[HN Gopher] College deans suspended after ChatGPT used to email ...
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College deans suspended after ChatGPT used to email students about
mass shooting
Author : hammock
Score : 39 points
Date : 2023-02-21 20:27 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.dailymail.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.dailymail.co.uk)
| felipemesquita wrote:
| If 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".
| loandbehold wrote:
| Yes, nobody would know. They weren't trying to hide it.
| politician wrote:
| My 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.
| gedy wrote:
| This is the mind boggling part. What were they thinking? Was
| this copy pasta from OpenAI and didn't proof read it?
| fshbbdssbbgdd wrote:
| University 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.
| smittywerben wrote:
| They're just citing their source LOL!
| welshwelsh wrote:
| That'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 wrote:
| With "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 wrote:
| that'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.
| bitmover wrote:
| The Blackberry had "Sent via Blackberry" before iPhones
| exsisted.
| trpv wrote:
| Maybe a little bit less sinister than that. Just a way to
| promote the product in every email originating from their
| devices
| jemmyw wrote:
| Regardless 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.
| [deleted]
| kayodelycaon wrote:
| Even though I could change it, I never bothered to remove
| the default signature. It works pretty well as a disclaimer
| because most people don't bother to remove it. Therefore,
| you're able to signal you're not replying in an optimal
| manner without the other person feeling slighted.
| mc32 wrote:
| To 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)
| unheardPartner wrote:
| Maybe they thought it would be worse if someone found out and
| it was exposed that they didn't cite their source.
| kolinko wrote:
| It's not a source in this case - if I understand correctly,
| they used ChatGPT to rewrite a message written by them.
| trpv wrote:
| I 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
| throwaway89201 wrote:
| For clarity, as multiple replies seem to take this as a
| proofreading mistake: ChatGPT doesn't output such a phrase
| unless explicitly asked to.
| bluenose69 wrote:
| Perhaps tellingly, the DailyMail article calls the office of
| "Equity, Diversity and Inclusion" as the office of "Equity,
| Diversion and Inclusion".
| [deleted]
| Animats wrote:
| That "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.
| jdkee wrote:
| "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.
| readingnews wrote:
| I 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.
| ausbah wrote:
| there are better sources than DailyMail for news like this
| trpv wrote:
| If you think the source is bad for whatever reason, could you
| link some that you think are better?
| urbandw311er wrote:
| In 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.
| trpv wrote:
| I 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.
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