About

The ChatGPT UCLA Graduate refers to a viral video of an Asian, male University of California, Los Angeles student holding up a computer with ChatGPT on it and cheering during a 2025 UCLA graduation ceremony. Many on social media believed that he was bragging about using the AI chatbot to complete his degree. His name was Andre Mai, and in a LinkedIn post following the virality, he claimed that he didn't use AI to cheat and instead used it for a final that was "open to AI tools." The clip went viral on Twitter / X, Reddit, TikTok and Instagram, among other social media sites, in June 2025. The video sparked a debate about the use of artificial intelligence in school.

Origin

On June 17th, 2025, TikToker^[4] @bobbed_bandits posted a video from a 2025 UCLA graduation ceremony, showing a male graduate on the jumbotron holding up his computer and showing ChatGPT on it. The video's caption read, "UCLA graduates 🤝 ChatGPT." Over three days, it received over 33,800 likes (shown below).

On June 18th, TikToker^[1] @andremaimusic posted a video of the same moment at a 2025 UCLA graduation ceremony. The TikToker was the student in the video, named Andre Mai. He spliced the footage with a clip from the graduation's livestream feed, showing the same moment. The video's text caption read, "Take this man's degree back 💀." Over two days, it received over 376,800 likes (shown below).

Mai also posted about the viral video on his LinkedIn^[8] account on June 19th, 2025. He wrote, "Was I experimenting with AI? Maybe a little. Was I cheating? Definitely not … I had a final due at 5PM, and it was open to AI tools. So yes, I brought my laptop to the 3PM ceremony and used ChatGPT to finish strong." The post received over 85 reactions in a day (shown below, click to enlarge).

Spread

On June 18th, 2025, X^[2] user @FearedBuck reposted the video, adding the caption, "UCLA graduate celebrates by showing off the ChatGPT he used for his final projects right before officially graduating 😭," gaining over 73.1 million views and 218,000 likes in two days (shown below).

The abovementioned post received multiple quote-tweets soon after. For instance, on June 18th, X^[3] user @Le_Unorthodox quoted the post, writing, "I’m not even joking they should revoke his degree and expel him LOL," amassing over 738,000 likes in two days (shown below).

On June 19th, 2025, Instagram^[5] user @liljupiterr reposted the original TikToks,^[1][4] gaining over 4,300 likes in a day. Also on June 19th, Redditor CapAccomplished8072 shared the video to the /r/facepalm^[6] subreddit, gaining over 5,200 upvotes in a day.

On June 19th, 2025, TikToker^[7] @creatorclipper posted the clip, captioning it, "Bro really graduated university with ChatGPT 🥀," gaining over 115,500 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References