my coworker is using AI to do her work (badly)

A reader writes:

I am a senior project manager in a nonprofit. Over the summer, I been working on a series of focus groups and was assigned Lola as an intern. Our office aims to provide meaningful training to our interns, as nearly 80% of them are hired after their internships, so I assigned Lola to write one of the focus group reports. She was present at the focus group itself and was given the audio recording and transcript, plus a report template with guiding questions in order to complete the assignment.

I had a previous experience with an intern producing reports with AI, which required tons of rework. So when I first assigned this to Lola, I explained that AI is not a reliable tool for this type of work, as it often provides incorrect answers, fabricates quotations, and can hallucinate during data analysis.

Well, Lola turned in the report and it was clear she had used AI: the report included multiple “quotations” that were not things that had been said at all, and the analysis was incorrect. I told my manager we were going to miss the deadline since we would have to redo the work. In my feedback to Lola, I didn’t call out the AI use specifically, but I pointed out every quote that was made up and highlighted where the analysis was wrong. This was easy for me to do because I had attended the focus group too, but I pointed out to my boss that if that hadn’t been the case, I might not have recognized the problems with her work.

At the end of her internship, Lola ended up being hired as a junior project manager. I hadn’t been the only one working with her so I assumed she had improved. But she was recently assigned to work with me again and was responsible for a series of interviews and reports. She received a detailed protocol for the work, including a template with guiding questions (again).

When she sent me the reports, I could immediately see that she must have uploaded the interview transcripts into AI, entered the guiding questions one by one, and then copied and pasted the answers. The report was confusing and lacked key information. I didn’t feel I should mention the use of AI in my feedback since I was only 90% sure that that’s what she had done, so once again I just flagged the incorrect info and places that needed further elaboration. She then sent me a revised version – and I’m again 90% sure that she just used my comments as prompts for AI and then adjusted only the specific parts of the text I flagged, without checking its consistency with information included elsewhere.

I was really pissed off at this point, as we had already missed a deadline because of this, but I just told her she had to be more careful about storytelling, reader-friendliness, and consistency and declared her task closed. I felt asking to revise text again was a waste of my time; she would have continued working with AI anyway and I was fed up with providing encouraging feedback to someone whose work shows no real skill beyond copying and pasting.

I need to talk with my manager about Lola at this point, and I believe it should also be reported to higher-ups. This is a serious quality matter, as we could have our project budget cut if an analysis is poor quality and AI use is identified. I truly believe Lola’s employment should be reconsidered, or at least she needs better training. But I’m not her direct manager; she’s just been assigned to assist me in my work, and I’m unsure how much standing I have to take this on directly, either with her or with anyone else. How should I deal with this massive and inappropriate use of AI from a colleague?

You can read my answer to this letter at New York Magazine today. Head over there to read it.

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