AI, Authenticity, and the Botox Disclosure

There was a time when everyone swore they'd never get plastic surgery.

Then came Botox.

Then fillers.

Then the phrase, "I just drink a lot of water."

Artificial intelligence feels strangely similar.

Right now, we're living in the awkward stage where many people are using AI, but not everyone wants to admit it. We admire the results but still feel uneasy about the process. So instead of saying, "I worked with ChatGPT," we say things like, "I had a little help," or simply say nothing at all.

The irony is that, much like an overfilled upper lip, experienced observers can often tell.

After using ChatGPT for a while, you begin to recognize it. Not because every article says the same thing, but because they often move the same way. The cadence, the transitions, the tidy conclusions—they become a kind of literary Botox. An article about office culture and another about geopolitics can feel like distant cousins despite sharing nothing but the same digital cosmetic surgeon.

The problem isn't that people are using AI. It's that, like a suspiciously smooth forehead, everyone insists it's just "good genetics."

Does that make the writing fake?

Not necessarily.

No one looks at a beautifully restored historic home and says the house isn't real because someone repainted it. Likewise, a person isn't suddenly inauthentic because they had braces, breast implants, or a little Botox before a wedding.

The real issue isn't enhancement.

It's disclosure.

I've decided that when I use ChatGPT as a substantive collaborator on my own original writing, I'll disclose it. Not because I think it diminishes my authorship, but because I think it strengthens it. The ideas, arguments, and conclusions remain mine. AI simply allows me to spend less time rearranging commas and more time thinking.

If I'm simply proofreading, checking grammar, or polishing a draft, I don't think that requires a disclosure any more than using spellcheck does. But when AI materially shapes the development and refinement of my own work, I think readers deserve to know.

And perhaps that's the funniest part.

We've spent years warning people not to judge books by their covers.

Now we're trying to decide whether to judge essays by their cheekbones.

Author's disclosure: This essay was developed with the assistance of ChatGPT as an editorial, organizational, and critical analysis tool. The ideas, historical references, arguments, examples, final editorial judgments, and authorship are my own. AI was used to accelerate drafting, editing, and refinement, allowing me to spend substantially more time on research and thinking than on the mechanical process of writing.