Pace University graduates were left speechless after officials at the New York City institution deployed an AI model to read their names during a commencement event this month. A viral video shows students having a QR code on their smartphones scanned, only for an AI voice to announce their names — a moment that critics likened to using a supermarket self-checkout. The backlash was especially sharp for a university that charges more than $50,000 a year in tuition alone.
The university directed students ahead of the event to visit a website where they could phonetically spell their names and confirm pronunciation. "To ensure your name is pronounced correctly, you must register to attend Commencement through Tassel by Wednesday, April 23," reads an FAQ on the university's website. Tassel, a private company that says it has helped more than 600 schools over 20-plus years, offers "live ceremony stage-crossing software" designed to streamline convocation events and ensure accurate pronunciation.
"With AI and our proprietary multilingual models — powered by a growing database of over 2 million names, phonemes, and linguistic patterns across multiple languages — our platform allows students to hear exactly how their names will be pronounced as they cross the stage," Tassel states on its website. If the AI mispronounces a name even after coaching, graduates can submit an audio recording instead.
Despite those measures, some graduates reported their names were still said incorrectly. "They told us to write our names phonetically so it's said correctly, and they still said my name wrong, which is forever documented in videos," one user commented on Instagram.
Backlash Spreads Beyond Pace
The use of AI to read student names has drawn significant blowback from college graduates across the country. Student journalists at Northeastern University, which also deployed Tassel, published an op-ed arguing the institution should "read our names at graduation, it's the least you can do." "To many students like myself, a small switch from an AI voice bot to a physical person would mean the world," wrote student Henry Bova in The Huntington News. "A human can reciprocate our sense of joy and can understand the gravity of the moment and the academic rigor that we endured to get to this point." Bova added that "all the AI voice does is reduce the recognition of our accomplishments as a menial task to push through with brute computations."
An online petition by students at the University of North Georgia called on the university to stop "using an AI speaker for graduation," garnering over 2,000 signatures. The backlash was so fierce in some parts of the country that West Chester University in Pennsylvania ditched the AI altogether, as Axios reported earlier this month.
Some onlookers pointed out the irony of AI coming for the jobs of recent college graduates in particular. "A whole lifetime of studies and 100k in debt just to have your name announced by the very entity that's going to make your studies useless," one Reddit user joked.
Not everyone opposed the technology. "I appreciate that everyone had the chance to hear their name pronounced correctly," one Reddit user argued. "Imagine being an international student and worried that someone will butcher your name. I'm ok with the solution the university gave here."
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