Academic Writing with AI in Research – What Is the Problem?
New research shows that large language models generate surprisingly similar, conflict-avoidant narratives – regardless of context. In this talk, Jill Walker Rettberg discusses why such systematic biases make generative AI problematic in research, journalism, and other forms of critical knowledge work.
Main content
Jill Walker Rettberg is Professor of Digital Culture and Deputy Head of the Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) at the University of Bergen. Her research focuses on digital narratives, self-representation in social media, and artificial intelligence.
Rettberg has particularly explored how narratives, technology, and society shape one another. She currently leads the five-year ERC-funded project AI Stories (2024–2029), which investigates how narrative archetypes in training data shape the output of language models, and how this may affect cultural diversity and bias in generative AI.
In a study of 11800 AI-generated narratives, Rettberg and her colleague Hermann Wigers demonstrate that GPT models tend to produce stories with remarkably homogeneous, conservative, and conflict-avoidant narratives, regardless of cultural context. Rettberg refers to this new form of AI bias as narrative standardization (2025).
In an interview with Forskerforum (2025), Rettberg expresses her concern and now argues that language models simply do not belong in knowledge professions where accuracy and expertise are critical.
Jill Walker Rettberg will present this work using examples from her own research. The talk will be followed by an open discussion and exchange of experiences, moderated by Gry Ane Vikanes Lavik, Michael Grote, and Nivedita Gangopadhyay
Rettberg JW and Wigers H. AI-generated stories favour stability over change: homogeneity and cultural stereotyping in narratives generated by gpt-4o-mini [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]. Open Res Europe 2025, 5:202 https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20576.1
KI-forskar Jill Walker Rettberg vil ha KI ut av kunnskapsarbeidet
Jill Walker Rettberg er professor i digital kultur og nestleder ved Senter for digitale fortellinger (CDN) ved Universitetet i Bergen.
