- Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gives graduation speech at Stanford University
- Unlike other speakers, he doesn't mention AI
- Pichai provides life guidance and lessons for the new grads
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai ducked the recent trend of speakers mentioning the benefits of AI at university graduation speeches, but still faced a protest about Google's work in the Middle East.
Pichai was giving the graduation address at California's Stanford University, where he chose to not mention the hot technology trend of the moment, but instead focus on his own life experience.
However reports from the ceremony claimed his speech was disrupted by a walk-out of around 200 students protesting about Google's role in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Life lessons from Sundar Pichai
Pichai did in fact briefly hint at mentioning AI without mentioning AI, noting how, "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. People thought it would be really difficult for me; it is the last two letters of my last name, after all."
"In all honesty, that topic is truly immaterial to what I want to share with you. The most timeless advice, I’ve learned, is technology agnostic. It’s about you, the life you want to build for yourself, and the choices that help you pursue that life."
Local reports claimed that around 200 students walked out as Pichai took the stage, withand smaller groups in the audience also caused disruption by waving banners and Palestinian flags and blowing whistles before also leaving mid-speech.
Google's role in the conflict has been a source of controversy for some time, particularly the company's $1.2 billion cloud-computing deal with the Israeli government known as Project Nimbus, which led to employee protests in 2022.
Pichai's speech otherwise seemed to be well-received, as he recalled stories from his time studying at the University, and outlined his "three simple filters" which have “helped [him] get more moments right than wrong and took some of the pressure off”.
These were "choose optimism", "gravitate towards working on hard things" (where he mentioned the "impossible problem" of building the Chrome browser) and "when all else is equal, do the thing that excites you".
This was in stark contrast to one of his predecessors at Google, Eric Schmidt, whose recent speech at the University of Arizona commencement was roundly criticized and booed by attendees after he declared, “AI is going to touch everything,” even "if you don't care about science."
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.