WEBVTT

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graduates as they begin
their own journeys of discovery.

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And I'm grateful he accepted
our invitation. Please join me in giving a

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warm welcome to Eric Schmidt.

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So, we'll start again. Um as I was saying,

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I think we've met a future president
of the United States in Cisco Aguilar.

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And I think that you will enjoy voting

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for him. And I loved your instructions.

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So, President Garmella, Dean Garzione,
members of the Board of Regents,

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distinguished members of the faculty,
proud families and friends, and most of

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all, graduates of the class of 2026.

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Congratulations and thank you for inviting
me to address this. It's really

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an honor for me to be here.

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I remember when I felt when I was

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sitting in your seats, and I had just

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finished my doctorate. It's 1982.

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In that year, Time magazine selected its

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first-ever person of the year,
and it was not a person at all. It was a

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machine. It was the personal computer.

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And I remember that moment so well,
cuz I'd spent my graduate years working on

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those machines, and we were sure we were
going to change the world. And in many

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ways, we did. Over those
next four decades, those

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bulky machines with green writing on a
black screen became the laptop and the

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smartphone, and with that came
the internet and social media and then the

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cloud. And ultimately, what emerged was

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the supercomputer in your pocket that
is probably buzzing right now. And the

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optimism of that era, and I remember it

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well, was overwhelming.

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We believed that connecting every human
being on Earth to each other, and I

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really believe this, and all
of the world's information would be an

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unambiguous good. We believed that it

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would democratize knowledge, lift people

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out of poverty, and make us wiser
and kinder and more curious about each

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other. In a sense, we thought that we were

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adding stones to a cathedral
of knowledge that humanity had been

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constructing for centuries.

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But the world we built turned
out to be more complicated than

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we had anticipated.

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The same tools that connect us also

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isolate us. The same platforms that gave

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everyone a voice, like you're using now,

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also degraded the public square.

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They rewarded outrage. They amplified

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our worst instincts. They coarsened
the way we speak to each other. And that

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way, and in the way that we treat each
other, is in the in the essence of a

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society. In the years that after I

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graduated, no one sat down and resolved

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to build a technology that would
polarize democracies and unsettle a

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generation of young people. That was not

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our plan, but it happened.
I tell you all of this because

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last December, Time magazine
selected its person of the

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year for 2025. And it was this time,
it was the architects of artificial

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intelligence. Interesting.
>> [applause and cheering]

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>> So today, we stand on this edge of

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another technological transformation.

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One that will be larger, faster,
and more consequential than what came

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before. It will touch
every profession, every

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classroom, every hospital, every

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laboratory, every person, and every
relationship you have. I know what many

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of you are feeling about that.
I can hear you.

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There is a fear. >> [cheering]

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>> There is a fear in your
generation if that the future

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has already been written. That the
machines are coming. That the jobs are

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evaporating. That the climate is breaking.
That politics is fractured.

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And that you are inheriting
a mess that you did not create.

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And I understand that fear. >> [cheering]

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>> It's rational. And it's
amplified every day by social

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media platforms with algorithm that have

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learned with great precision that fear
earns clicks and that anxiety drives

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engagement. But I want
to say something to you this

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evening as clearly as I can. To speak of

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the future as though it has already been
decided is to surrender the one thing

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that actually matters. You are

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surrendering your agency.

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The future does not simply arrive. It

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gets built in laboratories, in

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dormitories, in startups, in classrooms,

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in legislators. And the people building

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it will be you and people like you.

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The question is not whether AI will
shape the world. It will. The question

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is whether you will help
shape artificial intelligence.

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We do not know >> [cheering]

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>> We do not know the precise contours of

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what this transformation will look like.

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But what we do know is it will require

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each of us to adapt in ways that we

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cannot yet anticipate. My hope is that

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you will choose to engage anyway.
That you'll choose to be in the room where

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these decisions take place and to
have a voice in how they're made.

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When you are in that room, bring
something with you. Bring the values

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that make us human in the first place.

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The technology on its own is just a

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tool. It will optimize for what we tell

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it to optimize for. But somebody has to

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decide. And in your lifetime, that

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somebody is going to be you. So choose

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freedom.

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Choose open debate and the slow, often

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messy, but beautiful project of learning
to live alongside people with whom you

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disagree. Choose equality.

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Choose a diversity of perspectives,
including, let me add, and if you if

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you'd let me make this point, please.

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>> [cheering]

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>> The point I'd like to make is choose a

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diversity of perspectives, including the

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perspective of the immigrant

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who has so often been the person who

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came to this country and made it better.

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America is at its best when we are the

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country that ambitious people want to

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come to. Let us not lose that.

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But above all, choose respect for one

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another and for the basic unfashionable

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idea that the person on the other side

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of the argument is still a person.

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If we build artificial intelligence that

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reflects those values, the world
will be unimaginably better for it.

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So, let me tell you how hopeful I am

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about that. Because on balance, I am

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deeply optimistic, and I believe that you
should be as well. I'll switch sides.

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>> [cheering] [applause]

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>> So, consider science.

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So much of human progress is the story
of science and medicine. And artificial

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intelligence is already accelerating
research at a rate that we could not

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have imagined even 5 years ago.

