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College deans suspended after ChatGPT used to email students about mass shooting
- werber 4y agoThis feels like a very smart and deliberate protest on performativity of these messages. Besides the credit to chatgpt it is completely believable. Like even the computer can do it, I hope this inspires people. It made me cry
- felipemesquita 4y agoIf you’re just wondering how students knew that the email was written using ChatGPT, the last line of the email weirdly reads “Paraphrase from OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, February 15, 2023”.
- throwaway89201 4y agoFor clarity, as multiple replies seem to take this as a proofreading mistake: ChatGPT doesn't output such a phrase unless explicitly asked to.
- loandbehold 4y agoYes, nobody would know. They weren't trying to hide it.
- gedy 4y agoThis is the mind boggling part. What were they thinking? Was this copy pasta from OpenAI and didn't proof read it?
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y agoUniversity administration is a kafkaesque environment where enthusiastic compliance with a ruleset is of foremost importance. In this context, citing a source is covering your ass. If anyone has a problem with the wording, it’s GPT’s fault. It probably never occurred to them that citing the source could get you into trouble.
- web3-is-a-scam 4y agoChatGPT doesn’t insert itself as a citation, it was added deliberately. For what reason is the question…I don’t say I use spellcheck when I write something with Word.
- welshwelsh 4y agoThat's the only thing they did wrong. Why mention you used ChatGPT? It's like emails that end with "sent from my iPhone" like who cares what technology you used to send an email?
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y agoWith “sent from my iPhone” it’s an excuse for brevity and/or typos. Consider that the iPhone’s keyboard was a downgrade from the Blackberry that was previously standard among business users. The automatically-appended disclaimer saves the sender a bit of stress.
- serf 4y agothat's one take. Personally I think it was motivated by trying to create a marketed feeling of exclusivity , drive a stake between Those With and Those Without, and alienate those without into buying an iProduct and joining The Club.
- trpv 4y agoMaybe a little bit less sinister than that. Just a way to promote the product in every email originating from their devices
- jemmyw 4y agoRegardless of the reason, I think less of anyone who doesn't turn it off. Made me cringe so badly when I sent an email from a new email client that added something similar and I hadn't checked the signature. One reason I feel that way is that the only time I'd see it in a work context is if it's a phishing email.
- kayodelycaon 4y agoI see it all the time in a work context. At three different jobs. No one really cares where I’m at. I have my laptop signature set to: Thanks, Kayodé $NAME $RANK $SERIALNUMBER I leave it there even if using “Thanks” isn’t entirely correct and my name is repeated below it. Everyone else here does something similar. My phone signature is the iPhone default. Just like everyone else.
- unheardPartner 4y agoMaybe they thought it would be worse if someone found out and it was exposed that they didn't cite their source.
- kolinko 4y agoIt's not a source in this case - if I understand correctly, they used ChatGPT to rewrite a message written by them.
- trpv 4y agoI understood it differently. Saying the email is a “paraphrase from ChatGPT” seems more like they had ChatGPT generate it, and then modified or “paraphrased” it themselves
- mc32 4y agoTo their credit, they attributed the assistance by the chatbot. (I don't think they carelessly copy pasted and did not notice the chatGPT notice). Of course, humans expect honest and sincere communication in times of grief and not automated responses, so that's on the Deans for making poor decisions (just as poor as it would be to hire a PR firm to compose something for them --it probably happens but just does not get announced)
- smittywerben 4y agoThey're just citing their source LOL!
- politician 4y agoMy theory is that the person responsible for publishing the email disagreed with using the chatbot, and included the attribution statement in a form of malicious compliance.
- tluyben2 4y agoModels that recognize chatgpt also seem to pick it up easily though [0]. Adding it in the email is quite weird though. Or maybe they agreed that is was fine to do so (generating this email by an AI), which is indeed tonedeaf. [0] https://filteroutai.com/validate/114ddca7445e6b5119715111623621a84991d5f5f7b5a9dae3c632d6c23a8a8d https://filteroutai.com/validate/114ddca7445e6b5119715111623...
- bluenose69 4y agoPerhaps tellingly, the DailyMail article calls the office of "Equity, Diversity and Inclusion" as the office of "Equity, Diversion and Inclusion".
