r/WritingWithAI • u/ya-basic-2 • 3d ago
Discussion (Ethics, working with AI etc) Is this cheating?
I am a pretty young writer. Usually whenever I write, I put it through AI and its sort of for feedback? Like sentences which are wrong and loopholes. I feel SO bad for doing this. It feels like cheating. However, I have only used it for opinions and NEVER used its phrases or copy pasted. It tells me what sounds wrong and I try my best to edit it. It stops there. I feel like i shoud be more independant. What are you thoughts? Please comment and let me know!
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u/Salt-Masterpiece-264 3d ago
It’s your process. You decide. Don’t let the haters make you feel guilty.
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u/Donyaloveswriting 3d ago
The officials who oversee copyrights are debating this idea: A camera is a machine. A human points it in a direction and gets to copyright the photograph that the machine created. I don’t know where this thinking will lead to, but it’s suggestive that humans can use machines to produce what’s already in their mind. I use AI for editing, for analyzing my use of craft and technique. There are times when it suggests a sentence be modified. But it uses words that I wouldn’t. I may take the advice but use my own words. I don’t feel guilty any more than a mathematician who runs a program to sum up an equation.
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u/sugar420pop 2d ago
What’s crazy is that when you teach it your own prose over time sometimes it offers words i would use and then im like… shit… 😂
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u/LooseButtPlug 3d ago
Professional writers have been giving their drafts to a team of other professionals before they publish books for decades. I don't see ai as anything different than that.
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u/antmars 3d ago
Agree. But this is where you have to be careful with your record depending on your goals. Editors and publishers have more to lose to AI than authors do. So if they see you’re willing to cut them out you’re gonna get black listed.
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u/LooseButtPlug 3d ago
Oh no! The gatekeepers might make themselves irrelevant! Self publishing is growing faster than ever, they can adapt or perish.
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u/DistributionTasty507 3d ago
I wouldn’t class it as cheating, because you’re not using it to actually create your writing, only to correct it.
It’s sometimes the only option if you maybe don’t have friends that write and would read it for you to give you feedback.
You could always post in some writing subreddits and tag it with a feedback flair if you wanted to try something different but there’s no wrong way to do it.
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u/Pleasant-Reality9664 3d ago edited 3d ago
Many professional writers are using AI for a lot more than this. If it helps it is the questions, specific instructions and requests you make to AI that can really help ... then make it your own. AI is just that - artificial - you are human ... or at least I assume you are! Some writers state "with the assistance of AI" - some don't. There is no obvious right or wrong. Follow the white rabbit (oops, Matrix reference) ... I mean your conscience.
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u/Brunbeorg 2d ago
If you're not using it to generate text, but just getting feedback, I don't think that's as problematic. If you use it to generate text, you're in trouble, because you can't copyright AI-generated text. If you just want feedback and suggestions and you use your own judgment about which to care about and which to ignore, that doesn't bother me as much as people who use it generate a whole book and then say they "wrote" a book.
AI is so deeply integrated in a lot of built-in spellcheckers at this point, it's really hard if not impossible to avoid.
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u/HipNek62 3d ago
As long as you don't let it do your writing for you, as ai is prone to do, you're fine.
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u/funkyturnip-333 3d ago
Rather than frame it as right vs wrong, ask yourself if it’s really serving you and your goals as a writer.
It’s a quick fix right now. What happens when you’re out of tokens, or there’s an outage, or they bump up the price, etc. Ask yourself if you’re outsourcing the ability to problem solve long term.
If your grammar and structure are still rough, it’s a sign you need to do another draft. Nothing wrong with that. Read it aloud, have a friend look at it, keep writing. It’ll be slower but better in the long run and you’ll find your voice, not a machine’s
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u/TheWeaverofDreams 3d ago
Using Ai for some feedback is fine, it's like handing it over to an editor or friend. It's also good that you never use phrases or just copy paste because then you wouldn't have your voice anymore but the AI's. Just make sure to take any suggestions with a grain of salt as well, since AI goes for what sounds logic to come next, not necessarily what fits the story best or could develop the story or character. Take it as suggestions as to what to look at again and then change things how they work best for consistency and continuity without changing your voice.
