Florida students boo graduation speaker who called AI ‘next Industrial Revolution’

Real estate executive got an unexpected earful when she spoke of ‘living in a time of profound change’ Though college graduations usually consist of a speaker giving advice to students, one recent ceremony featured students giving the speaker their opinions – loudly. The University of Central Florida’s 2026 graduating class booed as a real estate development executive spoke about how “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution” and about “living in a time of profound change”. The crowd of students was so loud that Gloria Caulfield paused, turned away from the podium and threw her hands up in the air. “Woop, what happened?” she asked, before letting out a nervous laugh: “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?” As the crowd calmed down, Caulfield proceeded. “Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.” That seemed to cheer them up – and led to a raucous applause. “We’ve got a bipolar topic here, I see,” Caulfield said, as she got back on track, for a third time: “AI capabilities are in the palm of our hands,” she said, before the crowd booed again. “Oh I love it, passion: let’s go,” she said playfully.