A college professor suspended for using ChatGPT to write a commiseration letter over a mass shooting is a super-woke critical race theorist who says the author of White Fragility is ‘like a sister’ to her.’
Nicole Joseph’s ultra-progressive politics and positions have come to the fore since she was ousted from her role as associate dean at Vanderbilt University. She was given the boot for using artificial intelligence software to write a letter decrying the February 13 shooting at Michigan State University that killed three.
The 52-year-old has built a career at the Nashville, Tennessee University researching how black women and girls develop their identity and how ‘whiteness’ and ‘white supremacy’ operate to influence that.
In a 2019 seminar, the embattled professor spoke to the experiences of black women and girls in mathematics and how it remains a ‘understudied line of inquiry.’
She also hailed Robin DiAngelo – the highly-controversial author of ultra-woke ‘self-help’ book White Fragility – as ‘like a sister to me.’
Suspended Vanderbilt University associate dean, Nicole Joseph, is a critical race theorist and has lauded the work of ‘White Fragility’ author Robin DiAngelo
Joseph talks to the culture of mathematics and how it has been built on a platform of oppression of ‘whiteness’
Joseph, 52, stepped down from her role with the Peabody Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion while it ‘reviews’ an incident, in which she along with assistant Dean Hasina Mohyuddin, used AI software ChatGPT to write a commiseration letter.
While the letter in the wake of the horrific shooting at Michigan State University (MSU) was written sensitively, students were outraged to find it wasn’t written by a human.
‘We know very little about how they experience mathematics teaching and learning,’ the description reads.
‘The aim of this interactive talk is to problematize and interrogate the current circumstances surrounding black women and girls in mathematics that deny them access, power, participation, and opportunity to develop mathematics identities.’
In the talk, Joseph identifies herself as a ‘critical scholar’ and ‘pedagogue’ which she defines as a person who ‘thinks about teaching and learning.’
‘I also consider myself an activist,’ said Joseph during the seminar.
The 52-year-old prides herself of the care and consideration of her work and the students who she teaches going on to note the number of projects that she has spearheaded to help black women and girls in STEM programs.
‘I just want to keep my feet to the ground as a tenure-track faculty member at a research one institution,’ she said.
‘So [I do this] just to sort of keep myself grounded.’
Joseph went on to talk to the culture of mathematics and how it has been built on a platform of oppression.
‘I really want to talk about the culture of mathematics and how that culture really is embedded in whiteness and white supremacy,’ she said.
‘We’re going to talk about the word white supremacy, because what I find is people are scared of that word and are scared to use that word.
‘They have these ideas of that I’m talking about the Ku Klux Klan, well yes that is white supremacy, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
‘I’m talking about everyday decisions that we make in our classrooms, our admissions decisions, in the decisions on who we invite [to be] a manuscript author.’
She then goes on to talk about White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo.
The 52-year-old herself lives in a four bedroom, four bathroom mansion in Nashville, Tennessee costing with an estimated cost of $675,000
The Nashville property boasts a large lawn and lavish interiors
The book White Fragility talks to ‘how to be an anti-racist’ and is authored by Robin DiAngelo
‘Robin DiAngelo is an incredible scholar, who writes about white fragility, what it means to be white, she is really like a sister to me,’ she said.
She uses DiAngelo as a footing to explain why some people find it ‘hard to do things’ when making decisions about social justice and equity.
‘Because I’m not a Marxian I’m going to end on some hope,’ she said.
The 52-year-old herself lives in a four bedroom, four bathroom mansion in Nashville, Tennessee costing with an estimated cost of $675,000, according to Zillow.
Joseph poised herself as a caring and politically astute educator but shockingly did not translate this sensitivity when writing to students of the Vanderbilt University in the wake of the Michigan shooting tragedy.
It remains unclear why Joseph along with Mohyuddin and graduate assistant, Chengxi Zhu, chose to generate the letter which was, albeit, heartfelt rather than putting time in to write it themselves.
Following the incident, Joseph sent a follow up apology email to the Peabody community obtained by student paper Vanderbilt Hustler which stated that they’d used ‘poor judgment.’
