THE ETHICS OF USING AI: PART 1: Father-son conversation reflection

By Leo Novsky with ChatGPT Support

This past Monday night, as Seattle rain drizzled around us and I drove my 12-and-a-half-year-old son home from hockey practice, we had a conversation unlike any other. It wasn’t about the Nerf guns he 3D-prints, the Mazda Miata he dreams of converting one day, or even the hockey he’s so passionate about. No, this discussion was unique for two reasons.

First, the topic itself was extraordinary: the ethics of using AI to create posts for something deeply personal to me—our Defying the Odds podcast. Second, this wasn’t just a discussion between him and me—it was a three-way conversation with the AI itself.

Now, a little about Kai: my 12-and-a-half-year-old son, who in the past year has sprouted like a weed, now wears size 10 shoes and is just two centimeters shorter than I am. (At this rate, he might even surpass me by the time someone reads this post ??.) He’s broad-shouldered, with a mop of long, unruly blonde hair, and was sitting in the car in his sweaty hockey clothes after a long practice.

Last month, I subscribed to ChatGPT to help streamline my work. It’s been invaluable, saving me hours by assisting with research, strategy, and drafting posts. Yet my son posed a powerful question during our discussion: "Is it authentic, and is it ethical, to use AI to help edit any post that’s deeply important to you—beyond simply fixing grammar and punctuation?"

What followed was remarkable. As I listened quietly, my son engaged directly with the AI, speaking aloud while the AI responded verbally. The AI didn’t just agree or disagree—it countered his points thoughtfully and posed open-ended Socratic questions to challenge his stance. These were some of the questions the AI asked my son:

1. If the intention and the core ideas come from you, does it matter if AI helps refine your expression?
2. Does editing with AI remove authenticity, or can it enhance clarity without altering your message?
3. If using AI saves time, allowing you to devote more energy to other aspects of your passion, is that a net gain or loss in authenticity?
4. How do you define ownership of content? Is it the effort put into writing, the originality of ideas, or both?
5. Would you feel differently if the AI’s role was openly disclosed to your audience? Does transparency change the ethical equation?

Each question invited my son to pause, reflect, and refine his argument. I watched in awe as he thoughtfully reacted to these questions, taking a firm stand, challenging the AI’s reasoning, and sharpening his own beliefs in the process.

But it wasn’t just about the dialogue itself—it was also about how this exchange was pushing Kai to refine his arguments and build his intellectual skills in a way I haven’t been able to do on my own. Maybe it’s because of my own limitations, or maybe it’s just that a 12-year-old typically doesn’t want to listen to his father. Either way, seeing the AI challenge him in ways that stretched his reasoning left me with a profound sense of pride and reflection.

Interestingly, I was mostly silent throughout. (For those who know me personally, that fact alone will be hard to believe! My son had already heard my perspective—that intention, content, and ideas create ownership and therefore authenticity. But he didn’t want to hear from me again. He wanted to know what the AI thought of itself.

This car ride taught me three things:

1. My son is incredibly thoughtful and passionate when it comes to matters of authenticity. The ownership of his ideas means a great deal to him, and I couldn’t be prouder of his ability to articulate that.
2. AI, while powerful, can facilitate these kinds of deep conversations that help us refine our own ideas and think critically about what authenticity truly means.
3. I need to reflect deeply on how I use AI going forward, particularly when it comes to posts that are deeply personal. This includes thinking about how to attribute AI’s role—whether as a co-author or a collaborator—rather than simply using it and posting the content as my own, or avoiding it altogether beyond basic grammar, spelling, and flow.

If you found this article interesting, I’d love for you to share it with others and comment below. This discussion about authenticity and AI is one that needs to be had—and not just taken for granted. Let’s keep the conversation going!

UPDATE: Here is Part 2, where I’ll dive into the actual process of creating this first part of the post. I’ll share how I used AI to craft it and invite the audience, readers, and listeners to weigh in on the pros, cons, and ethics of what it takes to make something authentically yours while using AI.