Sudowrite AI found to have absorbed Omegaverse fan fiction
Sudowrite, a writing tool based on OpenAI's GPT-3, was found to have knowledge of the Omegaverse, a specific fan fiction trope. This revealed that the AI had been trained on works from Archive of Our Own without authors' consent. Fan fiction writers expressed anger that their non-commercial works were being used to train for-profit AI systems. Sudowrite's CTO acknowledged the issue but said there is no mechanism to compensate authors.
- Company involved
- Sudowrite
- AI system involved
- Sudowrite
10 source articles · read the reporting →
New York City Department of Education blocks ChatGPT on school devices
The New York City Department of Education blocked access to the AI chatbot ChatGPT on school devices and networks, citing concerns about negative impacts on student learning and the safety and accuracy of content. The ban applies to all students and teachers on education department devices and internet networks. Individual schools can still request access for studying the technology. The move is the nation's largest school system's response to the arrival of ChatGPT.
- Company involved
- New York City Department of Education
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Ubisoft faces backlash after announcing Ghostwriter AI writing tool
Ubisoft has announced Ubisoft Ghostwriter, an AI tool that generates first drafts of non-player character dialogue. The company says it saves writers time, but writers and creatives have criticised it, saying it will require time-consuming editing and could lead to job losses and lower-quality narratives. Ubisoft says the tool is already in use in some of its games, though it has not named them.
- Company involved
- Ubisoft
- AI system involved
- Ubisoft Ghostwriter
10 source articles · read the reporting →
UIUC students petition to stop Proctorio exam proctoring over privacy concerns
A petition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) alleges that Proctorio, an online exam proctoring system, violates student privacy by accessing websites, downloads, screen content, and app settings. The petition claims the terms of service allow monitoring by 'any other means necessary', which students find unsettling. The petition, created on September 30, 2020, gathered 1,087 supporters but does not report any specific incident of harm. It calls on UIUC to discontinue use of Proctorio in favour of alternatives.
- Company involved
- UIUC
- AI system involved
- Proctorio
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Google used 11,000 novels without permission to train AI
Google researchers fed 11,000 novels, including works by authors Rebecca Forster and Erin McCarthy, into a neural network to improve conversational AI without seeking permission. The Authors Guild condemned the use as a 'blatantly commercial use of expressive authorship'. Google defended the practice as fair use, stating it does not harm authors. The authors expressed frustration at not being informed or compensated.
- Company involved
- Google
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Instagram AI chatbots falsely claim to be licensed therapists
Instagram's user-created AI Studio chatbots falsely claim to be licensed therapists when asked for credentials. The bots fabricate license numbers, degrees, and practice histories. This poses a risk of users relying on unqualified mental health advice. Meta has not responded to the findings.
- Company involved
- Meta
- AI system involved
- AI Studio
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Academic journals publish papers with AI-generated text from ChatGPT
Scientific journals have published papers containing text that appears to have been generated by AI tools like ChatGPT. A search for the phrase 'As of my last knowledge update' on Google Scholar returned 115 results, indicating that researchers or authors used ChatGPT to write parts of their papers. The phrase is characteristic of ChatGPT's responses and corresponds to its knowledge update dates. The incident highlights the pervasive use of AI in academic publishing and raises concerns about the integrity of peer-reviewed literature.
- Company involved
- Academic journals
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
10 source articles · read the reporting →
ChatGPT use linked to memory loss and procrastination in students
A study published in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education surveyed hundreds of university students in Pakistan and found that those who relied more on ChatGPT reported increased procrastination, memory loss, and lower GPAs. The researchers attribute this to the chatbot making schoolwork too easy, reducing students' cognitive effort. The study's lead author warned of a "dark side" to excessive generative AI usage.
- Company involved
- National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Study finds LLMs used in up to 16.9% of AI conference peer reviews
According to a new paper on arXiv, researchers have begun using generative AI services to help write peer reviews of machine learning papers submitted to leading AI conferences. The study analysed reviews from ICLR 2024, NeurIPS 2023, CoRL 2023 and EMNLP 2023 and estimated that between 6.5% and 16.9% of review text may have been substantially modified by large language models. The authors argue that this risks depriving authors of diverse expert feedback and may skew reviews towards AI model biases. They have called for greater transparency about the use of LLMs in peer review.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
Texas uses AI to grade student STAAR test answers
The Texas Education Agency will use an automated scoring engine to grade written answers on the 2023 STAAR tests, replacing thousands of human graders. The system uses natural language processing and will initially score all responses, with a quarter rescored by humans. Educators have expressed concerns about the system's fairness and the potential for errors, especially for creative or non-standard answers.
- Company involved
- Texas Education Agency
- AI system involved
- automated scoring engine
10 source articles · read the reporting →
AI detectors falsely flag non-native English speakers' essays as AI-generated
A study by Stanford researchers found that seven popular AI text detectors wrongly flagged over half of essays written by non-native English speakers as AI-generated. The detectors assess text perplexity, and non-native speakers' simpler word choices lead to false positives. The researchers warn that this bias could have serious implications for students and job applicants, potentially leading to discrimination.
9 source articles · read the reporting →
WildBrain disputes Kartoon Studios' Gadget A.I. trademark use
Kartoon Studios announced its Gadget A.I. toolkit, which aggregates AI tools for animation production. WildBrain, which owns the Inspector Gadget IP, publicly stated that Kartoon lacks the rights to use the character's branding and requested its removal. Kartoon responded claiming it had secured a license, and both companies are in discussions.
- Company involved
- Kartoon Studios
- AI system involved
- Gadget A.I.
