Is using AI cheating?

If I told you that this article was 90 per cent written by ChatGPT, how would you feel? Cheated – or it wouldn’t matter?

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

If I told you that this article was 90 per cent written by ChatGPT, how would you feel? Cheated – or it wouldn’t matter?

This is the question facing the white collar world as artificial intelligence, or AI, has been improving at such a rapid rate that scholars, teachers and organisations are struggling to keep up.

In the academic world, it’s been wreaking havoc. When programs like ChatGPT went mainstream two years ago, a professor friend of mine had to rewrite a course syllabus at a rapid pace. After all, what is the point of testing students on home-written essays that AI can spit out in two seconds? In schools, retaining knowledge and testing on critical thinking and writing abilities have become more challenging as answers can be found at the click of a button.

In the workplace, it’s a double-edged sword. As a person who has worked mainly in content and communications, there’s no doubt that it has made my job a lot easier. I can add a brain dump of information, and it spits it back more eloquently and succinctly than I could ever do in a million rewrites. I don’t have to bother a graphic design team for imagery; I can simply ask AI to do it. Slide decks, speeches, presentations, news bulletins – all simplified. But the catch-22 is, I know by using it, I am, of course, replacing myself. And it’s terrifying.

Many comms or creative workers – think those working in audio, writing, design, marketing, video, SEO, UX – are finding that it’s keep up with AI. There’s the contstant fear of being replaced by those who can – or the machine itself.

In terms of job outlook, the white collar world will experience a wipeout, replaced by the machine. Anyone who says otherwise is living in a fantasy, probably still playing Snake on their Nokia 3310 while listening to Naughty By Nature on the iPod Nano. Turns out, the AI that was here to help us is doing all the fun music writing and video producing – but no help yet on making the bed or doing the laundry.

For me, AI has been the ultimate frenemy. I use it every day, whether for work to help summarise content (I do have the ability to go on, not sure if you’ve noticed…) or personal – help with this CV, tell me the best places to visit in Italy, tell me what these symptoms mean. And, the trouble is… it’s good. So good, in fact, that it has really diminished my own creativity and love of writing. I’ll admit, I haven’t felt like writing anything creative in ages, knowing that AI can just do it for me, and probably better.

The other feeling I get is even if I do feel like writing, now, a million others can do it with AI. To me, I’m not even sure I want to stay in content work anymore. I’m afraid it’s dying, like print journalism or fax machines, and part of me thinks I should jump ship before it’s too late.

That said, there are plenty of those against the idea of it. Those that feel reading something by AI cheapens it, feels fake, or inauthentic. Tell me – if you found out I had put dot points into ChatGPT to ‘write’ this article, how would you feel? Does your nose crinkle up? Do you feel a bit slighted? (For the record, I did not.) I’ve asked many people this question, and the answers differ.

From my extremely small, qualitative data (note: asking a few people), those in more managerial roles – editors, teachers, or old school journos and writers and creatives –see using AI as cheating and inauthentic. Some won’t even touch it.

Others – generally younger people, or those not in the industry – love it, and see it as a great tool for helping them write clearer and more consistently. And then there are those of us in the middle – using it, unsure if it’s okay that we do, perhaps wondering exactly where the line is.

For me, at this time, I see it as a tool just like Grammarly or Microsoft spellcheck. An add-on, but not an all-inclusive. I personally also think there is a difference between using it for general purposes that aren’t from ‘me’ – for example, a work presentation, a CV, a news bulletin – and work you are presenting as your own, such as this article. The payoff also isn’t as good. Occasionally, someone will reply to one of these, highlighting a line they liked, and it makes me smile. If I didn’t even write it, there’s no sense of achievement there. I simply copied and pasted what a computer wrote. I woudn’t feel any sense of accomplishment out of a compliment for something a computer wrote.

But is it cheating? For that, I am unsure.

After all, it is a freely available tool that many workplaces are adopting – as they should. We need to move with the times, not fight against them – you don’t want your organisation to be the Blockbuster or Kodak of the 2020s (Gen Z, look it up). AI is also commonplace in many areas besides writing – think Siri, Alexa, any ChatBot, online shopping, Google Maps, smart home tech, and facial recognition – the list goes on. This is just one that has been accessible to the masses. But it is, in a way, sad.

Overnight, it seems to have swept away creativity. Why write a best man speech when ChatGPT can? Why write a poem, a letter, an expression of interest, an article? I’ll admit, the idea of writing anything outside of an opinion like this no longer excites me. I feel redundant and apathetic, knowing I can just put it into an app where it will probably be better, and it just saves So. Much. Time.

Unfortunately, AI makes me feel like I wasn’t really ever that good a writer when it organises my thoughts and ideas in a way I never could. It feels like hand washing when there’s a dishwasher right there. I’m just not motivated any more.

There will be creatives who disagree, who refuse to touch it and stay ‘authentic’. There will be schools and workplaces that ban it. There will be those who work with it, and those who expel humans at an alarming rate and replace them with it. Sometimes, I love it. Other times, like with social media and streaming, I wish it had never been invented.

Funnily enough, the one thing I was motivated to write about was about how unmotivated AI has made me. For now, my own personal ‘line’ comes from when I am writing directly from me to you – messy, long-winded, non-sensical and with a few typos here and there. It may not be the best, but it’s human – something ChatGPT can never replace.

For fun, I’ve put the above article through ChatGPT - what do you think? Could you tell?

What if I told you this article was mostly written by ChatGPT? Would you feel cheated — or wouldn’t it matter?

That’s the question confronting white-collar workers everywhere as AI reshapes our jobs faster than we can update our resumes.

In academia, it’s rewriting the rules. A friend of mine — a university lecturer — had to overhaul her syllabus overnight when ChatGPT went mainstream. What's the point of grading essays when an app can write a better one in seconds?

In the workplace, especially in content and comms, it’s a godsend — and a threat. I use AI every day: to tidy up messy paragraphs, generate slide decks, even create images. What once took hours now takes minutes.

But here's the catch: every time I use it, I know I’m making myself a little more replaceable.

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I’ve asked friends how they feel about AI-written content. The reactions are mixed. Managers, editors, and older creatives often recoil — they see it as cheating. Younger colleagues are less concerned. To them, it's just a tool, like Grammarly.

I’m stuck in the middle. I use it. I rely on it. And I hate that I do.

Because here’s the truth: I haven’t written creatively in months. Why bother, when AI can do it better, faster, and with more polish? What used to be a joy now feels redundant.

But this — this rambling, imperfect reflection — I wrote myself. Typos and all. And maybe that’s enough, for now.