Prometheus University is the first, fully AI generated university.

I’ve been tweeting and thinking a lot about chatGPT lately. Specifically, I’ve been considering how it could improve my own work, increase my ability to produce, and diversify my skills. A lot of what I’ve seen people using chatGPT and dall-e for has been along these lines - what can I use it for? But, today I want to consider something bigger - what will it do to us?

I’m typically skeptical of technological advances, I know enough about the technical side to leave me at least a little underwhelmed by most “earth shattering” technology predictions. That’s not the case with large language models. I think they’re going to transform how we work, possibly on par with what search engines did to the internet, a mass democratization of technical work; from programmers to graphic design to copywriting and beyond. We don’t know what this world will look like yet, but we can start imagining it. That’s my goal here.

I am going to attempt to create a higher ed website completely with AI. Now, I’ve worked adjacent to countless web projects, so I have somewhat of an idea of the effort that goes into this work. I want to see how AI can be a force multiplier, I also want to see what it can and can’t do, at least right now.

The truth is, we need to start thinking critically about what higher ed marketing looks like in a world of infinitely cheap and easily accessible bullshit. Part of my goal in this project is to show the value of truly differentiating marketing content, especially in higher education. In a world where talking is free, you no longer get credit for quantity. AI is pastiche (stealing this from Ezra Klein’s excellent podcast on this topic). How do we strive to make our work better than the information blender that is chatGPT? I don’t know. But I’m hoping this project will help me to better understand this question. I’m going to return to it a lot.

Some may see the rise of chatGPT and think, great! Now I can write 5 times as many blog posts. I predict, however, that truly differentiated work in this era will answer the opposite question; how can I create 1/5 the work and make it 5x, 50x more impactful for my audience? How do I cut through the noise? In this AI can be our friend or our enemy depending on how we use it and how we allow it to use us.