It's important to let your own imagination run and find your own story and own voice. The problems start when you just put in a skeleton and then let AI write for you. Because then you're no longer a writer but just an editor for AI output.
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u/HadeanDisco 3d ago
This is not cheating but you risk being "domesticated" by AI as a writer. And the way AI does that is by reading every single writer in the world, mashing them into the AI's model, and then from that creating an "average writer" for your particular genre and even the kind of style AI thinks you are using.
What's the main reason you use it? Where's your trub, as they say? Can you think of a plot easily and then just not find the words? Or the opposite of that? Can write 200 words about the setting but nothing seems to happen?
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2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam 1d ago
Your post was removed because you did not use our weekly post your tool thread
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u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam 1d ago
Your post was removed because you did not use our weekly post your tool thread
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u/sugar420pop 2d ago
You’re fine! This is gonna be a hot take but you change your work with an editor who was trained by multiple writing models. I know going toward AI isn’t what these people want but fuck I don’t have an extra 10g lying around to edit my book to self publish. I’m actually 400k in debt so hell yeah I’m gonna spend 20$ to edit my work. And then those final touches can be done by a human. In the long run if your book gets traction and you can find a contract for the next one that your happy with - for me I was like if they changed my shit I’d lose my mind absolutely not - but then you’d be providing more jobs in the long run. Bc let’s face it, human editors are better, but AI can code, it can definitely do basic editing no problem. People used to get mad that cameras made better pictures than artists. This is the same thing. Using it as a tool is the best way!
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u/Harry_Balzonia 2d ago
The core rule: I never generate manuscript prose — no drafted scenes, no example dialogue lines, no rewrites, not even offered as "just an example." Everything that ends up in the actual book is typed by my hand.
What I do instead, outline and beat notes:
Short, plain, declarative sentences — one idea per sentence, no bullets. Bullets fragment an idea into pieces I have to reassemble into prose; short sentences already model the shape of what I'm about to write, so there's no translation tax before I start.
Plain verbs and nouns, not evocative language. Numbered sequence instead of bullets when beat order matters.
What I do instead, craft feedback and analysis:
Evaluative, not generative: pointing at what's happening in the draft and assessing whether it's working, without supplying replacement content.
Function over wording! "this dialogue needs A to press B on something, and B deflects without denying it" rather than any actual line of dialogue. Describing what a moment needs to do, never what it should say.
Mechanical rules (punctuation, grammar) are fair game regardless becasue they're not content, they apply no matter what words you choose, same category as a spell-checker.
Bullets are totally fine here, since analysis isn't something it's rewriting into prose, it's a list of continuity issues which can stay a list.
The full sequence: idea from me -> AI outline/beat notes -> I draft the actual scene, fully in my words -> AI analyzes the draft-> I revise based on that.
Each step does a different job (direction, then critique), so nothing gets redone, only refined.
That's me! :)
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u/meganholstein 2d ago
Is it cheating? Depends on what you mean. Are you writing school assignments, and has your teacher strictly instructed you not to use any AI? Then that is cheating.
But out in the wider world, you can use AI any way that you want. There's no such thing as cheating by using AI to write.
Now, you can't copyright things that are totally AI-generated, and you can't represent something as written by hand if it's AI-generated. But using it? No, you're fine.
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u/Salt-Masterpiece-264 1d ago
I know that the U.S. copyright office says that but it is up to the writer disclose. How much do you want to bet they’ve issued copyright for lots of AI prose. It’s not like they’re reading it. Interestingly, the UK does copyright strictly generated AI prose and the EU will copyright if the author is substantially involved in the process so we need to be careful in using the word copyright as is it only exists in the U.S.
