Jeremy Scott Shreds Speech by AI While Graduates Cheer

Jeremy Scott opened his commencement speech in Kansas City with a polished, familiar riff about "new beginnings" and "limitless power." Then he revealed the twist: A chatbot had written it. "This is AI," the fashion designer told graduates of the Kansas City Art Institute on May 16 before tearing up the prepared remarks to loud cheers. Students, he said, shouldn't look to "AI overlords" to define right and wrong, Business Insider reports.

"Because you know what AI can't do? It can't do what you do. It can't have an original idea. It can't even differentiate the difference between a good idea, a unique idea, and one that's mediocre," Scott said. He argued that what separates human creators from machines is passion—and that this makes artists more vital, not less, in an AI-saturated moment, saying, "The artist is even more crucial than ever." His approach landed differently from other recent commencement speeches that waded into AI.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and real estate executive Gloria Caulfield were booed over their AI comments at separate ceremonies, while record label chief Scott Borchetta faced criticism for remarks on AI's impact on music. There was no noticeable objection to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang telling Carnegie Mellon graduates that AI will be a positive and that "the answer is not to fear the future," however, per Axios. And Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak drew applause when he told Grand Valley State University graduates that they have a better version: "actual intelligence."