Prologue#

Today, tools such as Claude for PowerPoint, Microsoft Copilot Chat, and Manus have made it easier than ever to generate essays, presentations, reports, and project plans within minutes. And of course, many have used such tools to aid in work, presenting outputs of these tools as their creation. Many individuals have thus, rightfully so, called into question the ethics and academic integrity of such practices. However, I am not here to beat the dead horse by talking about ethics. Ethics aside, I believe that how an individual uses these Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is deeply reflective of their attitudes towards work, and by extension, deeply reflective of how much someone will enjoy working alongside them.

Submitting work that was crafted with the help of Artificial Intelligence is not inherently a problem. The problem lies when people take AI output verbatim (or near-verbatim) and present it as their work. Of course, the ethics of such an action should be (rightfully) questioned; however, I believe the bigger elephant in the room should be their mindset and attitudes towards work. I am of the opinion that such use of AI not only reflects poorly on one’s integrity, but also on the willingness to put in effort and hard work in the long term.

The Final Product Isn’t the Most Important Thing#

Oftentimes, we perceive “work done” in terms of achievements and finalised, tangible products. These final products matter, but they are not the whole point of work. In many cases, the more important part is the process that produces them.

By putting human effort into your work, you signal to me that you have gone through the effort of thinking through your content, evaluated the pros and cons, and applied critical thinking to the work that you have produced. Of course, one might argue that advanced reasoning models can already do some of this sufficiently well. If AI can analyse, compare, structure, and polish the work, why insist on human effort at all?

The difference is that human effort shows that you care. That you do not perceive the work that has to be done as a burden, but as something that you, as a person, genuinely want to put effort into. Of course, your work might not be as “good” as what AI can produce. Heck, AI might have been able to do it for less money and time. But what matters, especially in a team-based setting, is that you showcase the willingness to put genuine effort into what you do, to think, improve and attempt to do better next time.

This willingness to actively think through the work you are doing makes someone dependable in a team. I can trust that person to do their absolute best for the entire team, allowing us to move forwards together. I can trust that they will take responsibility for what they need to do, and not just throw it away as if it does not concern them. I can trust the person that because they genuinely care about what they are doing. However, if you are going to show that you don’t even care enough to put genuine human thought and effort into doing something, then what is to say that you won’t just miraculously disappear one day, simply because you don’t care enough? If you detach yourself from the process by delegating the task fully to AI, what assurance do I have that you won’t just detach yourself from the team?

This matters because work, especially collaborative work, is rarely just about individual output. When you treat your own work carelessly by delegating it to AI, you not only show that you do not care, but you make it difficult for others that rely on you to work together with you.

I do not need every teammate to be brilliant. I do not expect every piece of work to be perfect. But, what I do expect is for people to try to do better, to do better than themselves yesterday, to do better than themselves 5 minutes ago. But, by using AI in such a manner, you signal that you wish to escape form the responsibilities and effort that comes with doing such work. And if someone consistently approaches work that way, it becomes difficult to believe that they will be a reliable, thoughtful, or supportive teammate. This is why I find the attitude behind such AI use so difficult to work around.

Epilogue#

This issue has been plaguing my mind ever since I have been involved in long-term teamwork. Of course, these are my personal opinions, and feel free to disagree with my perspectives.

On a fundamental level, I believe that there are 2 elements to good teamwork:

1. Trust, and
2. Frequent Communication.

By directly presenting me with verbatim AI-generated work, you have failed to fulfil the first element. And I am willing to not work with you for the sake of my own sanity. I’d much rather trust myself to do the work.