Subject: AI Policy
Posted by: agony
Date: Jan 05 25
Due to the increased, and increasing, presence of AI in the world around us, FT administration have developed the following policy on its use in quiz writing:
While we prefer that authors write their quizzes by themselves, we understand that the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT can help especially those who are not native speakers of English to write quizzes they otherwise could not write. We however ask that, in the interest of fairness, you restrict the use of text AI to a minimum. Quiz-writing has a high level of reward and consistently using AI to create quizzes is unfair to those who spend several hours writing everything using their own mind.
If you use generative AI to help write your questions and/or info sections, you must indicate which AI (model or website) you used in the editor note to your quiz. You also need to fact-check your information and make sure it reads well, which may require some editing for style.
Failure to do so can be treated as plagiarism or, in extreme cases, cheating.
Please note that this guideline only applies to text AI. Using AI to generate pictures for quizzes has yielded quite creative results and we do not plan to restrict it as it does open up many possibilities we could not otherwise allow due to copyright issues.
Posted by: agony
Date: Jan 05 25
Due to the increased, and increasing, presence of AI in the world around us, FT administration have developed the following policy on its use in quiz writing:
While we prefer that authors write their quizzes by themselves, we understand that the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT can help especially those who are not native speakers of English to write quizzes they otherwise could not write. We however ask that, in the interest of fairness, you restrict the use of text AI to a minimum. Quiz-writing has a high level of reward and consistently using AI to create quizzes is unfair to those who spend several hours writing everything using their own mind.
If you use generative AI to help write your questions and/or info sections, you must indicate which AI (model or website) you used in the editor note to your quiz. You also need to fact-check your information and make sure it reads well, which may require some editing for style.
Failure to do so can be treated as plagiarism or, in extreme cases, cheating.
Please note that this guideline only applies to text AI. Using AI to generate pictures for quizzes has yielded quite creative results and we do not plan to restrict it as it does open up many possibilities we could not otherwise allow due to copyright issues.
8 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
agony
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The above is our official stance, but I'd also like to add a few words with my personal view. It's understandable that those who are uncertain of their skills in writing English would want to use a tool to help them over the hurdles of grammar and spelling. But as someone who has edited tens of thousands of quizzes, and who has helped hundreds of authors become better and more confident quiz authors, please keep AI as a tool - don't let it write your quizzes for you. We want quizzes written by you. We want your voice, your enthusiasms, your humour, your authenticity to shine through. Use tools to build confidence in your writing as you need to - I'm a big fan of my spell-checker myself - but always remember we value quizzes written by you, that reflect who you are. Personality is more important than grammar (though grammar is good too!) Reply #1. Jan 05 25, 2:34 PM |
JanIQ 
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As an author with English only as "third" language, I'd like to add: keep trying. In the twenty-one years on FT, my knowledge of English has advanced a lot. Reply #2. Jan 06 25, 2:02 PM |
WesleyCrusher
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I'll also add a few personal words: Authoring quizzes is a form of art. And like any art form, generative AI will change it. I see generative AI neither primarily as a threat nor primarily as a chance. Used right, it is a tool like, in the years past, digital image editing has become a part of painting, 3d-printing has become a part of sculpting and the internet has become a part of research and writing preparation. Art is ultimately about realizing a vision. You can use tools - AI or conventional - to churn out something resembling art, assembly line style. You can also achieve just that manually. If you just produce for the numbers, quality will suffer - and one good quiz is worth more than five barely mediocre ones. But it won't truly be art unless your heart is in it. If AI helps you get closer to your vision, if it makes your work better, by all means, use it. If it doesn't make it better or, worse, it leads to you signing off a work you are not happy with, take a step back and try something else. Each work of art - each quiz, each question - should be yours and you are the first person who must be happy with it. Whether you choose to use AI or not, remember to always make it YOUR work. That's what counts. Reply #3. Jan 06 25, 4:12 PM |
looney_tunes
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I would like to pick up "You also need to fact-check your information and make sure it reads well" for comment. You need to remember that AI is simply collecting and summarising material that is available, with no concern about the accuracy of that material. It should not be your primary research tool. It can provide a starting understanding of the topic, but (just as when using Wikipedia or any other compilation source) you need to dig a bit deeper to be sure you have understood it correctly, and that the information was in fact accurate. Reply #4. Jan 06 25, 10:38 PM |
| agony
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I would like to re-emphasize that point - you cannot count on AI to give you accurate information. Using AI to polish up your prose is one thing, but depending on it to do your research is quite another. I'm seeing more nonsensically incorrect information lately in submissions - things like Mick Jagger being a member of the Beatles - that I have to assume come from authors using AI to write their quizzes. Reply #5. Mar 12 25, 7:27 AM |
Chavs
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I've discovered that AI makes up its best answer if it doesn't know, and this, i think, is an ominous threat to knowledge, and something this site can work to counteract - for the good of sanity and humanity! - by quiz makers doing their own research. In my case, I was reading a handwritten notebook from decades ago with some old phrases, scanned into googlebooks and transcribed by volunteers. I began to hit a couple of odd transcriptions so I went back, checked the handwriting, and found the mistakes and the original phrase. No problem, the text can be edited. The problem came when I googled both the incorrect phrase and the correct phrase, and the enforced AI program on google gave me a couple of paragraphs of a fulsome, plausible, but totally incorrect explanation of the meaning and origin of the phrase. I know it is incorrect because the name "Harry" is in the phrase in a book written decades before Harry Potter was dreamt of, or Prince Harry was even born, yet these were my AI answers. Reply #6. Apr 19 25, 11:36 AM |
kyleisalive
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Fortunately, many of our editors have been around the block after this long and can pick out a lot of surface errors, even if AI is giving the wrong ones. Correction notes are another good way to push back against the wrong stuff, even if they are a last resort when the quiz gets online. I have sent back questions/quizzes containing wrong answers and misconceptions in the past couple years, and I would wager those are as a result of leveraging AI. I would much rather see someone significantly reconstitute research derived from AI than just see it plunked from a generator in its characteristic choppiness with its general tells. Reply #7. Apr 19 25, 7:10 PM |
| looney_tunes
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Yesterday I had to do some research to handle some CNs on behalf of authors who haven't been around for a while, and three different times the AI summary that I was given as the first result of entering my search terms was factually incorrect. For example, I wanted to check the lyrics of a song that had been recorded by several groups, but entered the name of the first one, which included the person who wrote the particular song. I was told (in so many words) "ABC did not record [song title], it was XYZ, who had a hit in some year or other". That worried me, so I did some research into the albums of ABC, to find the song listed on one of their albums, a few years before XYZ had their hit. Reply #8. Apr 19 25, 10:22 PM |
8 replies. On page 1 of 1 pages. 1
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