used to think that the hype surrounding artificial intelligence was just that—hype. I was skeptical when ChatGPT made its debut. The media frenzy, the breathless proclamations of a new era—it all felt familiar. I assumed it would blow over like every tech fad before it. I was wrong. But not in the way you might think.
The panic came first. Faculty meetings erupted in dread: “How will we detect plagiarism now?" “Is this the end of the college essay?” “Should we go back to blue books and proctored exams?” My business school colleagues suddenly behaved as if cheating had just been invented.
Then, almost overnight, the hand-wringing turned into hand-rubbing. The same professors forecasting academic doom were now giddily rebranding themselves as “AI-ready educators.” Across campus, workshops like “Building AI Skills and Knowledge in the Classroom” and “AI Literacy Essentials” popped up like mushrooms after rain. The initial panic about plagiarism gave way to a resigned embrace: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
This about-face wasn’t unique to my campus. The California State University (CSU) system—America’s largest public university system with 23 campuses and nearly half a million students—went all-in, announcing a $17 million partnership with OpenAI. CSU would become the nation’s first “AI-Empowered” university system, offering free ChatGPT Edu (a campus-branded version designed for educational institutions) to every student and employee. The press release gushed about “personalized, future-focused learning tools” and preparing students for an “AI-driven economy.”
The timing was surreal. CSU unveiled its grand technological gesture just as it proposed slashing $375 million from its budget. While administrators cut ribbons on their AI initiative, they were also cutting faculty positions, entire academic programs, and student services. At CSU East Bay, general layoff notices were issued twice within a year, hitting departments like General Studies and Modern Languages. My own alma mater, Sonoma State, faced a $24 million deficit and announced plans to eliminate 23 academic programs—including philosophy, economics, and physics—and to cut over 130 faculty positions, more than a quarter of its teaching staff.
At San Francisco State University, the provost’s office formally notified our union, the California Faculty Association (CFA) of potential layoffs—an announcement that sent shockwaves through campus as faculty tried to reconcile budget cuts with the administration’s AI enthusiasm. The irony was hard to miss: the same month our union received layoff threats, OpenAI’s education evangelists set up shop in the university library to recruit faculty into the gospel of automated learning.
The math is brutal and the juxtaposition stark: millions for OpenAI while pink slips go out to longtime lecturers. The CSU isn’t investing in education—it’s outsourcing it, paying premium prices for a chatbot many students were already using for free.
(...)