{"id":200169,"date":"2026-10-29T11:44:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=200169"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:45:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:45:04","slug":"het-ai-gebruik-door-het-chatvb-gaat-tegen-alles-in-waar-deze-universiteit-voor-staat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2026\/10\/29\/het-ai-gebruik-door-het-chatvb-gaat-tegen-alles-in-waar-deze-universiteit-voor-staat\/","title":{"rendered":"The acceptance of AI by the \u2018ChatvB\u2019 contradicts everything this university stands for"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSonja Schravesande<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Surely I am naive to be shocked by EM\u2019s revealing that the Executive Board (CvB) regularly uses \u2018AI\u2019 to write its speeches. Well, I choose naivety, and I deploy a truly \u2018Erasmian value\u2019 here, the one the CvB has thus far completely ignored in its promotion of such values: mockery<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members of the \u2018ChatvB\u2019 (or \u2018ClaudevB\u2019, the \u2018CvBrainless\u2019, \u2018Executive Bot\u2019\u2026 take your pick), have for years fed \u2018AI\u2019-paranoia. They have rendered it next to impossible for us to ask students to write, as this paranoia was translated by educational management and exam committees into pressure on teachers like myself to use different evaluation formats. These same people now casually impart that, actually, they use \u2018AI\u2019 because they simply don\u2019t have the time to write. This admission comes only after<\/em> they\u2019re unmasked as impostors; the automated speeches contained no disclosure of what the rector calls this \u201cuseful tool\u201d and the Estonian president wasn\u2019t told he was listening to machine excrement. While it is at least out in the open that the ChatvB prefers brainless chatter over intelligence, at stake here is the credibility of the university\u2019s aim for \u2018positive impact\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with the brainless chatter. If \u2018AI\u2019 is a \u2018useful tool\u2019, that is surely because it allows the ChatvB to get to brainless bullshit quicker<\/em>. Indeed, why waste time producing empty signifiers like \u2018excellence\u2019 or \u2018impact\u2019? Why study<\/em> before spitting out fluffy sentences regarding \u2018academic freedom\u2019? (On this topic I offered the ChatvB assistance last year, but I now understand their preference for working with robots). That humans are in the loop makes matters worse: their syntax surviving, brainless bots are apparently equivalent to this kind of human leadership. But surely, you may think, we need compassion for people under pressure? Indeed. For students and teachers. Not for \u2018leaders\u2019 who are, after all, supposed to lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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\n\t\tAnyone who has done some serious reading on \u2018AI\u2019 should by now know that \u2018AI\u2019 is neither artificial nor intelligent\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who has done some serious reading on \u2018AI\u2019 should by now know that \u2018AI\u2019 is neither artificial nor intelligent. We\u2019re dealing with brainless statistical syntax machines, built on lots of human labor. The dominant connectionist paradigm of \u2018AI\u2019 means the concentration of technology and capital in a few companies with the capacity to scrape huge amounts of unfiltered data, for which they need: 1. Cheap, exploitative and traumatizing labor for data annotation and labelling, often found in the Global South; 2. Huge amounts of electricity and water, often also at the expense of poor communities in the Global South. People who know what they\u2019re talking about, like Iris van Rooij (Radboud University), therefore emphasize that what passes for artificial intelligence is in fact a highly unethical practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acceptance of \u2018AI\u2019 as a \u2018useful tool\u2019 contradicts everything this university claims to stand for: \u201cpositive societal impact,\u201d or \u201ca positive and sustainable contribution to solving (\u2026) complex societal challenges\u201d (I\u2019m actually not sure if one \u2018solves\u2019 a challenge, but I won\u2019t argue with bots). To use \u2018AI\u2019 is to participate in exploitation and extraction. It fills the coffers of fascist corporate elites. It\u2019s everything one should not<\/em> do if \u2018positive impact\u2019 has even an ounce of meaning. That\u2019s why the attitude of Rens Bod, cited in EM<\/a>, is so pernicious: \u201cIf you say that you use AI and you don\u2019t plagiarise by accident, then I personally have no problem with it.\u201d Well, there\u2019s a planetary<\/em> problem here, Rens. But wait, is it Bod or Bot?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who concoct \u2018AI\u2019 provide clues that it is not conducive to good relations on and with the Earth. They keep warning us of the potential annihilation of humanity they help bring about. They\u2019re obviously fishing for venture capital, but any sane person would conclude these people are delusional and\/or downright dangerous. Not the members of the ChatvB who, unfortunately like so many people seeking refuge from intelligence, simply go: \u2018Huh! Useful tool!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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\n\t\tAfter multiple platform-dependencies and giving Microsoft control of our labor, the ChatvB now uncritically accepts the marketed inevitability of \u2018AI\u2019.\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the Western way of life always means pissing on other people and the planet. That is how we\u2019re infrastructurally wired. But that is not yet the case for \u2018AI\u2019: nothing is inescapable here. The ChatvB contributes to a false technological determinism when decisions need to be made regarding how the university relates to brainless syntax machines. After multiple platform-dependencies and giving Microsoft control of our labor, the ChatvB now uncritically accepts the marketed inevitability of \u2018AI\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is on fire in so many ways, but the ChatvB descends from semantics to syntax, from meaning to brainless bullshit. Mind you, the ChatvB will increasingly be spitting out speeches regarding academic-military collaboration \u2013 a brainless effort to begin with, but even more dangerous if bots produce the syntax. Meanwhile, all connection to life<\/em> is lost underneath hollow \u2018impact\u2019 slogans that, it turns out, a brainless syntax machine can just as easily produce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, why not practice thoughtful selectivity in networked dependency? More than ever, disconnecting<\/em> from predatory platforms and fascist \u2018AI\u2019 phantasmagoria is what we, staff and students, need to learn. Call me naive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

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Een lijst met artikelen<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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