Thanks to its ever-growing base of knowledge input by users, the artificial intelligence chatbot known as ChatGPT can be used in a myriad of ways.
There are some uses that seem like common sense to avoid, but the Peabody Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) at Vanderbilt University missed that memo when its office sent out a letter on Feb. 15 to students about an on-campus shooting that resulted in three student deaths, five injuries, and a four-hour shelter-in-place order.
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The letter concluded with a small disclaimer reading "Paraphrase from OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, February 15, 2023". It was signed by the college’s two associate deans and a graduate student for the EDI office.
On Feb. 17, the campus newspaper called out the email for its unfeeling, cold response to a traumatic event following what many students viewed as an overly-short recovery period before returning to classes.
After the email's dry tone came under scrutiny, the Dean of Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development Camilla Benbow issued a "heartfelt apology" and claimed that "the university’s administrators, including myself, were unaware of the email before it was sent."
The letter also says that Associate Dean Joseph and Assistant Dean Hasina Mohyuddin will step back from their responsibilities in the EDI department as a result.
