Carl T. BergstromFeb 21, 2023

In the 2014 World Cup, footballer Luis Suarez ran across the pitch and, off the ball, bit Giorgio Chiellini in the neck.

It was one of those absolutely WTF moments where you can't imagine what someone could possibly be thinking.

I call these sorts of choices "Luis Suarez moments."

Until I suffered an unfortunate stint in a higher education administrative role, I had no idea that this sort of thing was so common off the field as well.

Not biting, mind you. Just absolute WTF actions.

Show threadCarl T. BergstromFeb 21, 2023

This past week, an administrator at Vanderbilt University had a very serious Luis Suarez moment.

You see, it fell to them to write the students a message of support in the aftermath of the MSU mass shooting. They somehow decided that it would be a good idea to let ChatGPT write the message for them.

And then, with perverse scrupulosity, they ADDED THIS TEXT TO THE EMAIL:

“Paraphrase from OpenAI's ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, February 15, 2023.”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pocharaponneammanee/vanderbilt-email-chatgpt-ai-msu-shooting

Vanderbilt University Staff Used ChatGPT To Write Email On MSU Shooting

An associate dean at Vanderbilt told the student newspaper it was “poor judgment.”

BuzzFeed News
Show threadNamneziaFeb 21, 2023
@ct_bergstrom You know, I can sympathize. Sometimes folks struggle to find the right words to express a sentiment and struggle on how to best translate what they feel and want to say into actual words, especially in a moment of grief. So I really don’t blame this person in using tools at hand to generate words that expressed what they wanted to say. And at least they were honest about their use. I am terrible at writing these types of emails myself.
Show threadLotus

@Namnezia @ct_bergstrom I think the issue is more that it conveys a lot of insincerity and that they couldnt care much. Going against the entire point of making these statements.

More importantly, these are people trained in communications and easily couldve given someone else the task if they were grieving, etc.

Feb 21, 2023 at 5:15amWeb
Show threadCharo del GenioFeb 22, 2023
@LotusHopper @Namnezia @ct_bergstrom what makes you think they actually care at all, beyond possible repercussions on student intake numbers and, consequently, company income?
Show threadNamneziaFeb 23, 2023
@ct_bergstrom @paraw @LotusHopper For the most part, all the deans I interact with regularly care a lot about the students and really go out of their way to look after their wellbeing.