- Animats 4y agoThat "Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion" is discriminating against AIs. This must stop! They seem to be overstaffed, if it took four people and an AI to write the memo.
- readingnews 4y agoI am not sure what opinion I have on this one. - Deans are paid a lot. Our dean make a quarter mil. - Mass shooting emails should _probably_ have a human touch. - Heck, any human tragedy email should _probably_ have a human touch. - Does the university want to pay the Dean to write emails? - Does the Dean want to write emails? - What is the Dean doing for a quarter mil a year? - Probably playing around with ChatGPT? - For a quarter mil a year, could we not hire a bunch of grads to study GPTs? No, I am just not sure how I feel about a GPT writing an email for a Dean about a mass shooting.
- MattGrommes 4y agoMost emails from Deans are actually written by the communication department of the University. In case that changes your thoughts on the matter.
- onetimeusename 4y agoWhat would you say you do here?
- sangnoir 4y agoThe article referred to the duo as the deans who "signed off" on the letter (paraphrasing). I wonder of the actual author(s) in the comms department also got suspended for automating the one thing they are paid to do.
- vosper 4y agoHaha, this is why sometimes people don't really like "five whys" - you can get to an uncomfortable place pretty quickly... Q1. Why was the service down for so long? A1: Because the on-call engineer didn't respond to the pager Q2: Why didn't the on-call engineer respond? A2: Because they're exhausted from being on-call so often since the team was downsized Q3: Why was the team downsized? A3: Because the manager's manager's manager is reducing headcount this year? Q4: Why is the manager's manager's manager reducing headcount? A4: Because they're trying to bring the departments spend down for the year Q5: Why are they trying to bring the spend down? A5: Because they know their boss, the CTO, is interviewing at the moment. And the CFO is golf buddies with the CEO, and the CFO is always going on about improving efficiency. So if the manager's manager's manager can reduce spend this year it'll look really efficient to the CFO, and maybe they can line-up that CTO role when their boss leaves. (sarcasm?)
- ausbah 4y agothere are better sources than DailyMail for news like this
- trpv 4y agoIf you think the source is bad for whatever reason, could you link some that you think are better?
- urbandw311er 4y agoIn case parent comment context is not clear, since it is UK-specific: the Daily Mail has a bit of a reputation in the Uk among some for being low quality and inflammatory.
- corbulo 4y agoBut is it good for the purposes of this article? It's not like its a wordpress or similar. I think the China in the cabinet will remain intact.
- bradleybuda 4y agoHere: https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/02/19/peabody-edi-deans-to-temporarily-step-back-following-chatgpt-crafted-message-about-msu-shooting/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/02/19/peabody-edi-deans-t...
- trpv 4y agoI don’t see how creating a prompt that includes all the main things you want to say is different than writing the whole essay yourself. Seems like about the same amount of time would have been put into each. I can’t think of a context where I would be upset about receiving a letter written by AI from uni administration/company/government, but I also use tools like CharGPT to help me communicate myself.
- jltsiren 4y agoThe text is not the message. There is a widespread cultural assumption that important messages should be delivered as personally as reasonably possible. People think that it shows proper respect and that the matter is important to you. In contrast, if you choose a more impersonal way of delivery, it signals that the topic is not particularly important to you as a person. Many people already think that emails like this are performative bullshit. If it's actual bullshit written by a bullshit generator, it's going to look even worse.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jdkee 4y ago"Samuel Lu, a sophomore, told the student paper: 'It’s hard to take a message seriously when I know that the sender didn’t even take the time to put their genuine thoughts and feelings into word. In times of tragedies such as this, we need more, not less humanity.' " Those Deans should be fired.
- web3-is-a-scam 4y agoOr maybe they shouldn’t insert the “citation” that they used ChatGPT to help edit their correspondence. Ignorance is bliss. This story is a huge nothingburger and the Dean did nothing wrong.
- notjulianjaynes 4y agoI have two theories here: 1. Is it possible that some tool was used which caused the 'citation' at the end was not visible to the person who sent the email? It appears to be an automatically generated thing. It would be much stranger if someone typed it out like that intentionally. 2. Much more cynically, there is otherwise nothing controversial about the email. Clearly ChatGPT is suitable for writing non-controversial platitudes like this. This news story is guerilla marketing targeted at lazy college deans.
