When a recent graduation speaker at the University of Central Florida said that we are living in a time of profound change and that “the rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution”, a video of her speech quickly went viral.
This story features on the cover of Forbes Australia: Issue 23 . Tap here to secure your copy.
Not because she’d made some profound statement – but because an unexpected chorus of boos erupted throughout the auditorium.
It was a visceral reaction from hundreds of students and an early sign of a growing backlash against AI. It wasn’t an isolated incident. In the days that followed, several commencement speeches that lauded AI were met with similar reactions, including one by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
While the intention of these speeches was, presumably, to instil optimism in graduates about the possibilities of AI and the future ahead, many young people aren’t feeling it.
It’s a sentiment that I also noticed at the recent Forbes Women’s Summit. One of the strongest audience reactions of the day came when neuroscientist Alexis Fernandez-Preiska warned on stage that outsourcing creativity to AI is “the greatest disservice you can ever do for your brain.” The room erupted in applause.
Fernandez-Preiska went on to explain that when people rely on AI to think creatively for them, they are effectively telling their brains they are incapable of doing it themselves. “So, when you do sit down to be creative, and you don’t have AI by your side, you’ll freak out,” she said.
The reaction in the room, and increasingly in graduation halls around the world, signals this growing tension between the need to embrace AI and the need to protect what makes us human.
On one hand, there’s huge optimism. Before the Summit, we surveyed more than 500 attendees, and by a significant margin, the number one topic they wanted to hear about was “AI and the future of work”. People wanted practical tools, insights and strategies to take back to their organisations and lives.
The conversation has never been louder: lean in, learn the prompts, build the agents, automate the tasks and move fast. Don’t be left behind.
But as quickly as the pendulum has swung towards AI adoption, another force is pushing back against it – concern about how to protect what may be under threat – creativity, imagination, intuition and human instinct.
For students, it’s their future jobs. For creatives, it’s their craft. For all of us, perhaps, it’s our brains.
It’s the great balancing act of this moment. Because, also throughout the Summit, some of the strongest advocates for AI spoke passionately about its potential to solve deeply human problems – from breakthroughs in healthcare and education to advances in life sciences and energy.
One person firmly in the “AI for good” camp is Katrina Leslie, this issue’s cover star. Leslie has made it her mission to tackle what she calls the broken jobs market – a problem she believes AI has only made worse. That’s why she launched Swipejobs, an AI-powered employment platform designed to put control back in the hands of the job seeker.
With revenue hitting $1.4 billion in 2025 and a run rate of $1.8 billion in 2026 – Leslie is gearing up for a potential IPO later this year.
Elsewhere in the issue, David Beckham officially enters the billionaire ranks, becoming one of only seven living professional athletes to do so. Lorna Jane reflects on the next phase of her fashion empire, while Bianca Spender opens up about growing up with both a fashion icon mother and a high-profile MP sister
Enjoy the June/July issue – and I hope to see you at an upcoming Forbes event soon.
In the meantime, keep in touch: editor@forbes.com.au
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