There is an ongoing debate—or perhaps more accurately, a mix of debate and shaming—around the use of AI in writing. As a writer, I find myself asking: If I use AI, am I a cheat? Does it matter whether my writing was assisted by AI?
For me, it all comes down to purpose. Why am I writing? If I write to process my thoughts, to clarify what I’m thinking, then AI isn’t much help—at least not in the crucial first draft. That messy, unfiltered stage still requires me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and wrestle with my ideas.
AI may, however, help me take a tangled web of thoughts and structure them more coherently. Or it might not. Sometimes, when I feed my muddled ideas into an AI, it returns polished but hollow prose—eloquent sentences that ultimately say nothing. AI excels at turning bullet points into paragraphs, but if my bullet points lack clarity, AI won’t magically fix that. It doesn’t understand context, and it certainly doesn’t grasp nuance. Those are elements I must add myself.
So, can AI play a role in my writing? I think it can and sometimes does. Why? Because sometimes, I’m too lazy to check my grammar, or I simply want a faster way to organize my scattered thoughts. I might toss my ideas into an AI and ask it to make sense of them. But in reality, it doesn’t make sense of them—it presents them differently, offering a new perspective. Then, it’s up to me to sift through what AI generates, take what works, and refine it to ensure my writing expresses exactly what I mean.
Writing remains a process that starts with me. Even if I begin with a prompt, I must generate that prompt. My writing usually begins with my muse—my wandering thoughts—or my keyboard, as I type through my stream of consciousness. Sometimes, I can organize that myself; other times, I enlist AI to help. But ultimately, AI is just a tool—a sounding board that helps me refine my message.
Does that mean my work is “written” by AI? Personally, I don’t think so. I’m still the one thinking, writing, and shaping my ideas. AI helps me get my thoughts out faster, making it more likely that I share them at all. If using AI allows me to articulate my ideas more clearly and reach a wider audience, does that make me a cheat?
At its core, writing is about ideas. So, is it the idea behind the writing that matters, or the specific words used to express it? This question reminds me of the distinction between big-T Truth and narrative truth. Big-T Truth presents events exactly as they happened, but that doesn’t make for a compelling story. For that matter, when it comes to lived-experience is there really such as thing as big-T Truth? Narrative truth shapes real events into an engaging experience that resonates with readers on an emotional level.
If I use AI to help transform my raw memories into a compelling story, is that wrong? If I use AI to refine my prose so that my readers can better experience what I’m sharing—to show rather than tell—is that cheating?
We don’t feel the need to credit a word processor for enabling us to rearrange sentences. We don’t label spell check as a co-author. So why should I be obligated to disclose that I used an AI tool to help shape my writing, especially if it wasn’t generating original ideas but merely assisting in articulation?
AI, to me, is just another tool in the writer’s toolbox. It doesn’t replace the creative process; it simply helps refine it.
What do you think? Is AI supported writing cheating?
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