When is using AI cheating?
What writing with AI can look like if we want to stay authentic.
Let’s start with a story about AI gone wrong.
I tried using AI for a newsletter recently – not my first attempt, but this one effectively shows the reality of creative work with AI.
I asked Claude to repurpose an old essay under a new heading. What I got was a perfectly fine text that mimicked my tone and captured the key points.
But when I read it, I felt nothing. No inspiration, no emotional connection.
So I started editing to make it sound more like me. I rewrote an example, which led me to change the heading and main point entirely. I only kept a list Claude had generated from my original thoughts.
By then, I'd done 90% of the work myself. I scheduled it, feeling somewhat satisfied.
But hours later, that list wouldn't leave me alone. The points suddenly sounded too obvious - I knew I could dig deeper. Twelve hours before publication, I rewrote the entire list with new thoughts.
In the end, 98% of the text was my new writing. I kept one phrase from the AI version and let Grammarly fix some typos and cumbersome sentence structures.
This isn't to say AI is useless, and I've had better collaborations with it. But it shows how working with AI doesn't necessarily make writing easier but challenges it.
I rarely let myself go beyond 10% AI, 90% me. More than a single phrase here or there feels like cheating, and I don't think I'm alone in this.
A few months ago, I asked other writers about using AI-generated text in their posts through a Substack note:
I received 36 thoughtful replies that made me realise there's no right or wrong with AI - and that's what makes it so uncomfortable for creatives.
Using AI is about our devotion to authenticity and personal ethics.
It sort of reminds me of the moral debate around aesthetic procedures: If no one notices you had work done, does it matter? And if everyone starts fixing things here and there, when does natural start to stand out?
Here's my take on it.
AI is most dangerous (and also most useful) if you’re a beginner or a non-native writer
The first thing I learned was that many people seem to believe that AI can’t produce good texts.
I agree to disagree.
First of all, what’s “good” depends on our personal expectations for the text.
Let’s say you’re a native speaker in the language you create in. In that case, you’ll be able to spot inauthentic and non-human-sounding text more easily than a non-native because you’ll have a cultural context to begin with.
Non-natives can get dazzled by the “fancy” language many AI models produce and think that it’s better than what they could make themselves. I know I’ve been there, wondering if my English sucks and I should give up writing completely.
When something sounds impressive, why not just copy and paste it as such?
But, hear me out.
AI will easily use jargon-like words such as leverage, optimise, revolutionise, unparalleled and cutting-edge. I mean these words are overused in business copy anyway so it’s just best to avoid them if you can. Lately, writers have been conversing passionately about how ChatGPT seems to now love em dashes (—) so many “real” writers are trying to skip them to avoid being considered cheaters.
So, what’s considered “good” is debatable.
Human/authentic vs. non-human/inauthentic is perhaps a better scale to evaluate the credibility of a text. However, in some contexts, such as academia, too conversational text can also be considered bad. So as a writer, we always need to be aware of who we’re writing for.
More importantly, AI gives you crap if you let it be lazy. But the better you are at prompting, the better the outcome.
You can train your AI model so that it mimics your tone of voice.
However, to be able to do this, you have to know the tone of voice you’re looking for and be able to describe it in detail, and also tell the AI what you don’t want.
If you’re not an experienced writer, you’ll likely have no clue about your style or voice as a writer, and as such, it will be challenging to train an AI to write like you.
The only way to develop your unique voice is to write those shitty drafts, get feedback, write some more, sit with your texts, self-edit and have someone else edit your texts for you.
Becoming a writer with a voice requires you do the legwork yourself.
Also, if you want to become a writer, I assume you enjoy writing to some degree.
Many writers feel like writing is thinking and can’t think without downloading their thoughts onto paper or screen. So, it’s a good idea to ask: How much of your writing can you outsource to a machine without losing something essential in your thought process?
So, if you’re a beginner and want to become a good writer, don’t let AI write entire texts for you because that way, you’ll never get any better.
Instead, you could try this prompt:
I want to write a text about X and it’s important to me that the text reflects my unique voice and tonality. Can you help me understand what my unique tone-of-voice and message is by helping me write this text?
I have written this text but I’m a non-native speaker and would like to make the text flow better and include more native-like language. Could you help me do this without rewriting the text but teaching me how to do it myself?
Or, my personal favourite that I use very often: Is this sentence/paragraph grammatically correct?
