Eric Schmidt, the billionaire former Google CEO and reliable Democratic donor, delivered a commencement address at the University of Arizona that laid bare the self-serving priorities of much of Silicon Valley.
While graduates voiced their fears over AI-driven job losses, Schmidt doubled down: America needs more artificial intelligence and more immigration. The message was clear—technological disruption for thee, but cheap labor to cushion the blow for us.
This is not a coherent economic vision. It is a convenient one for technocrats who profit from both automation that slashes payrolls and an endless supply of foreign workers that suppresses wages. Schmidt told the booing crowd that “America is at its best when we are the country that ambitious people want to come to,” urging them to “choose a diversity of perspectives, including the perspective of the immigrant.”