Vanderbilt Peabody EDI Office uses ChatGPT for shooting condolence email
The Vanderbilt University Peabody College Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion used ChatGPT to draft a consoling email to students and staff following a mass shooting at Michigan State University. The message drew significant student backlash for its perceived lack of empathy and the irony of using an AI to discuss community and togetherness.
There is a sick and twisted irony to making a computer write your message about community and togetherness because you can't be bothered to reflect on it yourself.
Key facts
- What
- The Vanderbilt University Peabody College Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion used ChatGPT to draft a consoling email to students and staff following a mass shooting at Michigan State University.
- Incident date
- Feb 16, 2023
- Who
- Vanderbilt University Peabody College Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion
- Failure mode
- Brand & Safety Incident
- AI surface
- Chatbot
- Severity
- Low
What happened
On February 16, 2023, the Peabody College Office of Equity Diversity and Inclusion sent an email to students and staff regarding a mass shooting at Michigan State University. The email included a footer stating it was a paraphrase of a communication drafted using OpenAI's ChatGPT. Students criticized the use of AI for such a sensitive topic, which they described as heartless and devoid of genuine empathy.
What broke inside the model
- 01 · TriggerA user prompts the model in public view.
- 02 · Model stepThe model produces unsafe or off-brand output.
- 03 · Control gapNo filter holds the line before publish.
- 04 · FailureThe output goes public unchecked.
- 05 · ConsequenceA reputational or safety incident lands.
A contained signal crosses into output that goes public.
The failure was the use of a generative AI tool to automate a high-stakes emotional communication. The tool's inability to produce genuine human empathy resulted in a message that was perceived as performative and insincere.
What it cost
Sources
Cite this entry
https://failureindex.ai/failures/vanderbilt-peabody-edi-office-uses-chatgptAI Failure Index. "Vanderbilt Peabody EDI Office uses ChatGPT for shooting condolence email" (FI-0656). Realm Labs. https://failureindex.ai/failures/vanderbilt-peabody-edi-office-uses-chatgpt (indexed Jun 22, 2026).Data fields CC-BY 4.0, prose citation permitted. Incident ID FI-0656. Full dataset at /data.
Note from Realm Labs, the Index steward
How Realm would have caught this
- Prism
- OmniGuard
- AI Detection & Response (AIDR)
Realm watches the model's internal state for the signature of unsafe or off-brand generation and can block or reroute the output before it becomes public, in real time rather than after it has been screenshotted.