‘AI is insidious’: Universities urged to adopt clear AI rules after opinion article scandal

Universities should set minimum standards for academics using AI and require third-party certification to guarantee work is “human-authored” before publication, according to a former Monash University chancellor.

Dr Alan Finkel, who also served as Australia’s chief scientist, has urged tertiary institutions to set minimum standards for academics who use AI for their work.

“You can’t have something as loose as what we saw in the last couple of days,” he said.

On Wednesday, Western Sydney University professor Cath Ellis defended her use of AI in helping to write an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald after her peers noted unusual language patterns. The article was in defence of the university system, and it included advice like “Don’t cut corners” and “Don’t outsource your thinking”. The piece was also published on The Age website.

Ellis’ opinion piece was published in response to an earlier piece by academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who said widespread AI use meant universities were accepting money from students for degrees they had not earned.

Finkel said the matter was a case in point for why academics’ work should be independently verified. But universities, while aware of the significance of the issue, had been slow to move, he said.

“I think extremely highly of the ability and the ethics of academics and the senior members of universities because I’ve worked with them. But they are facing an onslaught of technology that has to be dealt with.”

Finkel said minimum standards for AI use in academic work should allow artificial intelligence to be used as a research assistant, to check spelling and grammar or to format a bibliography or an index.

However, using AI to draft a paragraph of text or to edit AI-generated text was unacceptable, he said.

“The use of AI is insidious, it creeps up on people. They use it a little bit, then they use a little bit more, but we have to start tackling this before it gets out of control.”

Finkel, an inventor and entrepreneur who says he doesn’t use AI, founded Proudly Human in 2023.

The certification start-up verifies and labels human-authored content for clients including universities, publishers, authors, filmmakers, artists and others working in creative industries.

His views have been backed by Toby Walsh from the University of New South Wales, who is a professor of artificial intelligence and a laureate fellow.

Walsh said academics should disclose how they used AI, and there should be a code of conduct.

He said if universities expected students to adhere to AI standards and disclosures, it should