Akademiker from Sydney used AI to write a SMH opinion contribution asking students to avoid the use of technology to “make smears”

A top Sydney academic has written an opinion piece urging students to use AI to 'do the work' rather than use such technology to cut corners, prompting the Sydney Morning Herald to remove the 'unacceptable' piece from its website.

Professor Cath Ellis, Vice-Chancellor for Quality and Integrity at Western Sydney University, published comments in the Sydney Morning Herald last month in response to an article by academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Moore-Gilbert wrote that she advised her stepdaughter to think twice before enrolling in college because students can easily outsource their learning to AI, and said students are "graded based on who can write the best AI prompts."

In response to this, Ellis wrote in his article, “The AI ​​problem is real,” but students still need to go to college and study properly.

"Don't cut corners. Don't outsource your thinking, no matter how tempting it may be. If your system is as fragile as some claim, real effort won't be hidden. It will be noticed," she wrote.

However, when the column was submitted to the AI ​​detection service Pangram, it was listed as AI-generated.

In response to questions from Guardian Australia, the university said Ellis used AI to write the column.

“To write her opinion article, Professor Ellis uploaded 40,000 words of her original material into the Copilot Large Language Model (LLM), which provided prompts that summarized her extensive knowledge base,” the spokesperson said.

“This was the basis of an early draft that reflected Professor Ellis’s own thoughts, ideas and opinions, built on more than 10 years of dedicated work as a global leader in the field.”

A spokesperson said using the LLM to leverage his expertise and experience “demonstrates a sophisticated and appropriate use” of generative AI.

“Programs like Pangram can detect AI use, but they cannot determine whether that use is appropriate or inappropriate,” the spokesperson said. “The University believes that the use of AI was appropriate in this case.”

Ellis' comments did not declare the use of generative AI to write the article as of Wednesday morning.

The editorial policy of Nine, the parent company of the Sydney Morning Herald, allows writers to use AI for initial research and rapid ideation, but states that "AI will not be used to write articles for publication."

The policy clearly labels where AI-generated material is posted, but also states that “use of assistive AI does not require a declaration.”

Nine did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia. But in a follow-up article published on Wednesday, Sydney Morning Herald editor Jordan Baker said the article had been removed because it did not meet editorial guidelines.

“The Herald was not aware that the author or the University of Western Sydney had used AI to edit the article,” Baker said.

“Obviously this is unacceptable and we are investigating further.”

As generative AI tools become increasingly embedded in workplaces around the world, incidents of media outlets publishing the results of AI without disclosing them are becoming increasingly common. Crikey removed a series of articles by a writer in March after it was revealed the author had used AI to help proofread his copy.

Also in March, the New York Times severed ties with a freelance journalist after he admitted to using AI in a book review that reflected content published in the Guardian.

University graduation speakers praising AI have been booed by students in recent weeks amid concerns that their job prospects will be ruined as companies replace graduate positions with AI.