Google CEO Sundar Pichai was invited to Stanford University in California to deliver a commencement speech as alumnus. As he was introduced, around 200 students took out Palestinian flags, wore symbolic keffiyehs, and booed the technocrat, while staging a walk-out. The protest was organised by the ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ and ‘No Tech for Apartheid.’
A video surfaced online where students in caps and gowns were visible exiting the ceremony while raising slogans such as “Free Palestine.” Despite this, Pichai is seen continuing his speech. "I must warn you all, this is only the second commencement speech that I have ever given. The first was literally in my backyard," he said.
Students' protest
Students protested the Google CEO’s speech because of his USD 1.2 billion cloud-computing contract with the Israeli government for Project Nimbus. Pro-Palestinian activists have criticised the deal and accused Google of supporting Israel’s 'genocidal' actions.
Students for Justice stated before the event that, “We don't need another tech billionaire how to get rich off of the killing and surveillance of Palestinians.”
However, Pichai was not seen addressing the accusations. Instead, he focused his speech on his own personal journey from Chennai to Silicon Valley. After his speech, a reporter asked him if he had anything to say about the allegations, but he simply walked away.
Even in May, Pichai did an interview with a tech podcast called ‘Hard Fork’ where he was asked about wat he would do if booed by the students. He replied to that by saying that he was confident about the youth and their future.
Where did the students go?
Many of the students attended a separate event after leaving the ceremony, called the People’s Commencement’ where Mahmoud Khalil was the keynote speaker. Khalil is a pro-Palestinian activist that was detained for over a 100 days due to his involvement in the Columbia University protests.
Pichai avoids AI
Even though Artificial Intelligence encompasses such a critical part of today’s world for graduated worried about securing jobs, Pichai avoided any discussion on the impact and use of AI. Reports say that he allegedly did so as other tech leaders have recently faced criticism for the same. Even former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed at an event earlier this year after promoting AI.
Written by Avnie Saraf. Avnie Saraf is an intern with IndiaTV Digital.
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