Stanford was their golden ticket - could AI help or hinder that?

Psychology major Colbey Harlan sees it as a helpful tool. He has used it for creative writing, and said it helped him get projects started despite his ADHD. But like many of his generation, he worries about the societal impacts."I'm not a fan of how it's destroying the environment. Data centres are taking a lot of resources, a lot of energy," Harlan said. "I'm kind of at a point where it's like – 'Okay, AI is cool, but can we just stop progressing it?' because if we continue, things are going to get out of control."Students watch Pichai deliver the commencement addressWhen Google CEO Sundar Pichai - who got his master's degree at Stanford - took the stage last weekend, he made only a passing reference to AI."People have 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," he said early in his remarks. "People thought it would be really difficult for me; it is the last two letters of my last name, after all."But his words were partially drowned out amid "free Palestine" and other chants by a group of at least 200 students who stood up and walked out of Stanford Stadium as Pichai took the podium.Some carried signs critical of Google's so-called Nimbus contract to provide Artificial Intelligence tools to the Israeli military."ICE Spies With Google AI" was written on another sign carried by a protesting graduate, in a reference to the company's ties to the Trump administration's at times violent and deadly crackdown on immigration.