This 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.
If a junior employee was to write up job descriptions for all of the roles on the org chart, what would the CTO's role and responsibilities be? They hired you to run the engineering department, so the CTO could focus on other work. What is that other work? Is that work enough to keep the CTO fully engaged? Is the CTO the right person for that role? The CEO has acknowledged there is a problem. If the CEO understands why the CTO is checked out, the CEO can engage you in the solution. It's their responsibility though.
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.