AMD chief Dr. Lisa Su tells MIT graduates, 'Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like. People do'

Lisa Su Address to MIT Class of 2026 – YouTube

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AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su gave a commencement address to the graduating class of 2026 at her alma mater, MIT, this week. In many ways, Su’s speech was typical fare, congratulating the graduating class for their hard work and offering reassuring anecdotes of overcoming challenges in order to achieve professional success. And then Su starts talking about AI.

This year’s graduates are entering a job market that looks creaky at best, in part thanks to the advent of AI in the workplace. A number of speakers this month have offered completely tone-deaf addresses, expounding on the virtues of AI to this less than sympathetic audience. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was loudly booed by a stadium full of students after talking about AI, while another speaker was also met with boos for saying AI ‘is the next industrial revolution’.

Scott Borchetta, CEO of the record label Big Machine, was also booed for his AI commencement comments, snapping on stage, “You can hear me now or you can pay me later.” Su’s own comments on AI appeared to initially inspire a similar depth of feeling, as can be heard on MIT’s own recording of the commencement speech.

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However, Su’s full address attempts to be something more deft, rather than being quite as tone-deaf as we’ve seen from other speakers. Su stresses AI’s role as a tool and not a replacement for hard-working humans. She said, “Now let me be clear: Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like. People do.”

Su’s full speech stresses the importance of using human judgement in conjunction with these AI tools. She says, “AI cannot decide which problems are worth solving. It cannot make the hard judgment calls with imperfect information. It cannot take responsibility for the outcome. These are our responsibilities. And they matter more now than ever.”

Coming from the CEO of a company that just invested over $10 billion into Taiwan tech in a bid to ‘accelerate next-gen AI infrastructure,’ these comments sound downright sensible. Su begins to wrap up her speech by urging MIT’s graduating class of 2026 to become worthy human stewards of these powerful AI tools. As far as I can hear, Su’s later AI comments were not met with as much audible ire.

While I may not be as jazzed as Su about, say, AI’s healthcare applications, I at least appreciate her somewhat measured outlook on our AI future. Other speakers offered only a fatalistic, adapt-or-die sentiment that AI would gobble up the entry-level roles and careers 2026’s graduates had been working towards. Su at the very least reassures that humans are still necessary to make the machine work and make up for its short-comings.