A Sydney academic used artificial intelligence to write an opinion piece urging students not to rely on such technology for their academic work.
Professor Cath Ellis, Western Sydney University’s pro vice chancellor for quality and integrity, had her piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald last month.
The op-ed was in response to an article by fellow academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who wrote that she had advised her stepdaughter to rethink enrolling in university, because students were relying heavily on AI.
Ellis responded in her piece by arguing that the ‘AI problem is real’, but urged students to still go to university and study.
‘Don’t cut corners. Don’t outsource your thinking, however tempting that may be. If the system is as fragile as some claim, then genuine effort will not be hidden. It will stand out,’ she wrote.
However, when her column was submitted to the AI-detection service Pangram, it was flagged as AI-generated.
The Sydney Morning Herald’s editor, Jordan Baker, has since said the article did not meet its editorial guidelines and had been removed.
‘The Herald was not informed of the use of AI in the compilation of the article by either the author or Western Sydney University,’ Baker said.
University professor Cath Ellis was caught using AI to write an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald
Western Sydney defended the professor’s use of AI. FILE IMAGE: Woman types on laptop computer keyboard
‘Clearly this is unacceptable, and we are investigating further.’
Western Sydney defended the professor’s use of AI, with a spokesperson for the university telling The Guardian: ‘The University believes the AI use in this case was appropriate.’
Ellis uploaded 40,000 of her own original materials into a Copilot Large Language Model (LLM), which then summarised her extensive base of knowledge and provided prompts, the spokesperson explained.
‘This was the basis of the early drafts, reflecting Prof. Ellis’s own thinking, ideas and opinions built up over more than a decade of dedicated work as a global leader in this field.’
The spokesperson added that the use of an LLM to draw on her own expertise demonstrates a ‘sophisticated and appropriate use’ of AI.
It comes after The New York Times was forced to drop a freelance journalist who used AI to write a book review earlier this year.
Journalist Alex Preston was caught out by an NYT reader, who flagged similarities between his January review of the novel Watching Over Her by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and an August review of the same book by Christobel Kent.
The publication launched an investigation, during which Preston admitted to using AI to help him write the review.
