Is it Ethical To Write blogs with AI

Since access to AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot has become easier, it has become easy to write blogs with AI. This has triggered a debate between the supporters of AI and others on the ethics of writing blogs with an AI tool.

People who use AI to write content swear by it, and for some AI is the worst thing that happened to creativity. I am somewhere in the middle.

My perspective here would be as a writer.

AI is used in many creative fields, but speaking on fields I am not actively part of would not be fair. 

I will be discussing different phases of writing and the role of AI in the same.

Ideation & Research

Before the internet, writers used to find ideas from their life experiences. An event in their personal life used to trigger an idea to write. As for research, libraries helped research these subjects. 

With the advent of the internet, people could search for ideas or research on the internet. Were the ones in libraries any less of a writer than the ones on the internet? 

AI is a tool that reduces the time of ideation and research. I do not consider such usage to be an issue. I regularly use Chat GPT to create an outline for a blog I write.

Takeaway: AI as a tool for ideation and research complements a writer, not replace them. It would not be smart to not use technology that makes your writing efficient.

Useful Tools: ChatGPT, Copilot.

Drafting

Before the internet, a writer used to draft a rough write-up based on their research. Copying someone’s content was wrong even then. This did not change once people started using the internet.

But with AI it is different. This is the one area of usage of AI that I have serious concerns over. Drafting a full write-up via AI without writer’s input is a sophisticated form of plagiarism. It does not create new content. It picks up content based on the data it is trained on and vomits out content which is a mix of all it has read.

The biggest issue with this usage of AI is the end product or the creator is no longer genuine. It has become a content mill with a large amount of content with no real human connection. This is especially detrimental to the readership of Medium. If I wanted to read content completely written in AI, I could just put some prompts on ChatGPT, why do I need to pay to get it? 

On blogging websites like Medium, we expect to read content from real writers, with writing influenced by their lived experiences. This is something Medium one of the major blogging platforms realised. This is what led to Medium going for the No AI policy recently.

Takeaway: Drafting an entire write-up via AI is plagiarism, it was not acceptable before, and should not be acceptable now.

Tools: NA

Editing

Before the internet when people used to write novels, they used to have professional editors.

This is expected since no human is untouched by the vices of indulgence or laziness. Many of the old writings became masterpieces due to the editors who dedicated hours to editing them.

The editor is responsible for telling the writer the hard truths. They also ensure the fluff in the story is cut down. The intent is not to remove the personal touch, but rather enhance the story for readability and clarity. 

Top writers have teams of people who do this editing for them. If established writers who have written 10s of best sellers need editors, it would be too arrogant of us to believe we do not.

This is where AI has again democratized the situation. Now anybody can write good well-edited pieces without having to pay sums of money to the established editor. Does using technology to edit your pieces make you less of a writer than the ones who pay for it? I think not.

I have been using Grammarly for automatic spell checks and better writing. This helps me, still a movie writer to deliver better articles.

Takeaway: Editing is a crucial part of writing good content. A piece not edited by someone other than the writer would not be at its highest potential. If established writers can have others edit for them, using technology to do the same does not make you any less of a writer.

Useful Tools: MS365, Hemingway App, Grammarly Premium.

Proof Reading

Proofreading is a step before publishing. Before the internet, any big writer would have someone else proofread their content. The advent of the internet did not change this much, except for introducing some basic tools used to check spelling and punctuation without context.

Now would you consider someone using the MS Word spell check to ensure their content is free of spelling errors less of writer? 

With AI the tools become more advanced. Now AI understands the context before suggesting punctuation, and spelling fixes.

Here again, the tools of today are essential to enhance writing and make it easier for individuals to write good stories.

Takeaway: Proofreading with AI is acceptable. Not everyone has the luxury of having a team to proofread their content. It would not be smart to skip such an important step when you have tools to assist you with it.

Useful Tools: MS365, Grammarly(Free & Premium)

Publishing

Publishing is the final step.

Before the internet, you needed to get accepted by a big publishing company or a newspaper. Mostly people with influence or money got published.

Writers without the means and influence rarely got a chance to be appreciated en masse. 

The Internet changed this, with easy publishing tools like WordPress and Blogger.com for blogs, Quora, Reddit, and Amazon KDP publishing became easier and democratized.

Are the people publishing here any less of a writer just because they are using technology to do so?

Many argue this led to subpar books being published. I agree but it is about the opportunity for all writers to get an audience, and let the audience decide to accept or reject them. In the absence of these, we might have never got a Nicolas Cole or Dickie Bush.

With AI it became possible to instantly convert writings to other languages, and publish across geography. AI helped in making it possible even for small writers to have their content translated and published across geographies..

Takeaway: With each passing year technology will make it easy to publish your content across the world in different languages. For those without a team to help them with it this is a potential of AI that writers should not take lightly.

Useful Tools: DeepL

What Do I Consider an AI Story?

For me an AI story is

1. One written completely by AI with no personal experience.
2. One rephrased by AI in artificial voice.

In the absence of real-life experience, the stories by AI are devoid of human emotions. These human emotions are what connect a reader with a writer. In the absence of the same, the content loses its soul.

Even when AI is solely used to rephrase a lived experience the writer’s voice is lost. This voice is also a factor that makes a story more human.

You may claim otherwise but that is how I see it. This is why I consider Tony Schwartz the writer of ‘The Art OF The Deal’, not Donald Trump. Every writer has a voice, rephrasing a story using AI loses that voice.

I am not a fan of personal stories written by AI, this is because with this you are no longer connecting to a human writer, but an AI.

AI is best when used to enhance the reader experience. But the experiences, the voice, and the words should still be the writer’s.

AI & Creativity

I wrote a story about how AI can never surpass human creativity. I ended it with my view that AI cannot surpass human creativity but it does not mean it should be ignored.

The fact is eventually AI will get so advanced that it can fake experiences too. Such experiences although fake, could be presented at a competency level that readers like you and me may never be able to compete with. The only power we have is our limitless creativity. The power that AI has is knowing how to quickly ideate, draft, edit, proofread, and publish content. You can only do these 5 things to an extent, but creativity is limitless.

This is our edge on AI.

Conclusion

In conclusion, staying away from AI is not a smart thing to do. This is like still writing stories on a typewriter in the age of computers. But at the same time use AI to complement your skills not replace them. 

Use AI to create a better version of your content, with your stories and experiences in your voice. Use AI to enhance your stories. Don’t make AI write for you, ask it to sit with you and guide you to get the best out of what you have created. 

AI complements Human Intelligence, and with time such upgrades would be necessary.

The tools of writers transitioned from pen to typewriter to PC, if these transitions did not make you any less of a writer, neither should the use of AI. 

We need to be careful and use AI as a tool to showcase our stories, not one that rehashes others’ stories disguised as being ours.

I wrote this piece without AI. But I did the help of Grammarly to spell check, and MS365 to improve readability, and used SEO tools.

It helped me split long sentences, avoid repetition, and cut the fluff. The idea, the words, and the voice are still mine. I use AI and other methods to improve my productivity. In this fast-changing and highly competitive world, this is very important to maintain your edge.

Does this make it AI content? 

Do you use any tools to improve your content, why or why not?