“AI use policy for my essay writing” by Kaj_Sotala

There's been a recent call from @dynomight to declare whether and how you're using AI to write your essays. That seems reasonable, so here's my own policy for how I use AI in my blog:

AI can help, but I’m the author

• I use AI as an extensive aid for thinking, but retain primary authorship over my words. Unless I explicitly state otherwise, almost every sentence that's not explicitly a quote from an AI is written by me, not AI.
• The exception is that if I discuss a topic with an AI and it suggests a good point that I agree with, I may copy a sentence or two from it directly into the essay. I'm however sensitive to sentences that don't feel like they're in my own voice, and will generally rewrite them until they are.
  • Currently I only remember one essay from 2½ years ago where I included a direct quote that wasn't marked as a quote or edited at least a bit, because I found it too jarring to re-read later.
  • Any unchanged sentences in articles that are cross-posted to LW will be labeled, as per the LW policy on LLM use.
    • LW policy says that "text [...]

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Outline:

(00:21) AI can help, but I'm the author

(02:08) Integrated contributions only

(03:08) Example AI contributions

(06:19) Specific use cases

(06:21) Brainstorming

(07:06) Background research

(07:34) Checking for meanings of words and expressions

(07:53) Help with analogies and examples

(08:55) Analysis and critique

(09:08) Various smaller things

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First published:
July 26th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tgigHkZoYrJEGe4tP/ai-use-policy-for-my-essay-writing

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.