Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed violently by students at the University of Arizona’s graduation ceremony on Saturday, following backlash over his selection as a commencement speaker over allegations of sexual abuse by a former girlfriend who was much younger than him.
Schmidt, 71, a tech billionaire, was discussing artificial intelligence and automation when students began to heckle him, Business Insider reported.
But in the wake of ex-Michelle Ritter’s lawsuit alleging rape and sexual harassment, he expected a hostile reaction to whatever he said.
Several left-wing and feminist student organizations handed out flyers at Friday night’s graduation ceremony detailing accusations against Schmidt by Ritter, a 32-year-old tech entrepreneur who was Schmidt’s lover and business partner.
The Arizona Daily Star reported that when Schmidt appeared, students were encouraged to “turn their backs to the stage” and “boo to make it clear that the University of Arizona and the greater community we represent do not support platformed abusers, whether in Tucson or beyond.”
But sources close to Mr. Schmidt told the Post that the booing came from a small number of students, some of whom thanked Mr. Schmidt for coming to speak and apologized to his classmates for their actions.
Ritter filed a lawsuit in November accusing Schmidt of “forcibly raping” her on a yacht off the coast of Mexico in 2021, an allegation that Schmidt vehemently denies.
According to court documents, Schmidt claimed he initiated sex without consent during the 2023 Burning Man festival in Nevada, a claim Schmidt said is unsubstantiated.
Ritter also claimed that Schmidt spied on her through a “backdoor” to Google’s servers that he built with a team of Google engineers, according to the complaint.
She claimed that digital surveillance of electronic devices and surveillance by private investigators amounted to sexual harassment.
Ritter’s case was referred to arbitration by a Los Angeles judge in March, the LA Times reported.
She argued that a post-#MeToo 2022 federal law aimed at eliminating forced arbitration for sexual assault and harassment claims allowed the case to be heard in open court.
But Superior Court Judge Michael Small disagreed, saying the law doesn’t apply because of a financial settlement and arbitration agreement signed by Ritter and Schmidt in December 2024 after the alleged assault.
Schmidt has long been public about his open marriage, but denies Ritter’s claims.
At the University of Arizona, boos began when Schmidt appeared to admit some mistakes he made during his time at Google.
“We thought we were adding stones to the cathedral of knowledge that humans have built over centuries, but it turns out that the world we built was more complex than we expected,” said Schmidt, who left Google in 2011.
“The same tools that connect us are also isolating us. The same platforms that give everyone a voice, like the ones you use now, have degraded the public sphere,” he added.
Schmidt’s boos grew louder as he discussed AI, but critics warned he risked erasing the job market for recent graduates.
“I know how a lot of people feel about this. I hear you. There’s fear,” Schmidt said, his voice briefly drowned out by boos.
“There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that we will inherit machines, jobs will disappear, the climate will collapse, politics will be divided, a mess we did not create,” he said, describing the fear as “rational” and arguing that young people should adapt.
“The question is not whether AI will shape the world; it will. The question is whether you have shaped artificial intelligence,” he said.
Sources close to Schmidt told the Post that Schmidt understands students’ concerns about artificial intelligence and appreciates their complaints.
