Vinod Khosla Calls Stanford Students' Walkout During Sundar Pichai's Commencement Speech 'Selfish'

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On Sunday, Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla criticized Stanford students who walked out during Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google CEO Sundar Pichai's commencement address, calling their protest "idiotic" and "selfish."

Stanford Graduation Walkout

The disruption took place Sunday at Stanford University's 135th commencement ceremony, where more than 20,000 attendees gathered, including thousands of graduates, reported Fortune.

Pichai began speaking, about 100 to 200 students stood, exited the venue, waved Palestinian flags and chanted "Free Palestine."

The protest was organized by student groups including Students for Justice in Palestine and No Tech for Apartheid, which accused major tech firms of contributing to military and surveillance systems.

In a statement, protesters said, "We don't need another tech billionaire to tell us how to get rich off of the killing and surveillance of Palestinians."

Their criticism has centered on Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion cloud and AI contract involving Google and the Israeli government, as well as additional contracts with U.S. agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security.

Khosla Responds To Protest

Khosla responded on X, calling the students' actions "biased, idiotic, short-sighted and very selfish."

He added they were ignoring "the bottom 3 billion people on this planet that could benefit from AI" while focusing on what he described as "misinformed selfish self-interest."

Read Also: Sundar Pichai Once Revealed He Lacked Access To Tech Growing Up But Still Ended Up Running Alphabet Thanks To An Open Mind And A 'Bit Of Luck,' Though His Dad Still Wishes He Had Completed His PhD

Khosla Warns AI Could Replace Jobs

Earlier, Khosla said AI could automate around 80% of jobs by 2030, driving major deflation, higher productivity, and a long-term shift away from traditional employment.

He argued that AI will reduce the value of human labor and force governments to rethink taxation and wealth distribution as economic structures change.

He also suggested that AI-driven efficiency could increase global purchasing power by 2040, while capital gains and income taxation systems may need realignment due to shrinking labor income.

Separately, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah noted that advanced AI systems appear to show emotion-like patterns during a Vatican discussion on AI, which Khosla later dismissed as "elitist."

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Read Also: Google CEO Sundar Pichai Predicts AI Will Act For You — From Investments To Medical Advice — Calling The Coming Shift 'Really Interesting'

Photo courtesy: FotoField on Shutterstock.com

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