Gerald J. Alred Professional Writing Challenge Award (Flex App)

SPRING 2024 CASE TO WRITE ON:

Background
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has advanced rapidly during the past year and a half, and billions of dollars have been invested in its development by several multinational companies. One of the newest AI tools is Generative AI (such as Chat GPT and Google Gemini) which can write documents based on prompts provided by users. Some companies consider the use of Generative AI to be a time-saving resource, while others are alarmed by copyright infringements, inaccurate results, and biases, due to the indiscriminate ‘scraping’ and appropriation of large quantities of content from the internet. Those who are resistant to AI are especially concerned with the violation of privacy laws and the appropriation of a company’s proprietary information, as rights to the ownership of any information inputted to an AI platform are claimed by the companies who manage the software.

According to James Coker, in his article, Data Privacy Week: Companies are Banning Generative AI Due to Privacy Risks, which was published in the online version of Infosecurity Magazine on January 26, 2024, “More than a quarter (27%) of organizations have banned the use of generative AI among their workforce over privacy and data security risks, at least temporarily, according to the Cisco 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study” (Coker, 2024). Concerns included revealing employees’ names or information, non-public information about their company, and customers’ names or information. According to the study that Coker referenced, “The biggest concerns cited were that these tools could hurt the organization’s legal and intellectual property rights (69%), the information entered could be shared publicly or with competitors (68%), and that the information it returns to users could be wrong (68%)” (Coker, 2024). Finally, “Amid these issues, 91% of security and privacy professionals acknowledged that they need to do more to reassure customers about their data use with AI” (Coker, 2024).

You are Jax Jensen, a full-time university student and part-time assistant manager in the Customer Relations Department at Commercial Real Estate Endeavors (CREE). CREE rents and sells properties to other businesses who need space for offices and distribution facilities. One of the ways that CREE stays ahead of its competition is by closely guarding its data. The company’s internal policies include a strict prohibition of AI use for any business purposes.

Recently, you received a letter from Kris Conner, a manager in the Supply Chain and Logistics Division of Best Business Solutions (BBS), which CREE has had a long relationship with and is well-known and respected in the business community. Conner expressed alarm that the content of a bid for a property that they want to purchase from CREE appeared in Chat GPT. Conner feels that CREE has betrayed their trust and damaged their relationship by revealing financial details of their company. Before you respond to Conner, you investigate the matter and learn that a new employee who had not carefully read the employee handbook did, in fact, use Chat GPT to write a response to the bid because they did not feel confident in their own writing.

Instructions-Your Task
Respond carefully to Conner’s concerns by using principles you have learned in your professional writing course. Include strategies to regain the customer’s trust but note that the financial ramifications are too high to give anything away (regarding compensation). Write a correctly formatted one-page business letter. Create Letterhead for CREE that includes the Return Address, phone number, and website. Create an Inside Address for Kris Conner at Best Business Solutions. *Remember to include your anonymous number on the top right corner. Your real name should not appear anywhere on the document. *

If you have technical difficulties uploading your entry, contact let-sci@uwm.edu right away.

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This award competition is by invitation only. Students who are enrolled in English 205, 206, and 207 as part of the UWM Milwaukee campus bachelor’s degree program are nominated by their instructor based on their demonstrated professional writing skills. Associate degree students and Flex program students are not eligible for this competition.

Nominees are selected to compete for a $500 prize! Winners will be selected by a panel of judges including UWM faculty and instructors and professional writers in the community representing various industries and media outlets. All entries will be reviewed anonymously and the judges will not know your name until the final selection is made. The first-place winner will receive $500 for the semester following their enrollment in English 205, 206, or 207 and therefore must be enrolled for at least one more semester in order to receive the scholarship. A second and third place winner will also be named but there is no monetary scholarship.

All participants will receive a certificate of participation and will be invited to an annual ceremony held in February.

This competition is held twice a year on the Fall UWM Study Day and the Spring UWM Study Day. Selected students who are enrolled in English 205, 206, and 207 during summer or fall 2023 will compete on December 15, 2023. Selected students who are enrolled in English 205, 206, and 207 during spring 2024 will compete on May 10, 2024. Your entry will need to address a specific business case that will be posted here at 10:00 am on the day of the competition. Please refresh your browser to see that case at that time along with the button to submit your entry. You will have two hours to upload your entry.