Why does using ChatGPT feel like cheating?

Why does using ChatGPT feel like cheating?

After delivering my Future of AI Adoption keynote at BGC Canada 's National Conference last week, a member of their Board of Directors approached me. He shared how he uses ChatGPT to help him draft memos and proposals, and that he’s amazed at its capabilities. Almost sheepishly, he asked, “But isn’t using ChatGPT kind of… cheating?”

I encouraged him to unpack this a bit.

I explained that a couple of years ago, as my daughter was learning long division in school, it felt like my whole family had to re-learn long division so we could help her with her homework. My husband and I don’t regularly do long division because we use calculators.

Is using a calculator cheating?

If you’re an elementary school student, yes. Using a calculator instead of doing long division by hand misses the lesson's important part: understanding basic math operations.

But as an adult, using a calculator isn’t considered cheating (at least not by most people) because it frees up your brain to work on more complicated tasks. So is using ChatGPT like using a calculator, or is it different?

I remembered an episode of The Ezra Klein Show from The New York Times, where Klein interviews professor and author Ethan Mollick . Both being writers, they contemplated the question of whether using ChatGPT for writing is cheating. They discussed how writing isn’t just about the final product (that proposal, memo or article you’re working on). Writing is as much about the process as it is about the final product.

The process of writing is the process of thinking: working through your ideas, arranging them in a logical order, and refining for clarity. Writing is processing, analyzing, and interpreting information. Writing is converting information into knowledge.

If you outsource your writing to a chatbot, you risk outsourcing your thinking too. The shortcut to the final product misses the most important point: the contemplation, reasoning, and understanding that come with writing.

This is why using ChatGPT feels like cheating. Because unlike using a calculator, the value of writing isn’t only in the final product. It’s in the process of getting there.

This resonated with the board member I was speaking to. He said that it’s the moments where writing feels hard that are the most important because that’s when you’re thinking the most. Ironically, those are the times when you’re most tempted to use ChatGPT because you want a shortcut through that struggle.

It’s fine to use ChatGPT as a collaborator. Use it to brainstorm and bounce ideas off. Ask ChatGPT to critique your writing, and point out where your arguments need improvement. That doesn’t feel like cheating because you’re still involved in the process. You’re still thinking.

But be careful of handing over the reins and letting ChatGPT do all of the writing. It may create a satisfactory final product, but you’re denying yourself the true value of the process.

PS - I wrote this myself and then dropped it into Hemingway Editor to identify wordy sentences and overuse of adverbs. After a round of manual editing, I then dropped the draft into ChatGPT. I asked if the post's main point was clear and if any of the writing needed smoothing. It suggested I break up one paragraph for enhanced readability, which I did. ChatGPT made one suggestion for smoothing that I didn’t agree with, so I left it as-is.