SYDNEY — The Sydney Morning Herald removed an opinion piece by Western Sydney University’s Cath Ellis after it was flagged as AI-generated and the newspaper determined it violated its editorial guidelines. Ellis, the university’s pro vice-chancellor for quality and integrity, had written the article urging students not to cut corners by using AI and to do their own work.
Ellis’s piece responded to an earlier article by Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who argued that students could easily outsource learning to AI and were being graded on prompt-writing skill rather than understanding. In her now-removed column, Ellis wrote: "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."
The article was submitted to the AI-detection service Pangram and flagged as AI-generated. As of Wednesday morning, it did not disclose the use of generative AI in its composition. Sydney Morning Herald editor Jordan Baker said the article did not meet the paper’s 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. Clearly this is unacceptable and we are investigating further," Baker said.
Nine, the parent company of the Herald, has an editorial policy permitting writers to use AI for initial research and prompt ideas but states: "AI will not be used to write stories for publication." The policy also specifies that AI-generated material, when published, must be clearly labeled, though assistive AI use does not require declaration.
A spokesperson for Western Sydney University said Ellis uploaded 40,000 words of her own original materials into a Copilot Large Language Model, which summarized her knowledge and provided prompts that formed the basis of early drafts. The drafts reflected Ellis’s own thinking and opinions developed over more than a decade as a global leader in AI and education. The university believes her use of AI was appropriate and described it as "a sophisticated and appropriate use of generative AI." The spokesperson added: "Programs like Pangram can detect AI use, but they cannot determine whether that use was appropriate or inappropriate." Nine did not respond to questions from Guardian Australia about the incident.