I wanted to share a specific AI story on its own. Let me quote right from the Washington Post:
As students at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College grappled with the news of a deadly shooting at Michigan State University last week, those in the education college received an odd message from the administration.
The Thursday emailfrom Peabody College’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion addressed the shooting in Michigan but didn’t refer to any Vanderbilt organizations or resources that students could contact for support. It instead described steps to “ensure that we are doing our best to create a safe and inclusive environment for all.”
“One of the key ways to promote a culture of care on our campus is through building strong relationships with one another,” the first sentence of one paragraph reads.
“Another important aspect of creating an inclusive environment is to promote a culture of respect and understanding,” begins another.
A smaller line of text in parentheses at the bottom of the message revealed that it had been written using the generative artificial intelligence program ChatGPT, the Vanderbilt Hustler student newspaper first reported.
Students blasted the university for using a chatbot to address a harrowed campus community after the Michigan shooting, and Vanderbilt quickly apologized. Nicole Joseph, an associate dean at Peabody’s EDI office who was one of the letter’s three signatories, apologized the next day and said that using ChatGPT was “poor judgment,” the Hustler reported.
Why do we care?
If you need any reassurance that ChatGPT isn’t going to replace you, you got it. The critical insight is the poor judgment. AI technology is lousy for empathy and emotion; using it blindly is what got Peabody College in trouble. Need help writing that letter? Useful application. Have the AI do the work for you? That’s poor judgment.
Applying the right technology to the proper use is precisely the area where IT services companies both exist and can excel, and helping train here is one of the services of the future.