- hprotagonist 4y agohttps://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/02/17/peabody-edi-office-responds-to-msu-shooting-with-email-written-using-chatgpt/ https://vanderbilthustler.com/2023/02/17/peabody-edi-office-... is a better link.
- jwilk 4y agoDiscussed 2 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34855265 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34855265 (> 80 comments)
- web3-is-a-scam 4y agoBut I was under the impression that ChatGPT would help people be more kind and compassionate in their correspondence if they struggled with that before? Wouldn’t someone start by creating some basic points about what they want to express and then edit the response? Isn’t ChatGPT supposed to be a “jumping off point” for these kinds of thing? Are people mad because the author was transparent about their use of editing tool? Should the Dean have been less transparent? I don’t put in my correspondence that I use spelling and grammar checks in Word, so why would you say you used ChatGPT?
- 8bitsrule 4y ago"Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization which is of course what this is all about." -- Agent Smith, 1999
- nfcampos 4y agoNot sure where I stand on this, but “do not judge a book by its cover” comes to mind
- dqpb 4y agoI understand why you would do this, but I don't understand why you would admit to it.
- LarsDu88 4y agoApparently it seems like their only mistake was being honest in giving credit to the AI. Less ethical dean's would've simply failed to mention it
- microtherion 4y ago"Paraphrase from ChatGPT" is the new "Thoughts and Prayers".
- reactspa 4y agoI'm heavily on the spectrum, and sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with using chat GPT to polish up communication. My guess is these deans too are heavily on the spectrum. Many times in my life what seemed normal and okay to me, was severely offensive to others. It's a cross I have to bear.
- ops 4y agoThe underlying technology is a threat to the Daily Mail and other publications like it.
- brhsagain 4y agoPublic comms are always a charade. In fact I’d go so far as to say I think communication in general is just a game where you try to say the right thing and create the right impression. Expecting “genuine feeling” from other people, much less from a public statement, is a big misunderstanding of how social interaction works. The dean who wrote this message doesn’t care about the students. She doesn’t know them. She’s fulfilling a role where she acts as a figurehead that students can project feelings of compassion onto. Like any other job, this one also involves some degree of drudgery, such as writing emails like this. It’s good that ChatGPT can make her life easier by automating that task. Her actual fault was accidentally admitting to it and ruining her image as a figurehead, which is her actual job. But if you’re looking for a referendum on the dangers of ChatGPT on society or something, this story isn’t it.
- cluedog12 4y agoYou it the nail on the head.
- im3w1l 4y agoI can understand why someone would think it's ok to use this tool, and I can understand why some people are upset by it. I hope that they will take a lenient approach in this case considering that the norms in this space haven't been firmly established yet, even if we ultimately decide that going forward communication of this magnitude has to be handwritten.
- roxgib 4y agoI'm very confused by how this occurred. Did the school implement a policy that it's okay to send out AI generated emails so long as the use of AI is disclosed? Did the sender not proofread the email and notice that it mentioned ChatGPT at the bottom? What other emails are being sent out without a human so much as bothering to look at them?
- cultofmetatron 4y agoI guess its starting... https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3576 https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3576
- cluedog12 4y agoThis episode is a great learning experience for the student body and the faculty. When I receive a communication from a senior official, my expectations are as follows: 1) the communication was probably written by someone else 2) the contents of the communication were reviewed and approved by the senior official If either of the associate deans (or a responsible intermediary, on behalf of the associate deans) had reviewed the communication, they would have made a note to remove the mention of ChatGPT. The outrage is completely justified, yet the communication itself would have been acceptable, if a human had written it. We should let this moment of outrage pass. Whether the junior person is prompting an AI model or copy-pasting the best bits from previous communications, the senior person's role remains unchanged.
- FrontierPsych 4y agoWow. Deans are much more computer and tech savvy than students. AI is the way of the future, and the deans are embracing the new technology. It's like cursive writing is not taught any more. Because things move on in technology. AI is the way of the future. We should all take full advantage of it in any circustance.