ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence-powered language tool that can write human-like text. It was introduced in November 2022 by tech company OpenAI based in San Francisco, California, U.S., and it seemingly took the world by storm—considered by many to be as revolutionary as the introduction of search engines.

ChatGPT has generated much concern and scrutiny across educational campuses, largely from faculty who are struggling to determine the ethical boundaries of student use.  

Daniel Hadley

Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer
University of Utah

But what does this new technology mean for other campus teams? Currents checked in with Daniel Hadley, Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer at the University of Utah, U.S. In the following interview, he shares his expert understanding of AI and how it can benefit advancement teams, along with some words of caution. 

You have two master’s degrees from Harvard University—one in religious history and one in urban design and planning. How did you find your way to advancement and data science? 

I started working in policy in a mayor’s office just outside Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., in 2010. Everything we did was informed by data and analytics, from studying potholes to deciding on locations for new buildings.  

I grew to love data and that served me well when I took my first job in philanthropy in higher education, first as the Senior Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at the University of Utah and now as Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer. In advancement, we keep data on everything—on solicitations and on donors, their background, and, of course, the impact of their gifts. So, it was an easy transition to go from more of a policy analyst/data scientist role to one now in which I’m helping to run our advancement shop here at the university based on careful analysis of all the data that we have.   

Were you and your colleagues at the mayor’s office ahead of your time when you prioritized data-informed decisions?  

When I started at the mayor’s office, it was around the time the movie "Moneyball" came out. [The 2011 hit film depicts the Oakland Athletics baseball team’s winning 2002 season that was driven by sophisticated analytics.] There was a big push to “moneyball” everything. It felt somewhat novel at the time. Of course, data wasn’t new, but that was when it started exploding and becoming mainstream in professions that before weren’t keeping track of things through data science. 

Since then, what's really exploded is the amount of tools at our disposal and the ease of using them. Before, data was a proprietary thing—something for PhDs and data scientists—whereas now it’s been democratized. I’m excited to see advancement becoming so data-driven, which allows us to be much more customer-focused. People think it removes the human element, but it allows us to actually serve people better. We measure what matters and we can focus on what matters by using data correctly. 

The newest technology tool to “explode” is ChatGPT. Can you explain what it is on a basic level? 

This is what’s called a large language model. It has taken all that’s been written and said across the internet and fed that into a computer that has learned very well to mimic what humans say, what they talk about, and the way they say things. It’s parroting back to us what we’ve put out there over hundreds of years and of course more recently. 

Will it become as widely used and understood as Google, as in the way we use Google as a verb? 

ChatGPT is well on its way to becoming as ubiquitous as Google. 

You’ve talked and written about how ChatGPT and AI have the potential to change how we work in advancement. What are some ways that it might do that? 

It’s already seeping into a lot of our systems, most notably how we interact with our customer relationship management system, and it’s becoming integrated into the most basic systems like Google searches. More specifically, a lot of us in advancement use it to write or edit grant proposals, gather information about donors, or develop marketing campaigns. And it’s being used for things that were formerly very human, like thank you letters and appeals. In my case, I can code better and get better data analytics. 

How does it improve your coding? 

Coding is telling a computer how to do things. Computers are very literal, sometimes to the point where it’s hard to think through how a computer might interpret a human command. ChatGPT is really good at translating human thought into effective written codes that will get you to the desired outcome. Most coders have it on constantly like a Google window, switching back and forth between your code and your ChatGPT.   

You mentioned ChatGPT writing thank you letters. Shouldn’t a thank you letter be personal?  

That’s a great question. Yes, we should be concerned about losing human touch. We really have to think wisely about how we use ChatGPT. How are we using it to streamline our work? When is an auto-generated thank you note OK? The flip side to this concern is that AI can make humanness much more special. If you get on the phone and call, or if you send a handwritten note, or if you visit someone at their home or office—all of that will become that much more engaging, unique, and special. And hopefully AI and ChatGPT will free people up to do that more—to take [away] the more mundane stuff that we had to do, open up our calendars to be able to go out there and meet with donors and alumni, and really look them in the eyes and have the meaningful connections that we all seek. I think this will be especially true for small shops, which have the potential to increase their bandwidth by using ChatGPT. 

