Story perspectives

UCF Graduates Boo AI Advocate, 88% Want Tech Banned

5/13/2026

Summary

Caulfield Booed

UCF graduates booed speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of Tavistock Development Company, on May 8 after she called AI the next industrial revolution.
Caulfield called the issue “bipolar” after more boos.
An Instagram poll showed 88% wanted AI removed versus 12% supporting it.
A 2025 Harvard Kennedy School poll found 48% of Zoomers view AI’s workforce risks as outweighing benefits and a majority of graduates see AI as a job threat.

Summary

Caulfield Drives AI

Gloria Caulfield, Tavistock Development Company’s vice president of strategic alliances, built AI medtech partnerships for the Lake Nona healthcare-focused real-estate project.
She founded the Lake Nona Impact Forum and serves as president of the Lake Nona Institute.
In her address she cited Jeff Bezos, Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson as disruptive leaders.
The livestream drew nearly 30,000 live viewers and the clips later earned hundreds of thousands of social-media views.

History

Historical Context

In May 1997 IBM’s Deep Blue beat world champion Garry Kasparov 3½–2½, becoming the first computer to defeat a reigning chess champion and evaluating 200 million positions per second. The victory sparked public anxiety about AI’s reach, a sentiment that resurfaced when UCF graduates jeered Tavistock Development’s Gloria Caulfield for likening AI to a revolution.

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Caulfield Booed

UCF graduates booed speaker Gloria Caulfield, vice president of Tavistock Development Company, on May 8 after she called AI the next industrial revolution.
Caulfield called the issue “bipolar” after more boos.
An Instagram poll showed 88% wanted AI removed versus 12% supporting it.
A 2025 Harvard Kennedy School poll found 48% of Zoomers view AI’s workforce risks as outweighing benefits and a majority of graduates see AI as a job threat.

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