The gross disrespect of auto-generating this kind of email isn’t lost on me, but… this strikes me as exactly the type of thing that suffers very little by being auto-generated.
Every story surrounding gun violence already sounds like it could be written by ChatGPT. The same points regurgitated over and over.
You know, I think ChatGPT’s thoughts and prayers are probably just as helpful as my own.
There isn’t any gross disrespect in using ChatGPT that wasn’t already there in the torrent of these copy+pasted memos after tragedies.
The disrespect comes from corpos exploiting and indulging in these opportunities for moral posturing. Whether a dean or a COO in some company uses ChatGPT, Fiverr, or the cheapest intern they can find to write these ”heartfelt” messages, it’s really just as disrespectful.
A company is a tax entity, and it doesn’t need to posture politically or morally. Nor does it really care (or is capable of caring, as a tax entity) about these things. It’s interesting to see the outrage it causes when it slips out that companies don’t honestly care. As if they ever did, as if there is something natural about a legal entity having a sense of morality.
> The gross disrespect of auto-generating this kind of email isn’t lost on me
It's lost on me. If an important email could be sent out earlier thanks to tools that help in automation - then why not? Shall we go back to a time when carrier pigeons delivered handwritten notes? Do you share similar outrage for the word processor and the internet?
Probably why you would hate it if someone broke up with you over auto-generated SMS message, or if your partner used ChatGPT to write you a love letter, or a wedding speech?
The person is still making the decision to do those things, which is really the important part. And lets be honest, most people probably used Google for love letter or wedding speech ideas before. ChatGPT is just next step.
Also, when does it become personal? Is it a time thing? If the person went back and forth with ChatGPT crafting the text for an hour, is that long enough to claim personal?
Actually, the important part is appearance, not what happened. The fact that they used ChatGPT and announced it is the bad thing, because it makes it look even more trivial and unimportant to most people, regardless of the motivation behind it.
When does it become personal? When does a dosage of a toxin become toxic? It's a matter of degree, and using ChatGPT decreases the degree enough so that the probability of someone finding it in impersonal increases significantly.
I know a lot of engineers and science-minded types will see past it and not think it a big deal, but an averave person will see it very differently, and maybe that is made even more offensive because the average person does not even understand what ChatGPT is and sees it as a toy chat bot.
Every person in both the student body and the administration knows that nothing will be done to address this. There will be no action taken to reduce shootings. Since any apology letter is just mouthing lies, I feel like it's a sign of respect to tell people "here are some lies that a robot wrote about caring about you."
This doesn't suggest that ChatGPT is appropriate in this situation, but merely that the PR people produce is generally performative and meaningless. The solution is not to commit fully to the fluff.
People want to know actual people are living with them through tragedy. Prayers are worthless in this cold and uncaring universe, however, even a hardcore atheist like myself, I do not mind people saying it if they say it because they care. I don’t think most people who say it care as long as it’s not their family, as I don’t think most care about your cancer (pffffewww not me but sucks for you mate), I do think if a human takes time to write the sentiment it’s better than having chatgpt do it.
However, prayer has been intentionally used by one political party as a deliberate replacement for action when it comes to gun violence.
Prayer without action is… well, it’s hard to be diplomatic about it.
Anyway, in these conversations that’s where the dismissive was about “thoughts and prayers” comes from. The acts of thoughtfulness and prayer themselves are fine, but they get deliberately used to replace any action. Which is contemptible.
It’s a simple inert activity. One becomes functionally dormant for a period of time and returns to activity having done nothing material, in a literal sense.
Maybe someone can chime in, but aren’t these things normally written by like a pr team or assistant or something anyways? Or does the person in charge actually sit down and write out heartfelt emails like this? Maybe I’m just too jaded…
Every story surrounding gun violence already sounds like it could be written by ChatGPT. The same points regurgitated over and over.
You know, I think ChatGPT’s thoughts and prayers are probably just as helpful as my own.