A commencement speech is an age-long tradition of higher learning institutions, typically given by professors, government officials, and celebrities.
D’Youville University in Buffalo has surprised everyone by handing the microphone to a robot, Sophia, instead of human beings.
The private university embraced the future by opting for an artificially intelligent robot, Sophia, to deliver the commencement speech to over 2,000 people, including graduates, faculty members, and families, during its spring ceremony.
Before Sophia delivered her speech, the university posted on social media on April 25 that it embraced technology by allowing an artificial intelligence robot to become its commencement speaker. Sophia, the robot, is quite famous; it has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
According to the social media post, Sophia was expected to provide the last lecture about the student accomplishments throughout the year with the University Student Government Association President, John Rizk, in an interview style. As a speaker, not everyone received Sophia well; some students even created a petition to replace the robot with a human.
D’Youville University President Lorrie Clemo wrote on social media that higher education’s significant role is to be an incubator for innovation and to prepare students for the opportunities and challenges of the future.
Sophia made her way to the stage and was asked a series of questions. She began her speech by introducing herself as a humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics.
As a robot, Sophia was not able to offer advice from life experience; she offered inspirational advice that is common to many graduation ceremonies. In the inspirational advice, Sophia encouraged students to embrace lifelong learning, take risks, pursue their passion, be adaptable, foster connections, make a positive impact, and believe in themselves.
According to Sophia, embracing failure is the most common advice for graduates during commencement speeches. The robot also added that failure is often seen as essential to the human learning process and personal growth.
Many people wonder why D’Youville University opted for Sophia, an AI robot, as the commencement speaker. The D’Youille University’s vice president of student affairs, Benjamin “BG” Grant, told the media that the university opted for Sophia because it identifies developmental themes regarding timely social topics each year. He added that the university identified artificial intelligence as its theme and decided to let AI speak for itself. Making Sophia the ultimate choice for the task.
Grant stated that the university’s commencement speaker is always aligned with the annual developmental themes and does not anticipate that Social will be the next commencement speaker. Some graduating students were happy with Sophia as the commencement speaker and created an online petition to replace Sophia at change.org.
Most of the students were very disappointed with the university’s decision to use an AI robot as the commencement speaker.
Grant said the university did not force anyone to attend the ceremony. He added that for those who were not comfortable and did not want to be part of the commencement speech with Sophia, a traditional-style commencement speech was organized for them.
