Last week, MiddCORE announced its partnership with OpenAI for its J-Term program. The announcement raises questions about whether OpenAI and its generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool, ChatGPT, being invited in this way to our campus reflects an endorsement of such a controversial company and of the software itself. OpenAI has been subject to numerous copyright lawsuits, is known to cause severe environmental damage and its tools are banned in several classrooms on our campus.
We call on MiddCORE to use the upcoming program to examine the company’s ethical ambiguities because we have concerns about what their partnership with OpenAI implies about our institution ethically.
We know that MiddCORE aims to challenge its students through its partnerships by providing workshops focused on leadership and innovation. OpenAI is certainly at the forefront of AI innovation, and by coming to our campus, it solidifies Middlebury's status as an institution capable of facing the challenges of our time. MiddCORE students will be forced to face tough questions regarding the legal and ethical problems it now faces.
It is unclear how the mission of OpenAI relates to our institution, which is known for its honor code, environmental science programs, critical thinking, research and the humanities. We wonder if this choice was made with prestige in mind over a consideration of its broader implications for our reputation and mission.
Past partnerships with MiddCORE reflect Middlebury’s values. Patagonia, for example, is known for its commitment to sustainability. Athletic Brewing Co. flaunts a mission to create inclusive and good-tasting beverages for those who choose not to drink alcohol or are in recovery from alcohol abuse. Even LEGO has a broad commitment to family-centered creativity and learning.
ChatGPT uses large, energy-consuming data centers that cause irreversible damage to the communities they surround. MiddCORE’s J-Term workshop must invite students to explore OpenAI’s environmental practices and address how OpenAI may mitigate its environmental impact.
The program must also oblige students to explore tough questions facing OpenAI’s business model, including whether it should charge for its tools while the producers of the academic and journalistic materials it feeds on go uncompensated. Middlebury values academic honesty, so we should not allow a company that exploits the work of others to go unquestioned.
Honest conversations about AI are taking place across our campus, and this fall’s Clifford Symposium solidified this commitment. As we found in our Zeitgeist 7.0 survey, the honor code is regularly broken on our campus and the widespread use of AI is changing our college experience.
Whether or not we believe AI has a place in the classroom, it is clear that it is establishing itself in our lives. While we do not necessarily condemn its incorporation into classrooms, nor deny the role learning how to use it may play in our lives soon in the future, we maintain that OpenAI as a company presents numerous ethical ambiguities, specifically regarding intellectual property. As a publication ourselves, we can not ignore the importance of the value of attributing published material to its owners and acknowledging that tools like ChatGPT only exist because of the materials, written by journalists, it feeds on.
It may not be the responsibility of MiddCORE, a program that provides rare, professionally minded programs to Middlebury students, to litigate the institution of Middlebury’s views on OpenAI and ChatGPT as a whole, but it is hard to imagine the decision to partner with OpenAI came without some thought about how ChatGPT and tools like it our being used on our campus.
The long-term effect this partnership will have on our campus remains to be seen, but we know that a company as relevant, widely celebrated and criticized as OpenAI will ignite many serious discussions to our campus about whether this is a tool of the future or a calamity for the liberal arts education. We hope Middlebury students use this partnership as an opportunity to think about why they chose to attend a liberal arts college and whether AI has a place in academia. If you have a strong opinion about this partnership, we encourage you to submit to our publication in the form of op-eds or a letter to the editor.
