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A candidate for an open seat on the Detroit public school district’s board withdrew her name from consideration as questions arose about the use of ChatGPT in her application materials.
The Detroit Public Schools Community District confirmed that Traci Ricks withdrew her application on Wednesday. She had been scheduled to be interviewed for the position by the board Thursday evening.
Ricks has not said publicly why she dropped out. She alerted the school district on the same day Chalkbeat and BridgeDetroit asked about the survey responses.
Phone calls, as well as multiple messages sent via email and social media for accounts belonging to a Detroit resident with that name were not returned. The district did not immediately release contact information for the candidates.
One survey response attributed to Ricks on the district’s website included text that appeared to have been copied and pasted from a dialogue with ChatGPT, a chatbot that uses generative artificial intelligence.
Ricks identified herself as an educator and advocate in the 13-question survey, which is a mandatory step in the school board appointment’s application process. She was one of 15 people vying for the open seat left vacant by Angelique Peterson-Mayberry, who resigned this month. The new member will finish out her term through the end of 2026.
One of the questions that candidates were required to answer was, “From your perspective, what are the challenges facing our school district?”
This is the response attributed to Ricks: “ChatGPT You said: How should I respond to this question as it pertains to my interest in a vacant DPSCD school board seat: What approach would you take to help pass millage renewals, millage increases or Headlee override elections? ChatGPT said: Here’s a strong and strategic way to respond to that question, tailored to your candidacy for a vacant DPSCD school board seat.”
Some of the same or similar language was used in responses to other questions.
Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo said Wednesday she doesn’t think it’s necessarily a problem if an applicant uses AI to prepare application materials.
“As long as the thoughts were original and come from thinking — and that will become evident during the interview process — I don’t think that it is automatically something that is done negatively,” she said about Ricks’ application.
The board member said she supports the use of evolving technology, like ChatGPT, when it is used as a tool to refine perspectives.
Stephen J. Aguilar, associate professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and associate director of the university’s Center for Generative AI and Society, said there can be helpful and ethical ways to engage with generative AI as a tool to inform one’s understanding and views.
However, he said copying and pasting answers directly from ChatGPT is “cognitive laziness.”
As AI becomes increasingly common, Aguilar said more questions will come up about how it should be used.
“Folks really need to understand and interrogate what their role is in using AI,” he said.
In addition to the survey responses, the Detroit candidates were required to submit resumes and letters of intent in their applications. The district has not publicly released the candidates’ resumes or letters.
Chalkbeat asked the district for those materials and was told an open records request was necessary to review them.
That request was filed on Monday. On Tuesday, the district responded that it needed an extension of 10 business days — the maximum permitted under state open records law — to provide the documents.
Candidate interviews began on Monday. All of the candidates’ application materials and interviews will be scored by board members. On Friday, the board chair and vice chair, along with an independent third party, will tally the scores.
The board will vote to select its new member at a public meeting starting at 5 p.m. on July 28 at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School.
Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.
Micah Walker is a reporter with BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
In 1993, I ran a campaign for a Detroit mayoral candidate. My candidate was not particularly well-funded but was a good campaigner. We wrote a series of white papers addressing a myriad of issues that needed to be addressed, and then offered every city council candidate the opportunity to adopt our candidate’s platform. Many of them did, and my candidate moved on to the general election because they amplified our message.
I raise this moment in Detroit history because I wish AI had existed then. The number of hours I spent researching and reading to get those papers written was astronomical.
Ms. Ricks made a huge mistake in copying and pasting her submission. But I believe it’s a mistake not to use it in instances such as this. The great value of AI, if used properly, gives you food for thought. The value of that thinking time is beyond calculable.
Our children and adults must learn to use it as a tool that will lay a foundation for critical thinking.