded. Funding for courses such as these is £2,000 below that for university degree subjects and is less than what it was 10 years ago.
Governments finding and reallocating the cash is one thing (with the attendant knock-on effect at universities, which will see them losing staff and shutting departments or even disappearing altogether). But persuading people that having letters after your name no longer matters is quite another.
Back to when I was at my boys’ grammar school in an industrial town in the North of England. Some of our year group would leave at 16 to go into the local, mostly military, shipyard for what were known as craft apprentices. They would learn one of the specialist skills required in the building of the highly complex naval vessels, becoming electricians, plumbers, welders, fitters, carpenters. There they would stay or they would leave to join another company. Some would set up businesses of their own – my town was never short of plumbers or electricians.
It is noticeable, too, just how many of those who made the early editions of the Sunday Times Rich List (it’s changed since, with the rise of private equity and hedge funds and the explosions in property and tech) were entrepreneurs who started out by eschewing university for an apprenticeship. Subsequently, they saw an opening, had an idea for an innovation in their trade, and went on to make their fortunes and to become job providers.
School leavers
We thought no less of those who left school. If anything, we were jealous, as they were the boys who earned money before we did and got to wear leather jackets and ride motorbikes. They remained our friends, regardless.
Over the years that respect was eroded, so that the clamour was for getting a degree – to the point where almost any set of initials, any topic, any university, would suffice. We’ve now found ourselves with too many universities churning out students who cannot get jobs and, with fast-advancing AI, are even less likely to do so.
We run the risk of losing a generation and if we don’t square up to AI and discover ways of working with it and creating jobs, we could lose future ones as well. Worse, bearing in mind that King’s College finding, we could be stoking up mass global unrest in the years ahead.
