Kenneth Glad
The argument over new tools is now also an argument over honesty. Readers and students are asking who used AI, how it was used, and why they were not told.
The debate over AI in education sharpened after a senior Western Sydney University academic used the technology while preparing a newspaper column about student integrity.
Professor Cath Ellis, the university’s pro vice-chancellor for quality and integrity, had argued in The Sydney Morning Herald that students should still take university seriously and avoid treating AI as a shortcut.
“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,” she wrote.
The Guardian reports that the column was submitted to Pangram, an AI-detection service, which flagged it as AI-generated. Western Sydney University later confirmed Ellis had used Microsoft Copilot.
The university said Ellis had fed the system a large archive of her previous writing, which then helped shape prompts and early drafts based on her own work.
A spokesperson defended the method as “a sophisticated and appropriate use” of generative AI.
Editors step in
The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that it had not been told AI was involved and promptly removed the piece from its website.
“Clearly this is unacceptable and we are investigating further,” editor Jordan Baker said.
That gap between the message and the method is what made the episode so damaging. A column urging students to do their own thinking became a test of how openly institutions explain their own use of AI instead.
The Australian controversy arrived as students in the United States were already challenging upbeat messages about AI.
Read the room
In a separate report, The Guardian describes several graduation ceremonies where prominent speakers were booed over remarks about the technology.
At Middle Tennessee State University, music executive Scott Borchetta drew boos after warning graduates that AI was already reshaping creative work. When students reacted, he pressed on and told them: “Deal with it.”
Former Google chief Eric Schmidt also faced boos at the University of Arizona while speaking about AI and future work.
At Glendale Community College, anger followed after an AI system failed to call some graduates’ names during a ceremony.
Students and readers are not rejecting every use of AI, but they want clear rules, plain disclosure, and less lecturing from institutions that are still working out their own standards.
Sources: The Guardian; The Sydney Morning Herald
