What are the best practices for using colons and semicolons in academic writing?

It might be useful to give a correct example! For instance: 1. There are three main types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. 2. The author's main argument is: "Human history is a history of migration and adaptation". [Note the correct omission of "that".] The third example given by the AI is just wrong: I assume it is misinterpreting that as a list. [Note my use here of a colon to separate two independent clauses where the second one explains the first. A period/full stop would be equally correct, but a colon serves to signal this linkage to the reader.] Catching and correcting the mistakes made by AI is just one of the *many* benefits of using a human editor!

The second sentence was not correctly punctuated with semicolons. Should be semicolons at Spain and law, not commas. Whoever is producing these articles needs to read them first.

A colon should be used to introduce a list only when a complete sentence precedes the colon. So, a better example would be "The main causes of the problem are the following: lack of funding, etc." In the text given, there should be no colon after "are."

Using a colon to demark speech is stylistically odd. The goal of writing speech should be to have it glide in with the text and appear a natural part of the writing as much as possible. Here, the colon situation is clunky and obtuse. It breaks the flow and highlights the unnaturalness of the speech being used. Better to leave the colon out; less punctuation is often more effective.

Funny that this section ignores its own advice and consistently uses a semicolon prior to a conjunction! Ignore this advice an definitely do not take the use of semicolons here as a good example!

This article is bound to cause confusion because it contains inaccuracies, as others have already pointed out. AI is clearly not there yet, and having a human editor (assuming someone with the right skill set) check it first would have prevented the errors. My suggestions for someone needing help with punctuation and/or style: be sure to find out if you are required to use a certain style for your document, use that style guide to format your work, and before submitting it, print your document, read it closely, mark up your errors, then make those changes. Many universities offer writing guides on their websites that anyone can use for free, and they are good places to go for questions about academic writing in particular.