If you’re a Yale grad, you probably got an email recently from Election Services Co. with instructions for how to vote in the 2025 Yale Corporation Alumni Fellow Election. I’d highly recommend voting against the candidate named Jaime Teevan.
Neither of the two candidates addresses the Trump Administration’s attacks on higher education, which astounds me. But Teevan feels singularly wrong for the job to me because of her work in “A.i.” and her statements in her video about bringing “A.i.” to Yale.
In my opinion, the use of consumer-facing “A.i.” like LLMs actively undermines education. Writing is thinking, and LLMs cut people off from the process of writing and thus the process of thinking. LLMs also regularly produce disinformation, mediocrity, bigotry, and invented “facts.” It’s wrong on every level for Yale University to push this terrible technology on its students and faculty.
Furthermore, I’m a writer and visual artist. The biggest LLMs and generative “A.i.” tools have taken my work and the work of my colleagues without permission to fuel their systems. I’m not interested in having an Alumni Fellow who works for an industry that’s exploiting my work without permission.
If you agree with these critiques, please vote against Teevan in the Alumni Fellow Election. The deadline for voting is May 18. Thanks so much for your consideration.
