At First Things, I’m writing about Chat-GPT and cheating in college. The core problem—students only have a reason to cheat if they think they have no need to learn.
The cheating began with university administrators, when they started to substitute a credentialing process for an actual commitment to the formation of a particular kind of student. It’s no surprise that college administrators have already been caught using ChatGPT themselves—after all, many university mission statements are bland enough to be algorithmically generated from a few bullet points and buzzwords. They don’t exist to animate the mission of the university but to fill up enough column inches on a website.
At Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, administrators were even caught turning to ChatGPT to write a condolence note to the student body in the wake of a mass shooting at another school. The administrators apologized, but upon examining the note, it’s easy to see why they turned to AI. The bland corporatese of “we must reflect on the impact of such an event and take steps to ensure that we are doing our best to create a safe and inclusive environment for all” is the work of a human trying to erase any trace of humanity.
The Underground Grammarian would have endorsed this entire piece (though in a much more acid tone).