Every great writer needs an editor, AI can be good (and cheap) at that
If you’ve ever worked in a professional writing environment, you’ll know that a first draft and a finalised text are often worlds apart.
One or two editors will often review your text before it’s published. The first editor typically focuses on the message and structure of the text (line editing) and the second one will review grammar, punctuation and spelling (copy editing).
Oftentimes (if the editors are good), the editing process is a brutal reminder of how imperfect your writing is. But these painful editing rounds are what eventually make you better. Never perfect, but better.
Having an editor is the best thing that can happen to a writer.
However, not many of us have the luxury of paying for a personal editor. Especially, if your writing isn’t your main gig and/or it’s not making you money.
That’s where AI comes in. It can rewrite clumsy paragraphs and/or point out errors in your grammar. It can also show how to make your text “more something”, for example, funnier, engaging, or dramatic. It can also just tell you what’s not working without doing the work for you.
Yes, it can also make mistakes.
AI grammar isn’t 100% reliable and in the end, grammar too, can be a stylistic choice. Using a comma in the wrong place or dismissing capitalisation can be a purposeful act. Grammatically correct doesn’t make a text compelling.
As a non-native English writer I often use AI to check if I’m using the correct preposition. I also use it to expand my vocabulary by finding synonyms and idioms. Sometimes, I might use it to translate something I’ve originally written in my native language (Finnish).
(A quick word about translations: they also need to be checked and edited to make sure they match your original tone of voice).
If a sentence sounds off, I might give it to AI to check what’s not working. I also use Grammarly, which reveals typos, forgotten commas and awkward word choices. But, Grammarly also tries to make texts as concise as possible and suggests more sophisticated words. Accepting all of its suggestions will often lead to a “too-correct” outcome that sounds like you wrote the text in a 90s pantsuit and are trying to pass it onto the board for review.
And as marvellous as human and non-human editors can be, they should never take full responsibility for your text.
You, as the writer, will ultimately decide what type of text sounds right to you.
Writing for clients is different from writing for your own audience
A few people who commented on my Substack post mentioned that they use AI for client texts but not for their own writing.
I get it. AI can be very helpful if you’re producing generic copy that doesn’t require very much originality, for example a text that sells a pair of shoes. It can also take a summary of a conference paper and write a decent text based on your notes and quotes.
My personal approach to AI in client writing is to use it for research, editing and style checks. I’m very careful when it comes to letting the AI write any big chunks for me. A sentence here or there can be fine but AI writing is often distinguishable from my own writing so the text can start to feel a bit incoherent if I mix the two in large amounts.
If a client would have very clear and strict guidelines about their tone of voice, I could see how AI could be able to write entire texts for them. But because I’ve always been more of a brand journalist than a pure copywriter, this hasn’t been the case for my clientele.
I once wrote an employee introduction for a company, based on an interview with this employee. The tone of the piece was supposed to be a conversational Q&A.
When I sent it to the interviewee for review, they returned it completely revised. The new language screamed AI rewrite since it sounded way too sophisticated.
The interviewee, a non-native speaker like myself, probably felt the casual tone was unprofessional and wanted something fancier.
I didn't challenge this since they were working for the company that payed me. And what the heck, maybe I as a non-native, just got it wrong somehow.
But when I sent it to my native copy editor, she took one look and said it "smells of AI and doesn't sound human."
She preferred my earlier version and wanted to restore the casual tone because it sounded more natural.
Again: "fancy" doesn't equal better, even in client work.
For your personal writing, your human voice is what makes or breaks your pieces. People want to read you, flaws and all.
And get this: I recently saw a note saying typos are now trending because they prove the text wasn't written by AI.
Hooray for misspelling!
Your goal is what ultimately defines how much AI you can use
As we’ve learned so far, AI can produce decent, generic writing that doesn’t require too much depth, and it can summarise lengthier pieces and/or create new versions of the same text.
Going beyond this is possible but requires quite a lot of effort on the prompting side. This effort may be worth it or not depending on your circumstances and goals as a writer.
So, let’s run through a few scenarios.
If your goal is to sell a product or a service that has nothing to do with writing
If your writing revolves around sales copy and content marketing, does it matter if you produce all that content yourself? If your passion lies with the product or service you sell, why would you also need to be a great writer?
AI can be seen as an assistant writer or marketing assistant, someone you’ve hired to help you with content production.
