aceAs more Australian universities use AI to mark students’ work, is it creating a ‘slop-cycle’?
Armin Alimardani has blue hair, is fresh faced, wears a smartwatch and describes himself as “a tech enthusiast”. He is an unlikely sentinel, perhaps, to warn that a drift towards academics using generative artificial intelligence to help mark students assignments could pose an existential threat to higher education. The Western Sydney University senior lecturer in law and technology has been studying and experimenting with AI for years – he is speaking from Palermo in Italy, where he is attending a series of uni…
Allowing staff to use generative AI in marking risks 'verification drift', where tired reviewers stop checking and hallucinations slip through, and may erode student trust and sessional marking work.
The article says the claimed benefits of AI marking are largely untested, and several universities have not decided their position, so the risks described are warnings rather than measured outcomes.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-09-27
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1549, v1: “As more Australian universities use AI to mark students’ work, is it creating a ‘slop-cycle’?.” Truvace, 2026-10-16. /record/TRV-2026-1549 (accessed at citation time). sha256 f812c19401d57e7e…
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