The NewYorkTimes.com reported “Magic Johnson, the former basketball player, pushed Tuskegee University graduates in Alabama to try out new technology, rather than be afraid of it.” The May 21, 2026 article entitled “Will A.I. Replace You? What Graduation Speakers Told the Class of 2026” (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/21/us/commencement-speakers-class-of-2026-artificial-intelligence.html) included these comments about Magic Johnson:
“Sometimes we have to be uncomfortable to get comfortable,” he said.
While A.I. might not replace you, he added, “somebody who knows A.I. will replace you at your jobs.”
Students listened quietly, but elsewhere, talk of A.I. met with boos. Gloria Caulfield, a real estate executive, was interrupted at the University of Central Florida mid-speech after comparing A.I. to the Industrial Revolution. “OK, I struck a chord. May I finish?”
University of Arizona graduation attendees also booed the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as he spoke of the potential impact of A.I. on daily life, saying, A.I. will “touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have.”
And students at Marquette University expressed frustration through petitions and opinion articles leading up to the commencement speech of Chris Duffey, an A.I. executive at Adobe.
WOW! For Magic Johnson to talk about AI!
First published at https://www.vogelitlaw.com/blog/magic-johnson-addressed-ai-in-a-graduation-speech