High Schooler Goes off Script and Blasts School in His ChatGPT-Written Graduation Speech

ChatGPT is capable of doing a great many things. It can write you emails, a thesis and even an elaborate speech. But is it able to convey your exact emotions about the grueling high school life? We don't think so and neither did this high school graduate who had to deliver a speech at the graduation ceremony. Students are always expected to sing praises of the school before graduating but their thoughts about their school days might not be positive all the time.
According to New York Post, a high school graduate from Nebraska dared to deliver a shocking speech on May 14, 2023 when he went off-script from his admin-approved commencement speech that was actually penned by ChatGPT. Oops! The student identified as Kenny Morales had a chat with NTV ABC and revealed that "he used OpenAI's conversational chatbot to produce a speech for his high-school graduation ceremony."
"I said give me a speech about gratitude and I gave specific examples about what I wanted it to include," Morales told the outlet about the prompt he used to generate his speech. The AI-powered speech got approved by Morales' school but he turned the tables when he took to the stage. The school authorities and audiences were caught off-guard as he delivered a speech that originally did not receive a green signal from the school.
"I don't know about y'all, but I hated school," Morales told the audience, according to a transcript of Morales' speech reviewed by The Grand Island Independent. Morales did not stop at that and went on to diss the school for its problematic culture and blamed the school district's administrators for making decisions without any transparency, per the outlet.
"We lie, we pretend and we hide the truth with selective facts on positive things occurring around the school, instead of being honest and addressing the issues head-on," Morales continued. "We attempt to fix the issue by pulling them like weeds instead of fixing the underlying issue." He added in his interview with the news outlet and said that "he really doesn't think he was too critical." He also urged his fellow students to step up as leaders and “set the standard.” “It was more about that message (of raising expectations),” he continued, per the outlet. “I just wanted to start a conversation.”
ChatGPT wrote my graduation speech — then I went off-script to blast school https://t.co/pc6gTH5IrB pic.twitter.com/e4mfOXsJsU
— New York Post (@nypost) May 18, 2023
According to New York Post, the president of the Grand Island Public Schools Board of Education, Hank McFarland argued that "students should be giving speeches as submitted" which Morales didn't by going off script to blast his school. “I disagree with how this matter came about. Seniors are required to submit their speeches for approval and they should be giving the speeches as submitted,” he said. “I am a big believer in saying what you are going to do and then doing what you said you would do. That being said, however, Mr. Morales did make several valid points." Well, not many of us might think of exposing the school for giving us countless sleepless nights but we sure wish we had Morales' guts!