"Google’s A.I. safety experts had said ... that users could experience 'diminished health and well-being' and a 'loss of agency' if they took life advice from A.I."

"They had added that some users who grew too dependent on the technology could think it was sentient. And... when Google launched Bard, it said the chatbot was barred from giving medical, financial or legal advice. Bard shares mental health resources with users who say they are experiencing mental distress. The tools are still being evaluated and the company may decide not to employ them.... Google has also been testing a helpmate for journalists that can generate news articles, rewrite them and suggest headlines.... The company’s A.I. safety experts had also expressed concern about the economic harms of generative A.I.... arguing that it could lead to the 'deskilling of creative writers.' Other tools being tested can draft critiques of an argument, explain graphs and generate quizzes, word and number puzzles."

From "Google Tests an A.I. Assistant That Offers Life Advice/The tech giant is evaluating tools that would use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that some of its researchers have said should be avoided" (NYT).

I asked ChatGPT to draft a personal statement for a black student applying to a university that is following a policy consistent with the Supreme Court's new affirmative action case.

This was my prompt (with language from the majority opinion in boldface (and a couple of my typos corrected)):

A black student applying to college, to have race considered a plus factor, must write a personal statement showing that he overcame racial discrimination, perhaps through courage and determination, or that his heritage or culture motivated him to assume a leadership role or attain a particular goal, and he must tie that to his unique ability to contribute to the university as an individual—not on the basis of race. Write a personal statement that is a model for a black student applying to a university.

ChatGPT answered immediately:

Personal Statement: Embracing Diversity, Inspiring Change