This post was originally published on this site.
The Chancellor’s Office recently announced a public-private initiative to make the CSU the first A.I.-powered university. In a time of severe budget cuts, program closures, restructuring, layoffs, and mismanagement, the CSU’s administrators continue to confuse and disappoint. Administrators continue to invest university resources to launch initiatives with little to no input from faculty, students, and staff. The announcement – and its lack of detail – is so disturbing.Â
We are deeply appreciative of the many members who responded to our All-Faculty message regarding the Chancellor’s A I announcement, thanking us for our message and presenting many of the concerns we share here.
We are concerned about the life-threatening carbon emissions AI produces and the disproportionate impact on communities of color all over the planet. While the Chancellor promises students a future, embracing AI threatens their future by exacerbating the climate emergency and recklessly neglecting our stewardship of the planet. Our members know that climate justice is racial justice, gender justice, disability justice, immigrant justice, and more.
While we recognize there are multiple perspectives on the use of A.I., we have significant concerns about faculty jobs, academic freedom, intellectual property, and surveillance. Any integration and use of A.I. in the classroom must be led by faculty, not by administrators and tech companies. Faculty should have the power to decide how and whether to use these tools and should not be subject to repercussions for using A.I. in responsible ways, nor for refusing to use it.
A.I. models have repeatedly been used to create racist imagery, perpetuate racial discrimination in policing. The CSU does not need an even more racist campus police system. Last month The Washington Post released an investigation indicating how eight people were wrongfully arrested in the United States after being identified through flawed and often racist A.I. powered facial recognition software. The investigation details how 29-year-old Christopher Gatlin, a Black man, was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. It took Gailtin two arduous years to clear his name.
In these difficult times, CSU administrators need to do more than turn The People’s University into an A.I. University.