Several Stanford students walk out during Sundar Pichai’s speech
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New Delhi: Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced protests and walkouts while delivering the keynote address at Stanford University’s commencement ceremony, with around 200 students leaving the event over concerns about Google’s ties with Israel and other grievances, according to a report by SFGate.
The report said Pichai avoided mentioning artificial intelligence (AI) during his speech, as commencement speakers at several universities had faced boos this year whenever they discussed the subject.
Instead, Pichai spoke about his personal journey from India to Silicon Valley, recalling his early challenges, immigration to California, decision to pursue a master’s degree instead of completing a doctorate, and his struggles after joining Google.
“Around 200 students walked out as Pichai took the stage, and smaller groups in the audience waved banners, blew whistles and waved Palestinian flags before also leaving mid-speech,” the report said.
The protesters objected to Google’s ties with the Israeli government, particularly the 2021 Project Nimbus agreement, a $1.2 billion cloud computing contract with Israel.
The ceremony continued after the initial disruptions, with Pichai’s personal anecdotes receiving scattered applause and laughter from the audience.
The walkout came amid a broader wave of student protests at Stanford over the past three years regarding Israel’s war in Gaza and the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
Protesters also organised a separate “People’s Commencement” event, which featured activist Mahmoud Khalil as the keynote speaker. Khalil was detained by US immigration authorities for more than 100 days last year over pro-Palestinian campus activism at Columbia University.
The incident follows similar disruptions involving technology leaders at university ceremonies. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed at the University of Arizona commencement last month after saying that “AI is going to touch everything.”
With IANS inputs
