Dr Manu Saunders

Equity, Ethics, and genAI in Academia Generative AI tools are openly accessible, increasingly normalised, and mostly inequitable. They’re a great example of a marketing success benefiting a specific industry that has quickly ignited a …

Equity, Ethics, & genAI

“students & staff are reminded of the risks & advised of ‘prohibited’ uses at the same time as inhouse genAI tools are actively promoted […] ethical responsibility is passed on to staff & students, with few clear guidelines...” ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/2026/01/30/e...

Australia’s grid now relies on renewable energy as much as coal. Those who doubted it look foolish Solar met the majority of electricity demand between 9am and 6pm in the past week as much of the country cranked air conditioners

Solar provided 59% of electricity in the Australian national (east coast) grid between 9am and 6pm over the past week. It was 30% of total generation.

Life moves pretty fast etc.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Equity, Ethics, and genAI in Academia Generative AI tools are openly accessible, increasingly normalised, and mostly inequitable. They’re a great example of a marketing success benefiting a specific industry that has quickly ignited a …

We all have opinions about using genAI, but what happens when our collaborators, students or stakeholders hold different views? I've already run into several of the challenges @manusaunders.bsky.social identifies here.

Very thoughtful piece asking important questions that we will increasingly face - esp those of us who are "conscientious objectors." We need to start discussing these questions & to push our institutions to address them.

"Boundaries are blurred when an organisation or institution claims to prohibit genAI use for writing assessments or research outputs, but supports and encourages its use for almost every other teaching, learning and research activity."

A really good article here...

Equity, Ethics, and genAI in Academia Generative AI tools are openly accessible, increasingly normalised, and mostly inequitable. They’re a great example of a marketing success benefiting a specific industry that has quickly ignited a …

New blog: we need more policies and guidelines that help us navigate professional disagreements and conflicts over genAI use and deliver fair and equitable outcomes for individuals #AcademicSky #HigherEd ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/2026/01/30/e...

1. The thing about science that these jokers don't understand is that science cannot be vibe-coded.

Whatever its flaws, the point with vibe coding is that you're trying to quickly make something that sorta works, where you can immediately sorta see if it sorta works and then sorta use it.

i.e. humans

Intense heatwave spreading across Australia, catastrophic fire danger in SA on Saturday An intense and prolonged heatwave will sweep across Australia from this weekend into next week.

Extreme heatwave for most of SE Australia this week. Here in Armidale, previously cool temperate summer rainfall, it is so hot and dry our dirt is cracking while gardens still appear green. Stay safe, put your birdbaths in the shade and keep them full www.weatherzone.com.au/news/intense...

Thanks Robin! It's a common journey for academic parents, hopefully systems will change.

More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.

Survey conducted by one for-profit publishing company. Respondents were authors/reviewers/editors of said company and were incentivised to respond... Not actually evidence that 'more than half of researchers' use AI for peer review #AcademicSky www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How my academic life changed after I had my first child I’ve missed writing. It’s been just over four years since I became a parent and almost two years since I wrote an actual blog. Priorities change, emotions change, life changes. Absolutely normal.…

New blog, after a hiatus: not groundbreaking stuff, but I muse on how having a child changed my work priorities and made me realise how holes in the equity net can easily drop new parents out of the academic network #AcademicSky ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/2026/01/22/h...

Thank you! And congrats and all the best for number 2!

How my academic life changed after I had my first child I’ve missed writing. It’s been just over four years since I became a parent and almost two years since I wrote an actual blog. Priorities change, emotions change, life changes. Absolutely normal.…

New post: It's been a while between blogs, but I'm still here ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/2026/01/22/h...

Using multiple lines of evidence, we show that feral cats and red foxes are strongly implicated in most Australian mammal extinctions and in the ongoing imperilment of numerous extant species. academic.oup.com/bioscience/a...

A large collaborative effort to rebut Wallach and Lundgren (2025).

