Australian academic criticized for using AI to write newspaper article 

An Australian academic is facing backlash after using artificial intelligence to write a newspaper opinion article.

Cath Ellis, professor and pro vice-chancellor of Quality and Integrity at Western Sydney University in Australia, published an article in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

The article responded to a piece by Macquarie University professor Kylie Moore-Gilbert arguing students should not lose faith in higher education.

Many academics immediately concluded Ellis used AI to write the piece, including Moore-Gilbert.

“For instance, the repetition of ‘to assure learning’ or ‘artefact’ to me seemed odd choices of words in the context they were used,” Moore-Gilbert said in a separate article for The Age.

“I’ve spent my career in university classrooms and online learning environments. I’ve watched students arrive uncertain and leave capable, articulate and ready for the world. I’ve seen the moment a first-in-family student realizes they belong,” Ellis and her AI copilot wrote in the article.

Many academics said they believed AI had been used based on this paragraph’s sentence structure alone.

While Western Sydney University encourages AI use, citing its potential for “innovation and enhancement in both education and research,” The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald prohibit AI-written content.

“Our position on the use of AI is clear – it cannot be used to write stories for publication,” the masthead said in the publication’s explanation as to why Ellis’ article was retracted.

Ellis disagreed, claiming AI saves her time in the writing process so she can improve her arguments.

“I really do feel that it’s allowed me to focus more of my time and energy on what really matters, which is the ideas, the thinking … rather than spending a lot of my time writing sentences from scratch,” she told The Age.

Western Sydney University also addressed the article and expressed sympathy for Ellis’s use of AI.

“The model summarized her extensive base of knowledge, providing prompts. This was the basis of the early drafts, reflecting Professor Ellis’s own thinking, ideas and opinions built up over more than a decade of dedicated work as a global leader in this field,” a university spokesperson said.

Ellis said she would not have submitted the article had she known about the publication’s AI policy.

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