TOI Washington correspondent: When Sundar Pichai was a student at Stanford University in the 1990s, he skipped classes and headed to Las Vegas. Some students skipped over Sundar Pichai when he returned to Stanford University on Sunday to deliver the commencement address.It was a typical Silicon Valley graduation: The CEO of Google, one of the most powerful companies on earth, addressed some of America’s brightest young people, only to find that some of them clicked “unsubscribe.”When Pichai took the stage, an estimated 100 to 200 graduates stood up and marched, chanting “Free, Free Palestine.” Some held signs that read “ICE uses Google AI to spy,” while others waved Palestinian flags. There were whistles, boos and shouts of “shame on you” as nothing says “congratulations, class of 2026” like heckling the man whose company may have handled the email invitation and live-streamed the protest. The protests, organized by Students for Justice in Palestine and Apartheid Without Tech, targeted the Silicon Valley giant’s contracts with the Israeli government, with new graduates reportedly angered by Project Nimbus, Google’s $1.2 billion cloud computing partnership with Israel and the alleged use of artificial intelligence for surveillance and immigration enforcement.This year’s commencement speakers found that mentioning artificial intelligence before their graduating class could elicit reactions typically associated with airline baggage fees. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt learned this lesson last month at the University of Arizona, where graduates booed after he declared that “artificial intelligence will touch everything.”Pichai has apparently updated his software to avoid the topic almost entirely. Instead, he delivered a run-of-the-mill commencement speech, telling a story of setbacks, detours and self-discovery. He talked about coming to California from India and wondering what seemed to him so attractive about this dubiously brown landscape. He recalls abandoning plans to pursue a PhD and the uncertainty of his early years at Google.The revelation that followed instantly made him the coolest Indian uncle in Silicon Valley. Pichai admitted that as a student at Stanford University, he once skipped school to visit Sin City. “This is the first time my parents have heard about it,” he said with a laugh.But the dissidents have moved on. For the second year in a row, protesting students held their own “People’s Graduation Ceremony” with another keynote speaker. This year’s special guest is activist Mahmoud Khalil, who became nationally known after being detained by immigration authorities for his pro-Palestinian activities.However, not everyone likes this arrangement of extracurricular activities. Stanford alumnus and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla blasted the protesters as “biased, stupid, short-sighted and deeply selfish.” He believes artificial intelligence represents humanity’s greatest opportunity to improve the lives of billions of people and accuses students of being narrowly focused on their own concerns.But the strike highlights an increasingly embarrassing reality for Silicon Valley giants. Leaders in the industry once visited elite campuses as conquering heroes—tech rock stars imparting wisdom to adoring students who aspired to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. Now they’re complex and controversial figures: admired for their innovation, scrutinized for their company’s influence and sometimes viewed as villains at their own fan conventions.
