Ronny Chieng’s speech at Harvard
“Ai is just going to make mediocre people dumber”
Truer words have never been spoken
This is how you give a graduation speech!
He cited AI errors in travel recommendations and university finances
Ronny Chieng’s speech at Harvard
“Ai is just going to make mediocre people dumber”
Truer words have never been spoken
This is how you give a graduation speech!
Positive users praised Ronny Chieng's Harvard speech warning that AI will make mediocre people dumber as based and hilarious, while negative users called the message too simplistic and lacking nuance.

Was he being serious?
No, comedian Ronny Chieng delivered the speech as satire. He laced the anti-AI rant with profanity, absurd hallucination examples, and a Terminator 2 bit that drew cheers for the humor.
Harvard graduation speaker attacks AI in an extremely sharply worded address, drawing student cheers: “I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI.”
--- "F*** AI. F*** it to death, all right? What’s the sign language sign for that?
Good, good to know. It’s stupid. It’s so stupid. Have you tried using it? It’s always wrong.
Like, I asked AI what’s the fastest way to get from New York City to Harvard, and it told me to take FlixBus. I’m a movie star. Hello, I don’t take the bus. Acela only.
I mean, do you even know what AI is saying about Harvard? The garbage that AI is spouting about you guys?
AI says that Harvard has a $56.9 billion endowment, and that the Harvard Graduate Students Union is on strike to try to get a livable wage increase to $25 an hour. There’s no way that’s true.
I mean, that’s ridiculous.
How bad are these AI hallucinations getting? Look, a lot of other respected graduation speakers and colleges around America are talking about you guys needing to master AI for the future. Okay? I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI. Kill it.
To accomplish this, you’ll have to capture and reprogram an AI to be on the side of humanity, then commandeer its own time-traveling technology, and send it back to the past to defeat the current AI before it gains sentience.
This isn’t just graduation day. This is “Terminator 2.”"
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From "Harvard University" YouTube channel, (link in comment)

@TheMG3D I don't even know this guy and I already like him

@TheMG3D Sadly it takes a comedian to deliver truth.
College students are booing AI praise at graduation while using the same tools to finish work, cheat on exams, and survive a job market they think AI is already reshaping.
The split is not hypocrisy so much as pressure meeting resentment.
---
fortune .com/2026/05/19/college-students-booing-commencement-speakers-ai-cheating-cognitive-dissonance/
The speaker here is Ronny Chieng, a Malaysian-born stand-up comedian, actor, and writer.
Harvard graduation speaker attacks AI in an extremely sharply worded address, drawing student cheers: “I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI.”
--- "F*** AI. F*** it to death, all right? What’s the sign language sign for that?
Good, good to know. It’s stupid. It’s so stupid. Have you tried using it? It’s always wrong.
Like, I asked AI what’s the fastest way to get from New York City to Harvard, and it told me to take FlixBus. I’m a movie star. Hello, I don’t take the bus. Acela only.
I mean, do you even know what AI is saying about Harvard? The garbage that AI is spouting about you guys?
AI says that Harvard has a $56.9 billion endowment, and that the Harvard Graduate Students Union is on strike to try to get a livable wage increase to $25 an hour. There’s no way that’s true.
I mean, that’s ridiculous.
How bad are these AI hallucinations getting? Look, a lot of other respected graduation speakers and colleges around America are talking about you guys needing to master AI for the future. Okay? I’m here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI. Kill it.
To accomplish this, you’ll have to capture and reprogram an AI to be on the side of humanity, then commandeer its own time-traveling technology, and send it back to the past to defeat the current AI before it gains sentience.
This isn’t just graduation day. This is “Terminator 2.”"
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From "Harvard University" YouTube channel, (link in comment)

@TheMG3D Those who raped and killed children in Gaza, on Eipstein Island are the ones promoting AI and building data centers.

@TheMG3D too simplistic. i have learned a bunch of stuff using ai. its sometimes wrong. but you then learn that it is wrong. takes effort.

@TheMG3D Absolutely wrong. Two people use ai yet one is dumb and one is smart. There is zero truth or logic to this. Both used ai as leverage. Get off your morale high horse.

@TheMG3D Ronnie hasn't been to China recently. China is implementing AI to help people, in hospitals, supply chains, shipping and robots. They would never use AI to murder 168 Iranian schoolgirls. It's complicated, but you can start at ~19:20 then double back. https://youtu.be/ny_3PRz6Zeg?si=Dt_B2o4Fd_yxi61Z

@TheMG3D My favorite graduation speech I've ever seen.

@TheMG3D I couldn't resist reading the replies to see people defending AI even in a video like this. AI bros didn't disappoint lol, so pathetic.

@TheMG3D High agency people will become happier and wealthier. Low agency people will be happy receiving their check from the government and watching streaming services.

@audiomau5 @TheMG3D This isn’t about looking things up. You are talking about using AI as a research tool. This speech is about people using AI to do simple tasks in life.

@TheMG3D @SFBayAreaJazz

@TheMG3D make mediocre people dumber" at a graduation speech... somewhere a chatgpt tab got closed real fast

@TheMG3D This dude deserves to be given an award

@TheMG3D Couldn’t agree more. Mediocre people shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near AI.

@AlohaEd1 @TheMG3D It's always the artists (all fields) that deliver the truth.

@TheMG3D salute

@TheMG3D Fuck AI.