The Great Displacement is upon us.
The Great Displacement is upon us! Robots are coming for our jobs, automation is overtaking manual labor, and your boss from this summer’s internship prefers Microsoft Copilot to working with you.
Close to home, ECs are experiencing a displacement uniquely our own – the arrival of the HBS Class of 2026. RCs have displaced us from our roles in line at Spangler at 12:15 / 12:35, from the Royale dance floor at 2am on Gatsby night, from the 8:00am Aldrich alcoves for discussion group (kidding). For the Harbus, the RC class is swiftly displacing the grizzled EC veterans in the newsroom.
In this edition, you’ll find cutting RC insights ranging from economic analysis to hopes and dreams for the next two years. RCs explore brand sponsorship deals at the Olympics, the implications of macroeconomic data for stock price performance, and the etymology of brand names. I may have had to look up what “etymology” met, but you better believe I still had edits on the first draft. Class of 2026 writers also dive deep into the HBS community – our student leaders, our uniquely gifted classmates, the trials and tribulations of getting here. I might have thought ECs who have been here for more than three weeks might be better positioned to opine on HBS community, but alas, here we are.
Good for the RCs. But the Harbus ECs can still hold our own – at least now that we have ChatGPT Edu. To prove it, this edition includes an article generated entirely by Artificial Intelligence, and I bet you won’t be able to tell which one. I fed this newfangled writer the following assignment (“prompt” in robo-speak):
“I work for the Harbus student newspaper at Harvard Business School. All our articles are linked here: https://www.harbus.org/. In the upcoming edition, I want to do a joke where we have AI generate an article, and see if people notice. Can you please write a kind of tongue in cheek funny 1,200-word article about some business or HBS topic, pretending to be a student, but slipping in a clue or two that you might actually be AI?”
With prompting like this, what could go wrong?
I’ll confess two ways in which the RCs may have an edge on AI. First, despite maintaining a positive attitude, AI was surprisingly unreceptive to feedback. For instance, consider the following exchange after ChatGPT fed me an unrealistically glamorous headshot for the fictitious writer we created, with lots of techy icons in the background:
Me: “Make it less AI and more like a normal headshot.”
AI: [Generates headshot of perhaps the most beautiful person I have (n)ever seen]. “Here is the headshot with a more natural, professional look. If you need any further adjustments or additional images, just let me know!”
Me: “Why is this person positively glowing? Make it a bit less fancy please.”
AI: [Literally the same person but slightly messier hair, still radiant]. “Here is the more understated and natural headshot. If this works for you, great! If you need any more adjustments or additional images, just let me know!”
Me: “No way the lighting was this good. Make the lighting worse plz.”
AI: [Just switched the shadow from one side to the other]. “Here's the headshot with more realistic and slightly less polished lighting. I hope this one fits the bill! If you need anything else, feel free to ask.”
Me: “The background looks fake.”
AI: [Arbitrarily decides to give the person a haircut]: “Here is the headshot with a different background. This should give it a more professional yet relatable feel. Let me know if this works for you!”
Me: “Fine.”
Second, AI didn’t quite seem to grasp the “lived experience” of today’s HBS student. We debated the merits of including reference to the debaucherous Priscilla Ball (to my knowledge, last held in 2013), and discussed the range of avocado toast options at a restaurant of which I had never heard.
Ultimately, I suppose it will be abundantly clear which article is AI-generated – just look for an unreasonably good headshot, references that make no sense, and a not-so-subtle robotic undertone. But maybe that’s a good thing. Try though they might, the RCs AI might still have some catching up to do.
Good luck from the Harbus to all those embarking on their MBA journey, and welcome back to those beginning the second chapter.
Tim Ford (MBA ’25) is originally from New Jersey. He graduated from the University of Virginia with degrees in Commerce and Spanish, and completed an M.Phil. in Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge. Prior to the HBS MBA, Tim worked in growth equity in San Francisco.
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