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Read The Room
May 11, 2026
Posted 1 hour ago by
“Let me be clear: This is not a golden calf.” Even those with a rudimentary memory of Shakespeare from high school know Hamlet ‘s mother’s reply. Besides, Donald Trump cosplays as a golden calf every chance he gets. About reading the room. From 404 Media: Speaking to graduates of University of Central Florida’s College of Arts and Humanities and Nicholson School of Communication and Media on May 8, commencement speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of strategic alliances at Tavistock Group, told graduating humanities students that AI is the “next industrial revolution,” and was met with thousands of booing graduates.
“And let’s face it, change can be daunting. The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution,” Caulfield said. At that point, murmurs rippled through the crowd. Caulfield paused, and the crowd erupted into boos. “Oh, what happened?” Caulfield said, turning around with her hands out. “Okay, I struck a cord. May I finish?” Someone in the crowd yelled, “AI SUCKS!” Um, yeah. Caulfield is saying this to humanities and communications graduates, who are entering a workforce that AI has been gutting with increasing intensity for years. Not even the people and companies she valorizes in her speech believe that these graduates are headed for an easy time in the workforce: In April, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said AI will “destroy” humanities jobs, and last week, a report found that AI is blamed for one in four lost jobs, amounting to 21,490 AI-related cuts last month, or 26 percent of the
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