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We have only seen maybe
1% of what is to come.

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AI is now designing new molecules,
running simulations, identifying

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patterns in genomic data that no team of

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humans will uncover in a lifetime. AI

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has solved the 50-year-old protein
folding program in a matter of months.

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The next generation of antibiotics will
come from this work. The next generation

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of cancer treatments will come from this
work. The materials that will allow us

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to scale clean energy will come from

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this work. Or look at astronomy in a field
with which this university excels.

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Dr. Januzi and the team at the Steward
Observatory are building a telescope

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more powerful than Hubble. That work,
which is changing the understanding of

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the universe, is happening here
in Tucson right now and in this stadium.

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I'm very proud of this. If science
is not your passion, >> [cheering]

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>> if if you don't care about science,
that's okay, cuz AI is going to touch

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everything else as well. Whatever path
you choose, AI will become part of how

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work is done. If you have
an idea for a company, you

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can build a website overnight. If you
want to learn something entirely new and

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you want to have a personal tutor in any
language for the cost of an internet

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connection, you can have it. If you have

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a pro- problem in the world you want to
solve, you can now assemble a team of AI

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agents to help you with the parts that
you could never accomplish on your own.

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When someone offers you a seat on the
rocket ship, you do not ask which seat,

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you just get on. Graduates,
the rocket ship is here. Let

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me give you some advice.

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First, find a way to say yes.

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Say yes to an invitation. Say yes
to a new city. Yes, say yes to the project

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that is beyond your reach. Yes is how
you get your first job, how you get your

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next one. Yes is how you stand out
in the crowd. Yes is what keeps you young

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long after the rest of you begins
to slow down. The people I most admire in

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my own life are the people who somewhere

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in their 20s, your age, said yes
instead of no. Second, build a

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team. Don't try to do this alone. Nearly
everything I have done in my career that

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has proven to be worthwhile,
I did with a team.

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For most of those years, I had a coach
named Bill Campbell who canceled

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everybody in Silicon Valley before he
died. He used to say, "Work the team,

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then work the problem.
The team come first."

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So tonight, before you leave this campus,
look around you. Some of the

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people sitting near you will become
the most important people in your life.

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Don't lose touch with them.
They're your team.

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Third, fail quickly and pivot without
shame. The frontier exists only at the

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edge of what may not work. If everything
you are doing is successful, you're not

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pushing yourself hard enough. The people
that I have watched who accomplish the

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largest things in life are not those
who avoided failure. They're the ones who

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became entirely unembarrassed about it.

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And finally, bet on yourself. You're good.

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Bet on your passion. Bet on your tenacity.
Bet on your voice. Bet on your

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values. Bet on everything that's about
you. Bet on the thing that you can see

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that other people cannot see about you.

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The world will give you many great
reasons to discount your instincts. Do

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not. Instead, think the intuition that you
have about what is what matters most

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is the most valuable signal that you can
possess. Trust it. But above all above

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all, I want you to remember something.

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The models will continue more powerful

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as they do. The question that you will

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face again and again, what do I bring?

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Here is the answer. Listen.

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You bring the judgment. You bring the

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conscience. You bring the perspective.

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You bring the moral sense to know what
is worth building and what is not. The

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scientist who decides which question to

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ask, that will be you. The architect who

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decides what design, that will be you.

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The citizen who decides what kind
of country we're going to be, that will

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always be you. At the end,
people like Carlo Scarpa,

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who is graduating with his degree
in computer science tonight, will decide

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what our future looks like. His father

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missed my commencement speech
at his own graduation in 2002

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cuz Carlo was being born. Tonight,
his father is here to watch his

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son step into this new future where the
builders will be will always outrun the

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bystanders. So,
to Carlo and his classmates,

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protect what makes you human. And I do

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not mean in the abstract. I mean
specifically and concretely in the small

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decisions that you make about what you
build, how you build it, and for whom

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you build it. As you take your place
in that cathedral of knowledge,

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this extraordinarily
institution in Arizona,

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your judgment and conscious will only

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become more important. Your humanity is

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not a handicap. That's the entire point.

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It's not taking the future from you,

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it's offering you a larger future than

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any generation history has ever offered.

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The question is now what you choose
to do with it. When you're my age, you'll

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look back 50 years from now and you I
promise you that the things that you'll

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care about will not be the grades
and the salaries and the titles. It'll be

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the friends. It'll be the the people who
took the call, the mentor who believed

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in you. We heard this earlier. The partner
with whom you shared a life, the

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team that built the thing that you could
be that could that no one believed could

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be built. Every one of us on this stage

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is in some measure in awe of you and I
tonight. We are in awe of your youth. We

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are in awe of the mess you're going
to make. We are in awe of the people you

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have not met and they and who will go
on to change your lives. And I'll give you

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one final reflection. >> [cheering]

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>> Happiness, I have come to believe,

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is not the same as joy.

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Happiness is derived from meaning.

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Meaning in your work, meaning in your
relationships, meaning in your place in

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the world, and the purpose that drives
you. Find that and the rest will take

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care of it itself. Congratulations
to all of you. The future is not yet

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finished. It is now your turn to shape
it and thank you very much and good

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night. >> [applause and cheering]

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[music]