‘While we believe in the message of inclusivity expressed in the email, using ChatGPT to generate communications on behalf of our community in a time of sorrow and in response to a tragedy contradicts the values that characterize Peabody College,’ it reads.
‘As with all new technologies that affect higher education, this moment gives us all an opportunity to reflect on what we know and what we still must learn about AI.’
Just days after the incident Vanderbilt University’s Data Science Institute hosted a ‘lunchtime information session’ titled ‘Understanding ChatGPT.’
‘ChatGPT marks a groundbreaking step forward in artificial intelligence beyond the impressive technology, the program is generating controversy and conversation about its impact on academia,’ the description reads.
‘Vanderbilt University’s Data Science Institute is hosting a lunchtime information session entitled Understanding ChatGPT from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 20th, in Alumni Hall, Room 202.’
It remains unclear whether the session was spurred by the recent ChatGPT scandal which has rocked the university campus.
DailyMail.com has approached Joseph, Mohyuddin, Zhu and the University for comment.
It has not been confirmed, who sent the initial ChatGPT prompt, or what wording had been used to generate the email.
On Feb 16, Joseph signed off on an email to students reminding them to ‘take care of each other’ after the tragedy that hit MSU.
The two deans who signed off on the email – Nicole Joseph (left) and Hasina Mohyuddin (right) – have temporarily stepped down while the Peabody EDI office ‘reviews’ the situation
On February 16, the Vanderbilt’s Peabody Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion sent students an email reminding them to ‘take care of each other’ after the MSU shooting
Although the email came off as kind and caring, at the very bottom, it revealed it wasn’t written by a human. ‘Paraphrase from OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, February 15, 2023,’ it read
Vanderbilt University has since apologized for using artificial intelligence to write a 297-word email to students after the MSU shooting.
The long letter was signed off by two deans – Joseph and Mohyuddin. But the line at the bottom of the letter caused outrage among students.
‘Paraphrase from OpenAI’s ChatGPT AI language model, personal communication, February 15, 2023,’ it read.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence software that is capable of producing large amounts of text by giving the generator writing suggestions, where it pulls from ten of thousands of datasets to produce written content.
The email caused disgust among students, including Laith Kayat, who is from Michigan and has a sister who attends MSU.
‘There is a sick and twisted irony to making a computer write your message about community and togetherness because you can’t be bothered to reflect on it yourself,’ he told the Vanderbilt Hustler, the student newspaper.
Vanderbilt senior Laith Kayat, whose sister also attends MSU, said using ChatGPT to write a sensitive note was, ‘disgusting’.
‘[Administrators] only care about perception and their institutional politics of saving face,’ he continued. ‘Deans, provosts, and the chancellor: Do more. Do anything. And lead us into a better future with genuine, human empathy, not a robot.’
Samuel Lu, a sophomore, told the student paper: ‘It’s hard to take a message seriously when I know that the sender didn’t even take the time to put their genuine thoughts and feelings into word. In times of tragedies such as this, we need more, not less humanity.’
Benbow claimed the ‘development and distribution’ of the email ‘did not follow Peabody’s normal processes,’ nor was she or other university administrators aware of the email ‘before it was sent.’
Benbow insisted she remains ‘personally saddened by the loss of life and injuries at Michigan State’ and was so ‘deeply troubled that a communication from my administration so missed the crucial need for personal connection and empathy during a time of tragedy.’
Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, killed three students on February 13 at MSU before turning the gun on himself.
He terrorized the students for four hours on campus, killing Brian Fraser, 20, Arielle Diamond Anderson, 19, and Alexandria ‘Alex’ Verner.
Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, killed three students Feb 13 at MSU before turning gun on himself
Alexandria ‘Alex’ Verner, a 2020 graduate of Clawson High School, was a biology and anthropology junior at MSU and set to graduate in 2024.
Brian Fraser, 20, graduated from Grosse Pointe South and was studying business at MSU.
Flavor of Love reality TV star Deelishis revealed her niece, Arielle Diamond Anderson, 19, was the third victim.
The three were killed and five others were injured when McRae opened fire at 8.18pm.
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