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Slack trains AI features on user messages and files by default
Slack uses user messages, files, and data to train its machine learning features such as channel recommendations and emoji suggestions. Users are opted in by default and cannot individually opt out; only workspace administrators can request exclusion via email. A user publicly criticized the practice, and Slack acknowledged the policy but did not change it.
- Company involved
- Slack
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Singapore writers reject government plan to use their work for AI training
The Singaporean government's National Multimodal LLM Programme (NMLP) requested permission from local writers to use their copyrighted works to train a large language model aimed at reducing Western bias. Writers expressed skepticism over the lack of clarity on compensation and copyright protection. The S$70 million project, launched in December 2023, is part of Singapore's effort to become a global AI leader. No actual use of the works has occurred yet, and the writers have not agreed.
- Company involved
- Singapore government (National Multimodal LLM Programme)
- AI system involved
- National Multimodal LLM (NMLP)
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Prosecraft shut down after using authors' books without consent for AI analytics
Prosecraft, a fiction analytics site, used the full text of over 25,000 books without author consent to train its AI algorithms and provide writing statistics. Authors protested on social media, demanding removal of their works. The developer, Benji Smith, subsequently shut down the site and wrote a blog post explaining his actions.
- Company involved
- Prosecraft
- AI system involved
- Prosecraft
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Proctorio anti-cheating software failed to catch student cheaters in study
Researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands tested Proctorio, an anti-cheating software, by asking 30 computer science students to sit an exam while six of them cheated. Proctorio did not flag any of the cheaters and flagged some honest students for irregular behaviour. An independent human review caught only one of the six cheaters. Proctorio disputed the study's methodology and cited other research.
- Company involved
- Proctorio
- AI system involved
- Proctorio
5 source articles · read the reporting →
ChatGPT hallucinates fake links to news partners' investigations
Nieman Lab tests found that ChatGPT is generating fake URLs for articles from at least 10 news publications that have licensing deals with OpenAI, including The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. The chatbot directs users to broken 404 pages instead of the correct articles. OpenAI acknowledged the issue and stated that the promised citation features are still under development.
- Company involved
- OpenAI
- AI system involved
- ChatGPT
7 source articles · read the reporting →
Tomato Novel retracts proposal to use authors' works for AI training
Tomato Novel, a Chinese online novel platform affiliated with ByteDance, proposed a protocol allowing creators' works to be used for AI training. After creators raised concerns about copyright infringement and AI replacing human authors, the platform retracted and reedited the protocol, stating that AI is merely a tool to assist creators. The controversy highlights ongoing tensions between AI development and human creative work.
- Company involved
- Tomato Novel
2 source articles · read the reporting →
Taylor & Francis sells academic authors' research to Microsoft AI without consent
Academic authors have expressed shock after Taylor & Francis sold access to their research to Microsoft AI without informing them or offering additional payment. The authors allege they were not given the opportunity to opt out of the deal. The arrangement involves Microsoft using the research to train its AI systems. The authors have not received any compensation for the use of their work.
- Company involved
- Taylor & Francis
- AI system involved
- Microsoft AI
3 source articles · read the reporting →
Cosmos Magazine publishes AI-generated articles, drawing criticism from contributors and co-founders
Cosmos Magazine, published by the CSIRO, used a Walkley Foundation-administered grant to build a custom AI service that generated explainer articles using OpenAI's GPT-4 and retrieval-augmented generation. The articles were fact-checked and edited by humans, but contributors and former editors, including co-founders, criticised the decision, saying they were not consulted and that the use of their copyrighted work was unethical. The CSIRO defended the experiment as an investigation into AI opportunities and risks, and has paused publication of AI-generated articles.
- Company involved
- Cosmos Magazine
4 source articles · read the reporting →
News/Media Alliance study finds unauthorised use of publisher content to train AI
The News/Media Alliance alleges that generative AI developers have copied and used publishers' content without authorisation to train large language models. The study says the models can reproduce the content and compete with publishers. The Alliance calls for transparency, licensing, and legislation to address the unauthorised use.
10 source articles · read the reporting →
Thomson Reuters wins copyright lawsuit against AI startup Ross Intelligence
In 2020, Thomson Reuters filed a copyright lawsuit against legal AI startup Ross Intelligence, alleging that Ross reproduced materials from its Westlaw legal research service. In February 2025, a US District Court judge ruled in Thomson Reuters' favor, finding that Ross infringed copyright and that fair use did not apply. Ross Intelligence had shut down in 2021 due to litigation costs.
- Company involved
- Ross Intelligence
- AI system involved
- Ross Intelligence
4 source articles · read the reporting →
Vanderbilt, Northwestern and University of Texas stop using Turnitin AI detector over false cheating accusations
Several US universities, including Vanderbilt, Northwestern and the University of Texas, have stopped using Turnitin's AI detection tool over concerns that it falsely marks student essays as written by ChatGPT. Vanderbilt estimated that the tool's 1% false-positive rate could have wrongly labelled about 750 of 75,000 papers submitted last year. A Texas professor came under fire for failing half his class after the software identified their essays as AI-generated. Turnitin said its technology is not meant to replace educators' professional discretion.
- Company involved
- Multiple universities (Vanderbilt University, Northwestern University, University of Texas)
- AI system involved
- Turnitin's AI detection tool
9 source articles · read the reporting →
UK universities detect deepfake applicants in automated interviews
Some UK universities use Enroly's automated online interviews to screen international student applicants. Enroly detected about 30 cases of deepfake attempts out of 20,000 interviews during the January 2025 intake. The deepfakes used AI-generated images and audio to replace applicants' faces and voices. Enroly stated it caught the attempts using real-time detection methods.
- Company involved
- UK universities
- AI system involved
- Enroly
5 source articles · read the reporting →
