The Role of LLM and AI in Content Creation: Enhancing Efficiency or Cheating?

There’s no denying the impact of LLM and AI on content creation.

Different professionals have varying reactions to ChatGPT, the LLM. I recently engaged in a debate on Reddit with individuals from educational and legal backgrounds. Each of them holds strong opinions on whether ChatGPT is beneficial or detrimental to their respective disciplines.

From an educational perspective, relying on an LLM to write essays, provide summaries, or form opinions on others’ work raises concerns. The content generated by ChatGPT may not be the user’s original work and could be considered cheating. I concur with the educators on this matter.

Similarly, from a legal documentation standpoint, using an LLM to draft legal documents, create terms and conditions, or generate content raises questions about ownership, accuracy, and potential commercial use.

However, I see value in utilising LLMs to provide a copywriting service without the need for a dedicated copywriter.

As a cost and time-saving measure, I employ the following process:

1. I write the content and title myself.
2. I request ChatGPT to “improve” the content, paying attention to the phrasing of the prompt.
   • ‘Improve the spelling, grammar and structure of this but retain the original tone’
3. I then edit ChatGPT’s response as it sometimes goes a bit OTT on the tone adding words I might not use myself.

This approach allows me to generate content that retains my original ideas and concepts while benefiting from corrections in spelling, grammar, and structure. In my experience, this method does not introduce new ideas, alter my opinions, or deviate from the original message. It is akin to working with a copywriter.

The question remains: is this approach considered cheating?