Last week, staff at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee wrote a thoughtful and heartfelt letter about coming together as a community in response to the mass shooting at Michigan State University. But it turns out the letter itself came from the AI program ChatGPT.
The university is now apologizing for the AI-written letter, calling it “poor judgment,” according to The Vanderbilt Hustler, the student newspaper.
“While we believe in the message of inclusivity expressed in the email, using ChatGPT to generate communications on behalf of our community in a time of sorrow and in response to a tragedy contradicts the values that characterize Peabody College,” the school reportedly told students in a follow-up email.
The staff at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College didn’t hide the use of ChatGPT. The end of the letter mentions “Paraphrase from OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model.” But the decision to outsource the letter to a computer program isn’t sitting well with the university’s higher-ups.
“I am also deeply troubled that a communication from my administration so missed the crucial need for personal connection and empathy during a time of tragedy,” wrote Camilla Benbow, dean of education at Peabody College.
The letter contains the byline of an associate dean named Nicole Joseph, who will now step back from her role over the decision to use ChatGPT. According to Benbow, the letter “did not follow Peabody’s normal processes providing for multiple layers of review before being sent.”
“The university’s administrators, including myself, were unaware of the email before it was sent,” she added.
Why the university tapped ChatGPT in the first place was left unsaid. But it’s clear that AI programs can write professional-grade text in seconds, making it easier for any human to churn out a blog post, article, or seemingly personal letter to a friend or family member. But the ethical implications around using the technology remain in question when other computer-written text is often treated as spam. Ironically, many teachers and schools are starting to ban ChatGPT over concerns students are using the technology to cheat on homework assignments.
In the meantime, students at Vanderbilt University are criticizing the school for using ChatGPT to write the letter. “There is a sick and twisted irony to making a computer write your message about community and togetherness because you can’t be bothered to reflect on it yourself,” one student told The Vanderbilt Hustler.