About 200 Stanford Graduates Walk Out of Commencement Speech by Google CEO, While Most Remain Seated
About 200 graduates left the ceremony while others booed over the company's contracts with the Israeli military and ICE. Pichai earned a graduate degree from Stanford in materials science and engineering.
TechcrunchAbout 200 students walked out of Stanford University's commencement ceremony over the weekend while others loudly booed Google CEO Sundar Pichai during his speech. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Participants waved Palestinian flags and shouted "free Palestine," according to online video of the event. " The walkout was organized by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, and Tech for Liberation. Pichai earned a graduate degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford before becoming Google's chief executive.
Google fired 28 workers in 2024 for protesting the Project Nimbus contract. The company has continued to face internal dissent over the agreement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently accused Google and other firms of "choosing to look the other way" on Israel's use of their services.
Microsoft restricted the Israeli government's use of its technology after an investigation found its cloud services were being used to mass-surveil Palestinians. Amazon has expressed support for Project Nimbus. " Pichai's appearance fits a pattern of commencement speakers facing boos when addressing AI topics, though the Stanford protest focused specifically on Google's business decisions rather than AI in general.
