Harvard President Alan Garber said the rise of artificial intelligence coincided with the Class of 2026’s undergraduate years and that graduates must decide how to live with it. He emphasized that there will always be value in laboriously reaching new levels of understanding, because doing so elevates the meaning of individual existence. He noted that novel technologies have repeatedly brought new anxieties, citing early concerns about tethered balloons that could quickly bring tourists to high Alpine views. He contrasted easy “flight” and instant perspectives with the toil of climbing, arguing that some landscapes can only be reached by balloon while others require the climb. He urged graduates to seek mountains worth climbing.
"For better or worse, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence coincided with the Class of 2026's undergraduate years, Harvard President Alan Garber said in his Baccalaureate address Tuesday. It is now up to graduates, he said, to decide how to live with it. "There will always be value in toiling laboriously to reach new levels of understanding," Garber said. "When you do so, you do more than celebrate the exquisite potential of human beings; you elevate the meaning of your singular existence.""
"In November 2022 - just months after members of the Class of 2026 began at Harvard - the release of ChatGPT launched a new era of scientific discoveries and advances in productivity alongside fresh fears about job losses and the value of human labor. But Garber, who graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude 50 years ago, reminded the seniors and their loved ones assembled in Tercentenary Theatre that this is far from the first time a novel technology brought with it novel anxieties."
"He cited a 1903 opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Gazette in which a writer - "Someone we could now call an influencer," Garber said - fretted about tethered balloons in Switzerland bringing tourists to the height of the tallest Alps in as little as 10 minutes. Having attained that awesome perspective with little effort, the tourists could gaze down with derision at the alpinists toiling through great difficulty up the snowy mountains."
""We live today in an age of balloons, gaining perspectives in fractions of seconds rather than tens of minutes, dispensing with the toil of the climb in favor of the ease of flight," Garber said. "There are, of course, places we can only hope to reach by balloon - landscapes too compl""
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