Sydney academic used AI to write SMH opinion piece urging students to avoid using tech to ‘cut corners’ Western Sydney University’s pro vice-chancellor for quality and integrity, Cath Ellis, had an opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald advocating against students using AI to “cut corners” in their studies. However, it was later revealed that Ellis herself used AI, specifically Copilot LLM, to draft the article based on her own extensive materials. The Sydney Morning Herald removed the piece, stating that the use of AI was not disclosed and did not meet their editorial guidelines.

• A Sydney academic, Prof Cath Ellis, wrote an opinion piece urging students not to use AI to avoid cutting corners.
• The opinion piece was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
• The article was later found to have been written using AI by Prof Ellis.
• Western Sydney University stated that Prof Ellis used AI appropriately by having it summarize her own work.
• The Sydney Morning Herald removed the article, stating the use of AI was not disclosed and unacceptable.
• Incidents of AI-generated content being published without disclosure are becoming more common in media outlets.