Non-English language ecology journals Science is dominated by the English language. Imagine the wealth of natural history and ecological knowledge in the many ecological journals published in languages other than English. And imagine i…

Ecology. I always cite most appropriate/relevant source regardless of language. Ecology literature is very English-dominated but lots of examples of region-specific natural history, species distribution and field studies in other languages, eg 👇 ecologyisnotadirtyword.com/academic-mis...

(*) note that most unis have moved away from restricting students from genAI use, and lecturers are often unable to directly penalise a student who has used genAI tools to create their assignment, which means it's really not a great time for education

This is absolutely the opposite of what I (and others) teach in ecology: due to funding and logistical issues, older papers can often be the 'authority' on a particular species or topic. Evaluating research is about relevance and quality in context, not isolated metrics like publication year!

One of my Ecology assignments asks student to evaluate literature on a chosen topic. A common statement from students who appear to(*) have used genAI tools for evaluations is that paper age is a 'key limitation', ie papers published 5-10+ yrs ago lack relevance/integrity (even if directly relevant)

One of the main problems with normalising genAI use for undergrad student 'learning' or assessment writing is how it's misleading students about research processes, especially discipline-specific processes and values. Example from Ecology below 🧵🧪 #AcademicSky

New #OpenAccess research in #RESInsectConsDiv

Seasonal dynamics in terrestrial #insect #communities after the impact of the Brumadinho tailings dam disaster
doi.org/10.1111/icad.70052

#Biodiversity #PopulationDynamics
@manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyecology.bsky.social

New #OpenAccess research in #RESInsectConsDiv reports that #soil sand content is a driving force in structuring #bee #communities
doi.org/10.1111/icad.70051

#Conservation #InsectHabitats #Distribution
@manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyeco.bsky.social

Why is a Labor Premier silencing a writer?  - The Shot For many Adelaideans, Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) is the highlight of their year. A glorious six days when the Pioneer...

This is Jo Dyer @instanterudite.bsky.social at her most brilliant best.

Jo is a former Adelaide Writers' Week director, and this article beautifully sums up her fury at the needless destruction of one of Australia's most world famous arts events.

@theshot.net.au

theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

I cannot be party to silencing writers, which is why I am resigning as director of Adelaide Writers’ Week | Louise Adler Cancelling the Australian Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah weakens freedom of speech and is the harbinger of a less free nation

Warrior Louise Adler.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Split-screen image on a deep green background. Left side contains a statement from Dr David Obura, IPBES Chair, regarding the US withdrawal from IPBES and extinction threats to over 1 million species. Right side shows a photograph of a man wearing glasses, dressed in a dark jacket and grey shirt, seated at a conference table with a microphone. The IPBES logo appears at the bottom with the tagline "Science and Policy for People and Nature". The design features white typography on the dark green background, creating a professional contrast. Several small pins or badges are visible on the speaker's jacket.

“We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.”

IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors.

— @davidobura.bsky.social , @ipbes.net Chair

The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.

Prioritising profit over quality and integrity of scholarship = enshittification #academicsky theconversation.com/the-5-stages...

This is one aspect of a modern academic's workload that is often overlooked...the extra time we now need to spend crosschecking manuscripts/assessments for inappropriate genAI use #AcademicSky

What the hyperproduction of AI slop is doing to science A new study shows AI writing is turning traditional measures of research quality upside down.

"Generative AI boosts academic productivity...The number of preprints an author produced was a measure of their productivity, while eventual publication in a journal was a measure of an article’s quality." Seems like biased criteria! #AcademicSky theconversation.com/what-the-hyp...

New #OpenAccess work by @rocb-ento.bsky.social, @katatrepsis.bsky.social & W. Kunin in #RESInsectConsDiv explored the effect of bulb type on moth trap catch & composition in UK gardens
doi.org/10.1111/icad.70050

#GardenMothScheme #Biodiversity #ALAN
@manusaunders.bsky.social @wileyeco.bsky.social

Media release: Unity must guide the Government's response to Bondi attack, not divisive pro-Israel wishlist

Full release available at the link in our bio.