Why the AI Obsession is Ruining Our Graduation Ceremonies
Why the AI Obsession is Ruining Our Graduation Ceremonies
Stop talking about algorithms at commencement. Graduation 2026 should be about human grit and real friendships, not the future of artificial intelligence.
Let’s Keep the Robots Out of Graduation
It is that time of year again. The caps are flying, the gowns are itching, and families are sweltering in the sun to watch the Class of 2026 cross the stage. It should be a moment of pure human triumph. Yet, there is a shadow looming over the podium that has nothing to do with the weather.
If you are a commencement speaker this year, here is a piece of advice: Please do not talk about artificial intelligence.
The Human Element of Success
We have spent the last few years obsessed with Large Language Models and automation. We talk about how code is changing the world, but we often forget who is actually living in it. A graduation ceremony is not a tech conference. It is a celebration of human endurance. These students did not just learn facts; they learned how to survive early morning lectures, how to navigate heartbreak, and how to build community. These are the things that matter.
When a speaker gets up and spends twenty minutes talking about how AI will shape the future, it feels like a total disconnect. It suggests that the years of hard work these students put in are just a preamble to a life of serving an algorithm. It reduces their individual achievements to a mere data point in a technological shift. It is exhausting to hear that every human milestone must be viewed through the lens of a computer chip.
Milestones Are Not Data Points
Human milestones are supposed to be messy, emotional, and profoundly personal. We need to focus on the things that make us human. Consider these elements of the college experience:
- The friendships formed over cold pizza in a dorm room.
- The mentors who saw potential when a student saw failure.
- The resilience required to finish a degree in an increasingly uncertain world.
None of these things can be replicated by a machine. When we center technology in our most sacred ceremonies, we are signaling that the human experience is secondary to the tools we use. We are effectively telling the next generation that their value is tied to how well they adapt to software rather than how well they lead, love, or create.
A Better Way Forward
The Class of 2026 deserves better than a lecture on prompt engineering. They deserve to hear that their creativity, their empathy, and their unique voices still matter. They deserve to be told that they are more than just future employees in an automated economy.
Let’s make graduation about the graduates again. Let’s talk about the people, not the code. If we cannot keep the robots out of our celebrations, what do we have left that is truly ours?
