This is NOT my essay. Or is it?
what defines creation when AI services are involved? (an experimental essay)
This essay isn’t mine.
But it is.
Kind of.
Yesterday, I went for a stroll along a waterway. The wind was too strong for a proper conversation on my AirPods, so I turned down a quiet side street lined with palm trees and hedges. There, amid the windy calm, I dictated the first draft of this essay into OtterAI, an app on my phone that transcribes everything I say. Well, dictate is generous since I was speaking off the cuff with no notes. Ramble is more accurate!
I rambled for a few minutes, stopped walking, checked the transcript, and pasted it into ChatGPT. A few clicks later, I asked the AI to clean it up and turn it into a polished essay. Five minutes of effort, and I had something decent. It felt like having a ghostwriter hand me a solid first draft — stilted and imperfect, but definitely a good start.
When I got home, I rewrote the draft, adding my voice and humor and a few points the AI missed. Whenever a sentence didn’t sound right, I asked ChatGPT for suggestions. Then, because I like to experiment, I used ElevenLabs to clone my voice and create an AI-generated audio version of the essay. If you’re listening to the audio right now, that’s not me speaking — it’s my AI doppelgänger. To complete the artifice, I fed a picture of myself into an AI photo editor and created a song about the topic using Suno.
So here we are. Everything about this essay is fake — mediated or assisted by AI. Yet, somehow, it still feels like my creation. Or does it?
What I’m trying to show with this experiment is how technology, especially AI, complicates the whole idea of what it means to create something original. Most of the time, writing is a personal act — a solitary process of sitting down, thinking deeply, typing, deleting, retyping, and editing. But in this case, my words have gone through multiple layers of AI processing before they reach you.
OtterAI transcribes my spoken thoughts, ChatGPT refines them, and I step in at the end to rework the essay into something that feels like me. I’m less a writer and more a project manager, overseeing different phases of AI involvement. So, does that mean this essay isn’t really mine?
This isn’t just a question for writers. Think about digital artists using Adobe Illustrator, photographers enhancing images with AI, or musicians composing with algorithms. Where does original creation truly begin or end?
Here’s where it gets even more complicated: AI, like ChatGPT, is trained on massive datasets — words, art, and music created by real people. So, the creative fuel behind this essay isn’t truly mine, or even the AI’s. It’s drawn from the collective work of countless creators. In a way, I’m just repackaging what’s already been done, filtered through an algorithm. Does that make it a form of plagiarism, even if I’m rewriting it?
Maybe authorship is now a spectrum, where creation and curation intertwine. I suppose this is how I view myself in this experiment — a collaborator with technology rather than an old-school author crafting every word by hand. But does that make this any less of a creation? Or perhaps a different form of writing, like digital art versus an oil painting?
There’s still something comforting in thinking we’re steering the ship. But if I’m honest, I’m not sure who did most of the work on this essay — me or the machine. As much as I love this workflow, I can’t help but wonder if I’m still a creator or just a glorified prompt engineer LARPing as a writer.
In the end, maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the idea of an “original” creation is shifting, becoming less about the solo artist and more about collaboration with the tools we choose. I still signed my name on this essay, but maybe I shouldn’t have because it’s not fully mine.
But hey, that’s not for me to decide. I’m curious what you think.
Thank you for reading this experimental essay. Last week, I wrote about a related topic. You may enjoy that essay, “Why do I say thank you to Alexa?”
A timely exploration, Jeff. How much interference is enough. What does it mean. Where does originality end and groupthink blend in? What is the difference in using ChatGPT to make suggestions vs three rounds in feedback and ideas gym?
AI has become another challenge as my students are always looking for shortcuts in getting their work done. I stress the importance of learning to be an effective writer and doing their own work. But I am still finding numerous students on every assignment using AI. Even personal essays or interviews. I hate having to threaten every time I give an assignment. Thoughts?