SURF gives webinar on ChatGPT

"Many lecturers and educational staff combine teaching, research and administrative tasks," says SURF as it cheerfully announces the webinar. "How can AI help educators to complete these tasks more efficiently and effectively? In this presentation, OpenAI will share insights about the possibilities of AI in education and research."

OpenAI is the American company that created ChatGPT. A spokesperson for SURF says the organisation invited the company. "The webinar will demonstrate how teachers, staff and students can personalise Chat GPT, with real use cases."

Dominance
Critics are flabbergasted that SURF didn't say a single word about the European ambition to become independent of American tech companies. The organisation doesn't say anything about the damage caused by generative AI in education and research, either. 

They wonder if SURF even knows about the European and even Dutch alternatives. "Apparently, trying to become independent of Big Tech remains a challenge for SURF," writes Frank Benneker, IT advisor at the University of Amsterdam, on LinkedIn.

European academics have been concerned about the dominance of American tech companies for years. The rectors of all universities in the Netherlands once wrote a joint op-ed for the newspaper De Volkskrant arguing that things had to change. The op-ed was published over five years ago, but little has changed since then.

Five to midnight
The Dutch dependence on American software has been increasing rather than decreasing. A week ago, experts explained once again to the House of Representatives that "it's five to midnight in terms of digital dependence." IT expert Bert Hubert: "If Americans no longer like us, all technology here will come to a standstill."

Hubert was mainly talking about the Senate and House of Representatives, which have switched to Microsoft's cloud software, following in the footsteps of several educational institutions. Therefore, his criticism also applies to education.

Schizophrenic
Asked about SURF's webinar, Bert Hubert says it is shocking that SURF is helping to make ChatGPT socially acceptable in education. "They are basically working to solidify American hegemony in this field, making it harder for us to pursue our own initiatives. SURF should know that, of all people."

However, Hubert is not exactly surprised. He says this is typical. "SURF is a bit of a schizophrenic organisation. Half of it is trying to build things itself and become more independent, while the other half is busy pushing everything towards the US."

Two tracks
SURF spokesperson Tom Hoven calls it a "two-track policy". According to him, the organisation is aware of the risks posed by ChatGPT, but the tool is already widely used. "We want to help educational and research institutions use ChatGPT responsibly."

He adds that SURF's attitude towards OpenAI is not uncritical. For example, the organisation wants to carry out a thorough privacy check on ChatGPT, which the spokesperson says is no formality. Competitor Microsoft did not pass the inspection, which is why SURF warns against using Microsoft's Copilot.

However, this test has little to do with dependency and other problems. If OpenAI passes the inspection, it will suddenly become a lot easier for the company to sell its software to colleges and universities.

Debate
Hoven is not surprised that the higher education sector is debating about this. After all, SURF does that internally too. "We have a department that deals with contracts with suppliers, and another department that deals with public values, such as digital autonomy. This naturally leads to a debate. It is a balancing act."