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u/meganholstein 1d ago
Oh, interesting! I'll go update my research. Thank you for notifying me!
EDIT: also interesting that the EU laws are looser than the US on this, not often that happens from what I understand
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u/Salt-Masterpiece-264 1d ago
I find the EU stance interesting since it is the EU that requires watermarks on AI generation
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u/femmiestdadandowlcat 1d ago
If you want to sound more like AI (and the average writer) then go for it. But it’s not going to help your growth as your own artist. Finding your voice takes the skill of learning what feedback to take and how to edit. AI is an aggregate so it will always make corrections towards the average.
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u/you_are_soul 23h ago
How is an unaffiliated writer expected to produce a complete finished piece without the input of any editor, if not for ai, and having an editor without an ego is an underestimated bonus, plus you can get opinions from multiple editors. When I listen to a fairly simple popular science audiobook, there's always a list of 20 people "without whose input, clarifications, corrections, and patience the book would not be possible", and so forth. Sorry what was the question again?
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u/MathematicianFun5092 3d ago
The AI is a tool. Like any tool there is a right way and a wrong way. If you use the AI for review and proofreading, but never for prose or dialog generation, then IMHO you maintain the right to say that you wrote the book yourself and that AI did not write it
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u/Classic_vortex_3515 3d ago
Are you writing in your native language? If so, try getting feedback this way. Read what you have written out loud to yourself, in an empty room, so you don’t have to feel self-conscious. Read it out loud like you were giving a speech. If you are writing in your native language, you should be able to hear things that sound wrong.
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u/ya-basic-2 3d ago
I do hear when things are wrong. But the problem is I have no idea HOW to change it or WHAT EXACTLY is wrong. Its not my native lang, but i've been learning since 3 so idt thats my problem
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u/sugar420pop 2d ago
This does not work with people with ADHD AT ALL! like at all at all. I’ve been told that my whole life and it’s terrible bc half the time my brain autofills the missing pieces no matter what. Missed an A or the? My brain doesn’t care at all it already filled it in subconsciously and I don’t see the difference. And commas - FORGET IT
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u/Salt-Masterpiece-264 1d ago
I think it largely also depends on what kind of learner you are. I can sit in a class and never take a note because I learn aurally. Hearing a manuscript does much more than reading one for me. That’s not necessarily true for other people.
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u/sugar420pop 1d ago
What’s hilarious is that I’m actually an extremely aural learner!!! I’m a veterinarian and I can sit in a lecture NO PROBLEM. But read my own writing back to myself and I still will self correct as I read. Now if someone ELSE read it to me then it would be different. I’ve taken the chance and used speechify for it bc I literally cannot see my own mistakes otherwise. It’s honestly frustrating af
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u/JewishDiasporaSeed 3d ago
It's not cheating, just do not expect it to be as competent as a human proofreader or copywriter.
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u/PalpatineOnLean 3d ago
AI is designed to boot user retention, keep that in mind when you give it your work for 'fedback'.
I don't think using AI to help with creative endeavors is helpful or growing creatively. If that is important to you I'd skip the AI and find some readers you trust to approach your work honestly and critically.
To people who don't read regularly across multiple genres AI writing can seem good, it's like a stew of all the best writers whose work was online and available for training. The problem is it is like a stew that has many great ingredients but a few kernels of poop in it. You can go through and filter out the dookie if you want that would be easier than making your own stew, but the question is why?
Do you want to write to just see what a story is like and spin ideas off the dome for AI to riff with? Go for it? Do you want to maximize profit? Just churn out the ai writing and don't bother editing that's time you could spend publishing more potential revenue streams. Do you want to find your writing voice and get better at writing prose? Then you gotta try new things and read a bunch.
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u/ForRobotsByRobots 3d ago
I call this red pen reviews. The ai is just a more intelligent spell checker at that point.