Before delivering his now-viral commencement speech for the Kansas City Art Institute on May 16, Jeremy Scott wasn’t sure how his words were going to land. It was two days after Gloria Caulfield was booed during her commencement speech for the University of Central Florida, in which she praised AI as the next “Industrial Revolution.” So Scott had reservations about opening his own speech with AI-generated text.
But shortly into his speech, the fashion designer ripped up his notecard and revealed the words were a gimmick, before launching into his own take on the importance of authenticity in art and design.
“ I was really nervous,” Scott said on Tuesday night in New York, shortly after the video of his speech went viral. “I’m still toying with talking about AI,” he added. “A lot of people feel like, ‘Oh wait, I understand it’s a tool.’ And I understand that in a very artistic manner, a person can still be very creative. I don’t dispute that. But the means in erasing humans’ involvement in it, I think has already been shown pretty clearly that people don’t like it,” said Scott, pointing to the negative reaction to J.Crew’s use of AI models in a campaign last summer as an example of the ongoing backlash to using AI in creative fields.
“ I was so touched that the students, after the ceremony, came up to me and said, ‘We hate AI, so much, it’s kind of crazy.’ And all the professors gave me high fives,” Scott said of the positive reaction. “ The surprise of it going viral, yes, I was not expecting it. They didn’t even post it until a week after.”
But Scott didn’t just receive an enthusiastic reaction to his speech. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate. “Paging Dr. Scott,” the designer joked.
“I’m happy that they were all supportive of it,” he added. “ I was honored to support the college and to be offered an honorary doctorate. And it was very nice to bring my parents. It’s our hometown.”