But still, those of us who are engaged in the art and craft of writing are skeptical. 

My wife is a writer so I’m right there with you. There’s always room for excellent human writing. There will always be that differentiator. We always want to hear what someone has to say because, as humans, we have unique points of view. I’m an optimist there. 

We’ve talked about how AI and ChatGPT will change and enhance the way advancement professionals do their work. How do you think the technology will enhance the donor and alumni experience? 

It will become more individualized in a good way. Right now, Instagram knows my tastes so well that it serves me an ad that feels like it is listening to my phone. That hasn’t quite caught on in the world of advancement. We’re not serving up engagement and philanthropic opportunities that are that tailored or that precise. AI has the power to change that, and we can do it in a good way so that it doesn’t feel manipulative like it’s spying on your phone. It would be more like, “you have a Tuesday afternoon free, and you’d like to mentor an undergraduate student in your field. Here’s a specific opportunity to meet your interests and schedule.” AI has the potential to allow us to better target the ways in which our constituents engage with the university.  

What are the pitfalls you see with using ChatGPT in advancement workflow? 

I’ll offer three important cautions for the short run. The first one is that ChatGPT and a lot of AI large language models still “hallucinate.” That’s the term for giving crazy, incorrect info that sounds factual but is straight-up wrong. So, it does need to be overseen by human beings and it does need fact-checking. Second, the information generated by ChatGPT can be biased. Research shows that on average it has a liberal bent. So again, a human eye is needed. And third, right now the phrasing gives us cues that it is AI generated. People who are tuned in will suspect you are using ChatGPT. It’s not going to have that certain je ne sais quoi that reveals you put thought and effort into something. I recommend it as a good way to ideate, to generate initial text, but it won’t get you all the way there—at least not right now. 

The hallucinations and the biases will be fixed. In the long run, it’s that last caution I mentioned that we will continue to be vigilant around. The human connection will be what advancement needs to pay attention to. If it becomes ChatGPT talking to ChatGPT, that will take some of what inspires people to give out of the equation. I’m a general tech optimist; I hope we can iron out the kinks and stay vigilant about the technology’s shortcomings. 

A knee-jerk reaction to AI, or to any new technology, is that people will lose jobs. Should that be a concern for advancement professionals?  

That’s such an open question. And the truth is, some jobs will disappear. But others will be created, similar to what happened with the web and social media. Think of all the new jobs around content creation that became available in the last two decades. We need to think in terms of exciting new opportunities. 

My advice to anyone in the field with any kind of interest in this is to really embrace it while it is still somewhat nascent. Take a course; learn a few tips and tricks for working with it. Be the person in the office who understands it and see how that will get you noticed and propel your career.   

ChatGPT is still in the experimental stages, and there is more to come. What should advancement teams do to prepare for the future of AI?  

Keep track of AI and embrace it. This can be done without losing the core values of our profession. Advancement will always be about relationship building. The human connection can never be fully replaced. 

Just look at how we all embraced Zoom during the pandemic. And more importantly, look at how many of us kept it as a tool in our arsenal post-pandemic while at the same time returning to the best of in-person engagement. Like all the new technology we’ve witnessed in previous decades, from the printing press to email to smartphones, we moved past skepticism with an understanding that new and advanced ways of working allow us to tackle big challenges and make our lives better instead of worse.  [That can happen] as long as we embrace new technology with our eyes wide open, meaning we understand the pitfalls. 

I’m confident in sharing this advice because I’ve experienced it firsthand. Our team has been quick to embrace new technologies that will improve workflow. Our vice president of advancement gave ChatGPT a try as soon as it became available. That kind of open-minded, willing-to-try-new-things philosophy is a credit to the team members here who have a forward-thinking view of advancement and philanthropy.