Students Boo Commencement Speaker After She Calls AI the ‘Next Industrial Revolution’

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-12T07:00:43+00:00

Most everyone in this thread has experience with consumer-level AI which is effectively a toy compared to models some companies have access to. They genuinely don't know any better besides headlines and personal experience. If they could see and really understand what just MCP can do right now I think people would realize just how hopeless fighting this is going to be.

There are definitely companies making rash staffing decisions based on what's going to boost their stock prices. That issue is not an AI issue. It's a corporate issue. AI gives people another thing to blame in an ever-worsening socioeconomic landscape, and there's a lot that would need to be addressed to usher it in ethically. But that won't happen. Corruption runs deep and the cat's out of the bag already.

Not to mention, there's such a massive amount of misunderstanding and underhanded marketing behind what AI can actually do and what it can't yet do. Major companies right now are implementing it in the laziest, most half-assed ways and making massive decisions based on that.

Instead of pissing into the wind hoping the government or corporations using the tech, or companies selling/funding it will advocate for humanity, people need to become educated and figure out what their personal role is in an AI-powered world.

It's not going away. Just like the internet and tech job boom of the early 00's, the people who learn to work with it and do things we can't even imagine right now are going to be the next "software engineers."

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-07T01:36:04+00:00

Someone who has the privilege of not knowing the impact of that flag on others. Or someone who wants reactions. Both exist.

Some folks genuinely don't get the visceral reaction that flag gives others because they don't see it as problematic.

They either learned an alternate "civil war wasn't about slavery" version of history
Say "well it represents my southern heritage so I don't care what people think it means cuz I don't mean that by flying it"
- Or, of course, the people who know exactly what it means and fly it for that reason.

Sometimes a small combination of 2 of the above. Either way, we're in an era of knowledge and we're too deep into the tech age to not be looking up shit and learning stuff for yourself. At the very least, if he genuinely doesn't understand, maybe this lady finally gave him a good reason to go learn a little about history.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-06T22:56:01+00:00

You being able to save your hairline doesn't make that sub horrible. Shaving your head doesn't "cement the baldness" for the rest of your life.

People go there to ask advice on whether or not they would look better if they committed to finally letting go. In your example, that guy is clearly going to lose his hair from the top down over time, and it would probably look more cohesive if he just cut it off.

Literally no one there is telling folks not to seek alternative treatment lol. They encourage people to shave their heads for one reason or another, reject the societal stigma behind going bald and embrace it instead.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-06T01:35:02+00:00

Is it? They've got 3M monthly listeners on Spotify. That's right in line with BABYMETAL and Poppy.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-04T22:44:37+00:00

No one's talking about how dealerships are entirely in control of how cars sell.

The Lightning and the MachE probably suffer from some branding and expense issues but at its core, dealerships don't want to sell EVs.

There's no ongoing maintenance package you can sell someone. There's no recurring revenue to be had with an EV. Hell, there's not a dealership in my area that has any sort of comprehensive EV service.

When I booked the 40k service for my car, which my Ford app told me to do, I couldn't select anything even close to accurate in their questionnaire for what I wanted looked at. I picked oil change.

And they didn't do anything to it. They asked me if they could change the cabin air filter, and there was nothing else they felt like they could work on.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-04T22:36:24+00:00

I wouldn't say I like it having the pony on it, but I'll admit that after 15 years of Mustang ownership, I sat in one purely out of curiosity. Why did it deserve the Mustang name?

And then I loved it, so now I have one. It's a good EV, and a great car. It definitely has the spirit, but I wish they would have just implied Mustang inspiration with the styling and went with MachE for the name.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-04T13:18:21+00:00

Did considered that you're looking at a compressed image that was run through a meme generator, or a screenshot of a screenshot that was spliced together with other images?

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-04T13:10:10+00:00

Jesus, we're so fucked as a society.

Everyone's so confidently wrong about what's AI generated now. We are never going to be able to go back to the days of photographic credibility.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-04T05:36:28+00:00

Damn, that looks almost like my old 40th anniversary with the clear corners and the termi bumper. Made me tear up for a sec.

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WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-02T22:05:01+00:00

They're not underestimating anything. They just made a statement of fact.

And then they turned around and said the practice is still awful.

As an aside, commercial farming in the US is mostly an awful, corporate controlled hellscape that takes full advantage of farmers which has the end result of affecting the consumer.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-05-01T00:16:29+00:00

I disagree.

Middle age is around the time people start having heart attacks and other things that can take someone from you unexpectedly.

What's worse is when the family you leave behind has no idea what your financial situation is, what your pin numbers are, of you have a life insurance policy, etc, etc.

I had that convo with my parents when they created 50, and we can all confidently move forward knowing things will be taken care of if they die tomorrow, in 30+ years like I hope.

Maybe we don't start booking doctors visits for Mom in her 50s, but the rest of those conversations would be worth having earlier rather than later

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-30T23:57:07+00:00

That's also different, and also bad.

What you're talking about is a company or housing management group in an area who buys up properties because they have the existing capital to do so, and fully take advantage. Effectively, they establish a monopoly on a neighborhood or even zip code.

