Established: 6 May 2026.
Last reviewed: 6 May 2026.
Preamble
The Hilltop Monitor understands that the usage of generative artificial intelligence (hereafter “GenAI”) represents a complex and challenging problem for the world of journalism. On the one hand, GenAI could assist in raising the standard of journalism, perhaps by assisting the editing process or enabling students with a weaker command of English to share important, diverse perspectives. On the other hand, GenAI poses significant ethical challenges to journalism: it can hinder trust in journalism, violate the copyrights of others, and hallucinate key information.
The Hilltop Monitor is a student newspaper, which means it is written by students and designed to be accessible to an undergraduate audience. The Hilltop Monitor exists to inform the campus community and enable student voices by providing a platform in which student voices can develop and flourish.
General Provisions
In general, student journalists should avoid the usage of GenAI when writing pieces for The Hilltop Monitor, especially when drafting. GenAI must not be used to generate bulk copy, substitute for thorough investigation, or otherwise replace the human voice critical to the journalistic process.
However, the Editorial Board understands that GenAI may be useful to some authors in some elements of the writing process, including initial research, source collection, and adding polish. If a student journalist is unsure whether a use case of GenAI is acceptable, they should consult the Editorial Board. Whenever GenAI is used in such cases, authors must be careful to retain their voice and their ownership of the content.
Authors who use GenAI must further be aware that it has been documented to have implicit biases and hallucinate information, neither of which align with the mission of the Hilltop Monitor. When submitting, authors assert ownership of their content, including responsibility for all errors. The Editorial Board will not accept excuses that hide behind GenAI and obscure accountability.
In the event that an author uses GenAI to assist in the creation of a piece, such use must be disclosed to the Editorial Board and a notice of AI assistance will be added as a post-script to the piece once published. Use of GenAI does not disqualify a piece from being published; non-disclosure of GenAI usage does.