Courtesy | Unsplash
Hillsdale prides itself on being different: No government funding, a small student body, and a mandatory logic class.
We can add rejection of artificial intelligence as a replacement for human creativity to that list. Professors have different rules regarding the use of AI, but all of them rightly forbid students from using it to compose our papers.
The college’s marketing department takes a different approach. It released a video Jan. 25 promoting online courses. In a spin-off of the viral “nihilistic penguin,” the video features a penguin who diverges from his colony and finds his way into a human camp in the Antarctic.
What starts out as a documentary-like scene quickly becomes an obvious invention of AI as the penguin scrolls on a computer and navigates to Hillsdale’s online course website and begins his education.
While the video’s concept is clever and charming, it’s disappointing to see the college turn to AI for the execution.
The college marketing team told The Collegian it chose to capitalize on the penguin meme to promote the online courses. While the concept, script, and editing were handled by a team member, the video clips were created via generative AI.
Hillsdale professors require academic and creative originality of their students. Through most professors’ strict AI policies, we have learned the beauty of thinking for ourselves rather than pawning off the duties to a robot. If the college’s professors don’t accept AI, neither should its marketing team.
While the marketing team said using technology in this instance sped up the process and significantly reduced production costs, the time and money saved are not worth the message it sends to students.
The college should avoid using AI to replace human creativity and artistry. That’s the policy for students in the classroom, and so it should be for college accounts.
“The penguin did not abandon the colony to become different. He left because he already was,” the video quips.
Hillsdale College already stands apart from other colleges in the nation. Let’s keep it that way.
Tayte Christensen is a senior studying history.