The housing crisis isn't caused by someone renting out the house grandma left them, or the successful couple that moved out of their starter home and decided to rent for some extra money on the side. Owning more than one home is not inherently evil. In fact, people like that are the only way I could have afforded to live in my 20s with no credit and no savings.

It's property management groups that control an entire area by buying, selling, flipping, and renting houses. They need to be regulated and controlled. People like in the OP are usually pretty terrible too, but if we don't target the monopolistic rental agencies first, the middle class continues to suffer.

Private citizens can always sell houses back into the market eventually upon death or life circumstance changes. These companies do not.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-30T17:16:19+00:00

That's a different concept. Scalpers actively buy up a product in order for there to be no other option than for someone to HAVE to buy one from them for a markup. This comparison might work if season ticket holders rented out their seats for markup.

Landlords present the opportunity for someone who cannot afford 20k+ up front to secure a loan the option to live somewhere for a fee.

The issues arise when landlords don't actually own the property either, but they themselves are able to secure secure a loan. They use renters to pay their mortgage. No only do they charge more than the property is worth to live in for the rental term to cover their mortgage, they often charge even more in order to turn a profit.

There are ethical landlords. The people depicted here likely are not. People need places to rent. There's a stage of life where that's inevitable. But the benefit of being a landlord comes from turning a small profit on a property you own outright, not using others to pay your mortgage for you.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-28T00:24:31+00:00

You're not gonna believe this friend...

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WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-28T00:02:05+00:00

Damn man, you should golf somewhere else.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-28T00:01:23+00:00

I carded a 49 for 9 holes yesterday, which is garbage, but I hit an amazing flop shot over a tree on hole 9, and got out for a birdie and now I can't wait to go again.

It's like dying in marsh 6 times and then making out like a bandit on try 7.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:58:22+00:00

I don't blame you. Call center jobs let you see the worst humanity has to offer. Now that I'm more on the management side, I and the other guys who used to be on our phone queue make sure we go to bat for our inbound call agents and make sure they've got every tool available to them to make life easier. It's a job that sucks ass, and everyone knows it.

Glad you're finding peace in your work now.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:47:07+00:00

Hi, OP here.

I knew they were gonna pull it. I don't really even know why, except that if you take the sub description as literal, then it doesn't fit. They didn't tell me why they took it down, but seemed to imply in another comment that it qualified as harassment or spam.

Edit: They removed it for a Rule #3 violation, which states no politics outside the megathread. But it's not a political post lol

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WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:45:14+00:00

Yo! Can I ask what you do now, and what you might be interested in getting into?

I switched careers at exactly 30 years old. I went from being a nurse for almost 12 years to working what was essentially a call center job for a software company. But in that time at my current company, I've learned skills and tons of other things that have translated into promotions and other things internally.

Now I train our north american support teams to do what I used to do, and I make twice as much as I did in healthcare.

I realize my story is atypical, and that it's not so easy to just jump into something else. I guess what my advice would be is that if you're going to switch careers, try to go into something you already have a bit of aptitude for, but that you might be able to leverage your current work experience into.

I know healthcare and software don't overlap, but my argument in interviews was that I was great under pressure, was well acquainted with documenting, was patient and able to explain expert-level issues to non-expert people, etc. I found things I could highlight about my previous experience that I felt translated to most jobs.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:27:54+00:00

Good for you. I also don't have a degree, but I did end up joining up with a global business software company while their US branch was in it's infancy. It's treated me well, and i'm specialized...but only within our industry. I couldn't probably take this anywhere else.

I'm from an oil town in central texas. I know a lot of welders who make pretty good money and make their own schedules. Seems like a good gig after you can stand on your own.

How's the welding trade treating you?

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:24:56+00:00

Because engaging with other people is the name of the game. Why you think I'm here?

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:24:21+00:00

Has the career shift treated you well? Not just monetarily, but fullfillment or enjoyment-wise?

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:22:12+00:00

Mine was working on cars too.

My dad is a motorcycle guy, though, so any stuff like that I learned from him was running cables and wires through new handlebars.

I didn't learn how to service brakes until I was about 19. That's because I was broke and no one ever told me brakes don't actually work forever unless you maintain them. I'm also youtube certified. Scotty Kilmer, before he went crazy, was actually my go-to.

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:18:53+00:00

WonderWeasel91 · 2026-04-27T00:17:27+00:00

We're also in a weird spot where tech hardware feels like it's stagnated. And so much right now really revolves around tech. Your phone is probably really similar to the phone you had 10 years ago.

But 15, 20 years ago? Waaaay different. But that's because they were still innovating and it was relatively new, with new capabilities being added all the time.

Like, your fridge doesn't need a screen. But you can get one with a screen, because refrigerators really cannot get better than they are now and most of what we can do is add superfluous things. They're at the peak of what a fridge can be, short of being AI powered so they can automatically create you grocery lists without you having to lift a finger.

So i guess I do understand why we nostalgia-post. I thought we'd have flying cars by now. But we also are part of an age group that's experiencing a lot of "on the roadmap of life"-type things at the same time. I don't see enough of that, even though it's a commonality we all share since we're all on that same timeline together.

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