AI announcer fails spectacularly at graduation ceremony, prompting boos and forced do-over

An AI announcer mispronounced and skipped names during a graduation

The use of AI-powered tools to announce students as they walk on stage during graduation and commencement ceremonies has grown in popularity over the past few years, but it's not always succeeding at the one job it's there for. Many schools have switched to these systems as a way to ensure names are being pronounced correctly, but during a recent livestream of a Glendale Community College commencement ceremony in Phoenix, Arizona, the AI announcer mispronounced some names and skipped others entirely as a result of timing issues as graduates walked across the stage. The ceremony was paused at least twice in an attempt to fix the issues, while the college's president, Tiffany Hernandez, apologized and explained to those in attendance that the AI name-reading tool was to blame for the hiccups. During the ceremony she also told the graduates affected by the issues that they would not be able to walk across the stage again, but after backlash, those graduates were eventually given a do-over with an actual human reading their names aloud. The selling point of these AI tools, including a popular platform called Tassel, is accuracy; they're an attempt to ensure the payoff for years of hard work goes perfectly for graduates when they finally receive their diploma on stage in front of friends and family. Tassel not only allows students to confirm how their names are pronounced and displayed, it also generates AI-powered previews so corrections can be made before the ceremony. Tassel's announcements are AI-generated from a model trained on voice actors so they sound natural and professional, but that approach can still make an important moment feel impersonal and automated. Other tools, such as StageClip's NameCheck, share correct pronunciations with a human announcer so they can practice them ahead of time. Glendale Community College did not confirm which AI system was used for this ceremony, but the hybrid approach could be a happy medium that prevents timing and mispronunciation issues while bringing more meaning with a human announcer. "When spoken by someone who knows the student or has taken the time to learn their name, it reflects respect and belonging. Outsourcing that responsibility can unintentionally send the message that efficiency matters more than identity," said June Prakash, the president of the teachers' union in Arlington, Virginia, while addressing the local school board there last month, according to EducationWeek. Arlington's Washington-Liberty High School canceled plans to use Tassel at a graduation ceremony next month.

Students Boo and Jeer as AI Name-Reader Flops Spectacularly at College Graduation Ceremony

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The president of Glendale Community College was pelted with a chorus of furious boos after an AI tool tasked with reading graduating students' names completely and totally flunked the assignment. As local outlet AZFamily reported, students and families at the Phoenix-area school were left disoriented when the names being read over the ceremony's loudspeakers failed to match those of the students actually walking across the stage. The names displayed on the ceremony's jumbotron were also mismatched. "I also didn't hear a lot of cheering, and I know my family is a pretty loud family," graduating student Grace Reimer told AZFamily, explaining that she didn't quite realize what went wrong until she heard her own name announced as she watched another student walked to receive their diploma. "Yeah. That's not right," she told the outlet. "It definitely made me feel uneasy." After some starts and stops, college president Tiffany Hernandez took to the podium to reveal that the error was made by a "new AI system" the school was using, prompting a wave of boos and jeers. "That is a lesson learned for us," Hernandez continued. She then noted, optimistically, that the students whose names were bungled "were able to walk the stage and get a picture, which is what I would hope is the most meaningful." "I am so sorry," said Hernandez. "There's plenty of opportunities, I hope, to take some really good pictures and to celebrate you with your loved ones as well." She later offered that students could re-walk with their names re-read, should they choose to. Is the picture the most "meaningful" part of walking the stage at graduation, though? The whole point of a graduation ceremony is for each student to be recognized, collectively and individually, for the work that it took to earn a college degree. A photo is a way to commemorate the moment; it's not the moment itself. The moment itself is about having your achievement recognized, which -- yes -- involves hearing your name read out to a crowd as you receive your diploma, while people you love cheer for you from the stands. Now, for these students, that picture will recall the time they graduated from college, and the AI that was for some reason used to read their name spectacularly missed the mark -- the perfect celebration, perhaps, as they emerge into a job market that AI has made a nightmare for them.