On The Governance of LLMs, and The University (of Chicago)

Sometimes people that know and like each other, and that would never employ snark with each other, can still talk entirely past each other online. Carlo Ludovico Cordasco (Sheffield) wrote a fruitful and prudent sub-stack post (here) on the ‘longstanding debate on AI and deskilling.’ As he notes it was prompted by my Kvetching about a 2 June announcement by The University of Chicago’s President that it has a contract with Anthropic to give all of its students, and all of its staff and faculty, full access to Claude Enterprise. Now, I viewed that announcement by Paul Alivisatos (the University President) the way I interpret many of that university’s public announcements during the last two decades: as a cynical, branding ploy aiming to keep the university in the eyes of influencers who may alert full tuition paying parents that they should send their kids to the UofC. In my view, in its public communication, the university has stopped trying to be the academy for would-be-academics and…