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Vanderbilt University's Peabody College Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion sent an email to students regarding the Michigan State University mass shooting that was drafted using ChatGPT. The email was widely criticized by students as impersonal and disrespectful, leading to an apology from the university and the temporary resignation of two deans from their EDI responsibilities. The incident highlighted the perceived inappropriateness of using AI to generate communications during times of tragedy.
Vanderbilt University's Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion used ChatGPT to write an email addressing student body about the 2023 Michigan State University shooting, which was condemned as "impersonal" and "lacking empathy".
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Users anthropomorphizing, trusting, or relying on AI systems, leading to emotional or material dependence and inappropriate relationships with or expectations of AI systems. Trust can be exploited by malicious actors (e.g., to harvest personal information or enable manipulation), or result in harm from inappropriate use of AI in critical situations (e.g., medical emergency). Overreliance on AI systems can compromise autonomy and weaken social ties.
Also classified as
The automation of grief and empathy devalued the expected human effort and sincerity required in times of tragedy.
The incident represents an inappropriate reliance on an AI system by university administrators to generate a message requiring genuine human empathy and personal connection during a tragedy.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident arose because university staff intentionally chose to use a deployed AI system to draft a sensitive email, resulting in an unexpected public backlash.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Psychological Harm, Direct)
Vanderbilt University administrators used OpenAI's ChatGPT to draft a condolence email following a mass shooting, sparking student outrage over the perceived lack of empathy. The incident represents a localized public relations issue and organizational failure regarding AI overreliance, carrying negligible implications for national security.
The AI system acted as an Assistant, generating a draft of the condolence letter based on user prompts to help the administrators communicate. The reports state that the email was a 'paraphrase from OpenAI's ChatGPT' and was signed off by human deans, indicating it was used to augment human writing rather than acting autonomously.
Risk Level 3: Limited Risk. The system used is ChatGPT, a chatbot. According to the EU AI Act definitions, chatbots and systems that generate text require transparency obligations to notify users that they are interacting with an AI or that the content is AI-generated.
The AI system was used as a writing assistant to draft and paraphrase a condolence letter for the university administration.
The reports are highly consistent, detailed, and come from multiple reputable news sources as well as the student newspaper. The facts of the incident—including the text of the email, the footnote, the reactions of the students, and the subsequent administrative actions—are clear and undisputed.
None
Technology
Lack of Emotional Intelligence
AI lacks empathy and judgment needed for tragedy communications.
Model Inaccuracies
AI generated factual errors like 'recent Michigan shootings' in plural.
Generic Text Generation
AI produced sterile, platitudinous, and boilerplate text lacking nuance.
Data Inputs
Lack of Specific Context
AI was not trained on real-time event details, leading to generic outputs.
Outdated Training Data
Model lacked up-to-date knowledge of current events of the past two years.
Human Factors
Poor Human Judgment
Deans decided to outsource a sensitive, sorrowful letter to a chatbot.
Desire to Save Time
Administrators used AI to quickly generate text instead of self-reflecting.
Lack of AI Literacy
Staff did not grasp the emotional inappropriateness of using AI for grief.
Process and Methods
Bypassed Review Processes
The email did not go through the normal multiple layers of review.
Inadequate AI Guidelines
No clear procedures or policies existed for using AI in official emails.
Lack of Safety Checks
No verification was done to ensure the message met community standards.
Management
Lack of Administrative Oversight
Higher-ups were completely unaware of the email before it was distributed.
Focus on Public Relations
Prioritized quick face-saving communication over genuine human connection.
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
