‘The View’s Sunny Hostin Says Gen Z Needs to ‘Embrace’ AI After Commencement Uproars

There’s been a spate of backlash to commencement speakers around the country touting the burgeoning ubiquity of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and on Thursday’s (May 21) episode of The View, the cohosts responded to the collective disapproval of Gen Z for AI enthusiasts. Sunny Hostin, in particular, had some surprisingly glib words about the subject.

“I think people really think young people are all about AI. I’m starting to believe they’re really not digging it,” Whoopi Goldberg said first.

Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed, arguing, “I think it’s a hugely animating issue with young voters, and I feel this generation that basically is told, ‘You have to get a college degree, it’s probably going to put you into debt for the next 10 to 20 years, and by the way, there are not going to be jobs available.'” She then went on to say, “Commencement speakers basically saying, ‘You’re going to be written out by AI,’ that’s so scary to tell a young person. A more nuanced take would be, ‘AI is here to stay. Learn how to use it, but teach them why they are irreplaceable.’ There are certain things AI cannot do. It cannot convey empathy. It cannot make judgment calls the way that human minds can. It cannot replicate creativity. It’s getting close. That’s the scary thing.”

Joy Behar then wondered aloud, “I would like to know what the rulers of this country plan to do when 80 percent of the world is out of work?” She then pointed to how other countries are planning around AI, such as Japan and the Scandinavian nations, before adding, “All I hear is destruction in this country. I don’t hear anything that sounds like they’re building us up.”

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That’s when Hostin stepped in to say, “It’s the billionaire class sort of quickly going in that direction, this direction of oligarchies, but I will say, we had Bill Gates on the show, and I asked him — I think on air or off air —  whether or not AI was here to stay, and he said, ‘Absolutely, you either get with it or you’re going to be left behind.’ Yeah, and so I think to your point, Alyssa, I think Gen Z should embrace AI, but with structure. They have to have career survival. They’ll be able to use it, I think, to manage their careers. They’ll be able to use it to perhaps, when used properly, you can enhance skills. I don’t think it’s going to ever replace them, but they are going to have to learn how to [live with it].”

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Sara Haines clarified, “A lot of the booing you’re hearing is this is not a generation that needs to be told that they’re the ones using it, they’ve grown up on it. What they need is a day where you pump their sails and their souls full of why they are special and why there are things that will never replace them, in regard to not only their empathy, but emotional intelligence. We still need people that know how to critically think… Those people need one day where we cheer them on, because they’re heading into a lot of other struggles, and they don’t need to be told over and over in an inspirational speech, ‘By the way, you don’t matter.'”

Hostin then pointed out they were “liberal arts majors” in the reviewed clips of the backlash. “They weren’t engineering majors, they were like studying philosophy”…. Whatever that means.

The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC

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