A senior academic at Western Sydney University has been found to have used artificial intelligence to write an opinion piece that warned students against using the same technology to 'cut corners'. The Sydney Morning Herald removed the column after it emerged that Professor Cath Ellis had employed AI in its composition.
The article, published last month, was a response to a piece by academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who argued that students could easily outsource their learning to AI. Ellis wrote that the 'AI problem is real' but urged students to 'do the work' and not outsource their thinking. However, submitted to AI-detector Pangram, the column was flagged as AI-generated.
Western Sydney University confirmed that Ellis had used a Copilot large language model to summarise 40,000 words of her own material, which provided prompts for early drafts. The university defended the use, stating it was 'sophisticated and appropriate' and that the AI detector could not determine appropriateness.
The Sydney Morning Herald's editor, Jordan Baker, said the newspaper was not informed of the AI use and described the omission as 'unacceptable'. Nine's editorial policy allows AI for initial research and ideas but not for writing stories, and requires disclosure when AI-generated material is published. The piece did not include such a declaration.
