New Delhi: Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced protests and walkouts as he delivered the keynote address at Stanford University’s commencement, even though he skipped mentioning artificial intelligence to avoid getting booed, a report has said.
Student walkout at Stanford
Roughly 200 students walked out of the ceremony to protest Google's ties to Israel and other grievances, the report from SFGate said.
"Around 200 students walked out as Pichai took the stage, and smaller groups in the audience waved banners, blew whistles and waved Palestinian flags before also leaving mid-speech," the report said.
Speech avoids artificial intelligence
Though artificial intelligence may seem like a natural fit for graduates of the Stanford University located in the heart of Silicon Valley, every college commencement speaker this year got booed when they touched upon this subject.
So Pichai spoke instead about his personal journey from India to Silicon Valley, recounting his early setbacks and struggles. He talked about his immigration to California, decision to drop out of his doctorate in favour of a master's degree, and struggles when he joined Google.
Pro-Palestinian protests
Pro-Palestinian protesters protested against the company’s ties with the Israeli government, particularly 2021-deal Project Nimbus which had a $1.2 billion cloud-computing deal with the country.
The ceremony continued after initial protests and Pichai’s anecdotes drew scattered applause and laughter.
Ongoing campus tensions
The walkouts follow other Stanford commencements over the last three years and student protests on Israel’s war in Gaza and the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
Separate activist event
Protesters staged a separate event “People’s Commencement” that featured activist Mahmoud Khalil as keynote speaker. Khalil was detained by US immigration authorities for over 100 days last year over pro-Palestinian campus activism in Columbia University.
Related commencement incident
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed at the University of Arizona commencement last month when graduates booed as Schmidt said “AI is going to touch everything.”
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