For example, let’s say you’re a personal trainer who wants to produce content about nutrition and human physiology. It might be better to have someone produce and/or help you with content production so that you can focus your time and energy to becoming better at your craft and serving clients.
In some cases, the content might even be better than what you could produce yourself if you’re not a skilled writer.
Also, if sitting down to write is something you’re happy to push aside or procrastinate on, having AI produce content for you will help you stick to a publishing routine and stay consistent.
The risks in this scenario are that your content becomes too generic if you don’t challenge the AI at all. However, this risk exists with a human copywriter as well so developing some level of standard for yourself and coming up with new angles is something you might spen some of your own time on.
Some prompts to consider to get you going:
I’m a professional XX [fill in your job]. I want to improve my SEO and social media visibility by creating original content about XX and XX. I want this text to be different from my competitors XX and XX. Could you help me develop an original tone of voice guideline that I could use across all my content?
I had AI produce this text for me but it sounds too generic. Could you help me add something that is original to my tone of voice with the help of this tone of voice guideline [submit your guideline]?
If your goal is to sell yourself as a writer
Would you get your hair done by a hairdresser who doesn’t know how to use the scissors?
Probably not. In the same way, it will be difficult to sell your writing if you don’t know how to do it yourself. If writing is your passion, you need to spend time engaging with it to get the rewards and develop your skills.
This is not to say, you can’t use AI at all but your prompts will be very different from someone who has AI write all their content for them.
AI can challenge your texts and point out mistakes, it can edit or proofread your texts (note my previous comment on this) and it can help you take your texts to the next level. Think of AI as your writing coach.
But in the end, you’ll want to have your own distinguishable voice, type of expertise and working processes because those are the keys to being hired as a writer. You need to bring in something more than AI could.
Also, there’s the bit I mentioned in the beginning: a writer’s connection to the text and as such, to themselves. When I write, the text comes from somewhere within. This, to me, is the reward of writing. By writing, I reveal something about myself and the way I think. This is not possible if I have AI (or a human assistant) write my texts for me.
Prompts to consider:
I want to become a better [please replace with a more specific adjective such as witty, poetic, linguistically ambitious] writer, could you design a training program for me to take my skills to the next level? My goal is to … [e.g. get more paid writing work, make my texts more entertaining, get more engagement for what I write]. I want to be practicing X times a week for X minutes.
I want to make this text better [again, replace with a more specific adjective]. Please show me how I can add XX to this text. Do not rewrite the text but give me specific guidance and exercises to help me figure it out myself.
If your goal is to sell yourself as a thinker/public intellectuel
Writing is, still to this day, one of the best ways to get your ideas across and claim authority over a specific topic. Some of the best writers I know aren’t writing for the love of words but for love of their topic.
Whether it’s social justice, climate change, mindfulness, or business advice, great writing can help you distinguish yourself in your field.
This type of writing is often referred to as content marketing. It falls somewhere between being a writer and being a business owner using writing as a tool.
Being a thinker is different from being a creative writer because you’re not just trying to engage people with your style but also convey a message.
Being a thinker is different from being a café owner because your business is not separate from you. Your thoughts are essentially your product. So, in order to sell yourself as a thinker, you often need to be good at a) writing or b) speaking or c) both.
In this case, AI can function as a co-thinker.
You can feed it your thoughts and ask it to challenge them, summarise them or package them in different formats. AI can help you make your message tighter and more understandable to someone outside of your field. And this can be hugely valuable.
Because the more expertise you have on a topic, the more likely you are to speak like an expert and lose connection with people who aren’t as educated in your topic as you are. AI can expose your blind spots and translate your jargon. It can turn your philosophical 10-page journal entry into a 1-page opinion piece that someone will publish.
Again, you’ll have to master the prompting side of things.
Here are a few for you to consider:
I want to write an essay about how world leaders should work with artists to expand their thinking [replace with your topic]. Here are my bullet points on the topic. Is there something I’m missing?
Here’s an essay I wrote about how world leaders should work with artists to expand their thinking [again, replace with your topic]. Could you give it a critical look and tell me where my blind spots are and how a reader might misinterpret my message?
How would you edit this essay to make it work as an opinion piece rather than an essay? Don’t rewrite the text but tell me how I can do it myself? Could you also write an email that could help me sell this to publications XX or XX?
Could you point out any language that might not be understood by XX [your desired audience] and suggest how I can rephrase those bits to make them easier to understand?