The news hook for this piece is Cal State University’s renewal of its contract w/ OpenAI. The CSU system is purchasing ChatGPT Edu licenses for three years at a cost of $39 million.
Remarkably enough, AI centrism is the leading rationale for this venture
t.co/2pqqHuEEZE
Big ups also to "the Marthas" - @heavyredaction.bsky.social, Martha Kenney - and all the honorary Marthas who've been standing up to to the system. #JeSuisMartha @carmendarlene.bsky.social #NousSommesTousMarthas
I appreciate the work of @heavyredaction.bsky.social, who is mentioned in the article! There is no justification for this level of spending on AI at a time of austerity and department closures.
A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/m...
This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and …
As the administration has claimed, “AI is here to stay” and is “fundamentally changing how people learn, work and solve problems.”
As their logic goes, the CSU thus has no choice but to spend $55 million over four years on a commercial chatbot whose educational benefits are unproven
W/ my colleague Martha Kenney, new piece on what we call “AI centrism” — a position that claims to split the difference btw genAI boosterism and detraction, but still leads to its acceptance and use.
E.g.:
- “We will use AI ethically/responsibly/thoughtfully”
- “We will keep a human in the loop”
W/ my colleague Martha Kenney, new piece on what we call “AI centrism” — a position that claims to split the difference btw genAI boosterism and detraction, but still leads to its acceptance and use.
E.g.:
- “We will use AI ethically/responsibly/thoughtfully”
- “We will keep a human in the loop”
I see AI centrism as the tip of the spear for the genAI industry and its larger ideological project. AI centrists imagine that there is a middle ground in this debate, and that the middle ground permits genAI use instead of forbidding it.
C.f. other forms of “reactionary centrism”
